In an age of nostalgia, it was inevitable that it would become Barbie’s World once again.

After decades of overhauling its brand image, Mattel has reinvented its famous stick-thin, big-boobed, blonde doll to become an emblem of every woman – of every body size, ethnicity and industry.

Barbie’s new era is set to be consolidated by Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, with the feminist director having delivered several thought-provoking female-led stories in recent years including Lady Bird and Little Women. Even the trailer establishes that Gerwig will drag Barbie out of her picture-perfect pink life in Barbieland and into the real world, in every sense of the word. 

Most brands can only dream of achieving the global recognition of a Barbie doll, a toy that secures Mattel over $1 billion (£786.4 million) in sales every year. The iconography is so established that all that was needed in the US was a hot pink billboard with the release date to promote the upcoming pink-fever-dream flick.

But how did we reach the point where grown adults are rejoicing at the prospect of watching a film about an old toy? Let’s track Barbie’s journey…

Ever since the first doll was released in 1959, Barbie has been criticised by feminists. Mattel founder Ruth Handler based the doll’s physique on a German adult-themed Lilli doll, something that was typically gifted to men at bachelor parties.

It was one of the first children’s toys to have breasts and boasted impossible proportions with her tiny waist and long legs. A 2016 thesis suggested that Barbie’s unrealistic body proportions would also make it impossible for her to walk. Galia Slayen recreated the doll in 2007 – using measurements as if she were a real person – for the first National Eating Disorder Awareness Week and suggested that she would stand almost 6ft tall, weigh 110lbs, have a 39-inch chest and an 18-inch waist with the hips of a teenage boy.  

In the early years, every new iteration went from bad to worse. In 1963, Babysitter Barbie was released with a book titled How To Lose Weight; Slumber Party Barbie followed in 1965, accompanied by the non-essential sleepover accessory of a pink set of scales that read ‘110lbs.’ 

The perpetuation of toxic diet culture and weight management to the doll’s main demographic of – young girls – led to an extreme backlash and ‘The Barbie Effect’. Research from 2006 found that girls aged six to eight who played with and witnessed Barbie’s impossible beauty standards led to an increase in their body dissatisfaction, as it ingrained the pressure to be thin and left them with negative emotions about their own size. Meanwhile, girls who played with full-figured dolls were not as self-conscious.

Throw in the Teen Talk Barbie whose catchphrase was “maths is hard” and Barbie Video Girl – who had a video camera in her chest (a child security and privacy nightmare), and there you have a snapshot of the Barbie ethos Mattel established.

Barbie was defined and degraded by her sexualised appearance, stereotyped as a “blonde bimbo” and thus the problematic and detrimental portrayal of women was born, packaged in pink and handed out to little girls across the world to internalise. 

To begin with, diversity was also non-existent… or it was extremely problematic.

In 1967, Mattel introduced the first African American Barbie, but the moulds were the same as the original white dolls. In 1997, Mattel released a black Barbie in partnership with Oreo (she held an Oreo-shaped bag) titled the ‘Oreo Barbie’, seemingly unaware of the use of ‘oreo’ as a derogatory term for Black people who are perceived as “white on the inside”. 

In the same year, the company released Share A Smile Becky, Barbie’s friend and a wheelchair user, but due to poor design, the chair was too wide to fit through the door of the Dreamhouse or the lift. It was a performative foray into becoming an inclusive brand, but without the necessary attention to detail to make it a success. 

Despite the incessant complaints from the Barbie Liberation Organization, which criticised the brand for promoting being pretty over being smart, Mattel remained steadfast that there was more to Barbie than just her appearance. Mattel continued to promote Barbie as a positive role model for young women with a career-based range designed to encourage girls to enter male-dominated industries, such as businesswoman Barbie in 1963, astronaut Barbie in 1965 and a surgeon Barbie in 1973.

But in 2014, Mattel had to reinvent the brand’s image to remain relevant as sales from Barbie dipped below $1 billion (£786.4 million), and it took four years to increase again.

Revenue was impacted as Barbie’s competitors grew and their target audience opted for an all-singing Elsa doll after the staggering success of Disney’s Frozen. The global phenomenon reinvented the market and the narrative surrounding girls’ toys for the better. The prince didn’t save princesses anymore; instead, their flawed but powerful older sister did. 

The positive message of sisterhood and female empowerment, alongside the musical prowess of Idina Menzel’s voice, led it to become the highest-grossing animated movie of all time and inspired a generation of children to opt for Disney Princesses over Barbie.

This was alongside the rivalry of the edgier, bulgy-eyed, attitude-filled Bratz dolls that were equipped with enviable on-trend outfits, sleek make-up and lip-gloss. Bratz dominated the older girls’ market, while Disney profited from the younger one.

In 2015, Mattel started to reinvent its outdated body image and narrative with the introduction of two new body shapes: curvy Barbie and tall Barbie. 

All of this coincided with the rise in discussions around body confidence, as well as curvier women, such as Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez, being championed in the media. Sadly, the curvy Barbie suffered from the relatable struggle faced by many women: her slim-fitting clothes were too tight to fit over Barbie’s new bum.

Mattel also launched the Fashionistas range, that aimed to represent a wider depiction of beauty. The dolls were available in seven new skin tones, 24 new hairstyles in 30 colours and 14 face shapes.

More recently, the first deaf Barbie (with an over-the-ear hearing aid) was released in 2022, and a Barbie with Down’s syndrome was released earlier this year.  

Alongside this, the company has honoured revolutionary women throughout history with their own Barbie doll as part of their Inspiring Women Series. Children can collect dolls of Dr Jane Goodall, Rosa Parks, Anna May Wong and Ida B. Wells to play and learn about remarkable feminist figures and their life-changing work.

The cultural shift for the brand to rewrite its complicated history has been significantly propelled forward by Gerwig’s upcoming movie, which is aimed at the generations of women who grew up with the historically problematic dolls.

In some respects, this isn’t a pro-Barbie movie manufactured by Mattel to re-establish its place in feminist history. It features discontinued dolls that were pulled by retailers due to parental complaints and firmly drags Barbie out of her ‘dream world’ into a sexist, imperfect, patriarchal reality. 

Barbie Margot Robbie even admitted to Fandango that she had her doubts about Gerwig’s script ever being green-lit by the brand, as she claimed it “pushes in directions that I didn’t think Mattel would let us go in” as it “acknowledge[s] the things that people find problematic about Barbie”.

The character posters introduce Michael Cera as Allan, Ken’s buddy who was released in 1964, and was only in circulation for two years before being rereleased in 1991 with his girlfriend, Midge.

Emerald Fennell stars as Midge in her most controversial iteration from 2002 –  pregnant Midge – who was released as a married couple with two kids. The ‘everyday’ Barbie who sported less make-up, freckles and a less sexualised physique had a removal baby that would pop out of her bump. It was another disturbing chapter in Barbie’s past, with some mothers left appalled at the suggestion that it somehow promoted teenage pregnancy. 

The upcoming film is set to consolidate Barbie’s new era as a feminist icon, with various new diverse live-action incarnations of Barbie and Ken appearing on screen, all of which have a corresponding toy doll.

Barbie has even inspired online trends promoting the unique quality of each woman with the ‘this Barbie is…’ movement to include everybody in the historically exclusive brand ethos.

With a ‘You can do anything’ tagline, a Barbie doll is no longer confined to a specific appearance; instead, her value comes through what she does and who she is (sometimes the famous figure she’s based on), all of which co-exists with her stereotypically feminine all-pink wardrobe and lavish accessories.

It’s an essential message that the beauty standards and appearance-based values placed on women are a thing of the past, as even Barbie is no longer conforming to them.  

Images: Getty