Geoff: Barbie -- the name
conjures up feelings for many
generations of women and men
across the world.
And, as you've likely heard, the
plastic wonder is featured in a
new movie.
"Barbie" raked in about $155
million this past weekend,
making it the biggest opening
for a film this year.
Jeffrey brown looks at the
global phenomenon.
It's part of our arts and
culture series, canvas.
♪♪
>> What are you doing here?
>> I'm coming with you.
>> Did you bring your
rollerblades?
I literally go nowhere without
them.
Jeffrey: "Barbie" is getting a
big screen makeover in director
Greta Gerwig's new film, but
it's just the latest update in a
long history.
♪♪
Barbie, her original full name
was Barbara Millicent Roberts,
was created in 1959 by Ruth
handler for the mattel toy
company.
She stood 11.5 inches tall, that
mostly hasn't changed, but her
look certainly has.
As the blonde, slim-waisted,
full-chested doll became a
cultural phenomenon of the
post-war era.
Her male counterpart Ken was
brought on board in 1961.
Worth noting, he first came with
straight arms that didn't bend
and a head that could turn only
left and right.
It was 1980 before mattel
released the first black and
Latina dolls actually named
Barbie.
And, in 2016, three new body
types were introduced -- curvy,
petite, and tall.
Also changed, who she is,
including her work.
She's saved lives as a surgeon,
traveled to space as an
astronaut, and even run for
president.
A few times, in fact.
She has had over 250 careers,
from CEO to Canadian mountie.
She still sells plenty across
the globe, found in more than
150 countries.
Mattel estimates that more than
100 dolls are sold every minute.
And, of course, she's on social
media with some 19 million
followers across platforms.
An icon of the lgbtq+ community,
Barbie drag shows have cropped
up this summer in anticipation
of the film.
Now Gerwig's film, starring
Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan
gosling as Ken, clearly has some
high heels to fill.
Joining me now is Andrea Nevins.
She's director and writer of the
documentary "Tiny shoulders:
Rethinking Barbie."
Thanks for joining us.
So, we are deep into the world
of cultural touchstones here,
right?
How can one small doll mean so
many different things?
>> Well, this was a doll that
was not like any doll that had
preceded her.
Most dolls were baby dolls.
And baby dolls were a way for
little girls to enact
potentially the only job that
they could have in society,
which was to be a mother.
And that was the sole
aspiration.
This doll came about and it was
an adult doll and it had
breasts, and thus it almost
instantly absorbed all of the
contested space of femininity at
the time and continues to today.
Jeffrey: And that has come to
mean different things to
different generations of Barbie
buyers, Barbie lovers, and
Barbie haters.
>> Precisely.
So, she she rides the waves of
feminism again and again and
again from being adored early
on, because she was one of the
only toys that girls could play
with that that allowed them to
think about their adult selves
and not only allowed them to
think about their adult selves,
but allowed them into a space
that they weren't allowed.
Meaning to be doctors, to be
astronauts.
And then when the second wave of
feminism came around in the
early 1970's, she was reviled.
She was everything that
feminists didn't want to be,
which was an object.
She was -- she came to symbolize
an object as opposed to an
aspirational toy.
And then, she comes back again
in the 1980's, and then she gets
the full backlash of the U.S.
Third wave of feminism, backlash
in the 1990's and so on and so
on.
Jeffrey: Tell me a little bit
about your own documentary, what
you were able to see clearly at
a key moment for mattel and in
the history of Barbie.
>> Yes, it was a pivot point for
them.
They had had great success with
Barbie for a long time, but this
was a moment where they felt the
doll might cease to exist.
>> Barbie wasn't widely
revolutionary toy.
Barbie became things that real
women hadn't become.
You had broken barriers.
>> These dolls enable girls to
tell stories about dreams.
>> She's been around 55 years
but the last few years have been
trying for Barbie.
>> This was 2014, and a friend
of mine was working on the doll.
But, she said that she was so
excited to go to work every
morning because they would sit
as a group of women and try and
think about what it means to be
a woman in our society today and
thus imbue the doll with that,
with the positive aspects of
that.
And so, it was very fun for her
to go into work.
And as she said that, I thought
this doll is such an excellent
lens to look at the last 60
years of feminism.
Would it be possible for me to
go and film this reideation of
this toy?
And it took seven months because
they were really frightened of
letting anybody in.
But I think they ultimately
decided that that illuminating
the inside would keep them
authentic and accountable.
And so, they let me in on all of
the meetings as they thought
through who this doll could be
and all of the ramifications of
that.
Jeffrey: Who is Barbie now?
Pre-greta Gerwig's film.
>> That's a very good question.
She is still a toy and was a toy
that managed to really take hold
again during the pandemic
because the kind of toy that she
is allows little girls and boys
to get to play using their
imagination.
And because of the changes that
they made in making her curvy
and many different colors and
handicapped Barbie, that made
her more appealing to parents
who were afraid of that old
stigma where woman would be put
into a box so to speak, as
opposed to allowed every
opportunity.
That was the doll that Greta got
to take out into the world.
So now, I think she's going to
be seen in a very different way.
>> Hi, Barbie.
>> Hi, Ken.
♪♪
Jeffrey: What has Greta Gerwig
done with this complicated
history?
>> She's allowed us to get
inside the head of a little girl
in the most magical way.
Meaning when a little girl plays
with Barbie, the world is hers.
Everything that she decides
comes from inside of her.
And her imagination can be
limitless because there are
doors closing in her face.
She's not subject to the male
gaze.
So, it's a very particular kind
of world.
And Greta has allowed us to see
what that world would look like
without men.
And the choices that women can
make and the freedom that they
have in a non-patriarchal world.
So, it's really quite an amazing
thing to watch.
And she does it with irreverence
and humor and joy and a wee bit
of rage and so it's just a
really fun way to reexamine this
doll.
Jeffrey: Given what you know
about the history, do you expect
even more twists and turns for
Barbie in the future?
>> Absolutely, because she is
subject to the same backlashes
that we as women are.
So, I sadly feel certain that
that backlash will occur.
Maybe we've taken a giant step
and it will be smaller this
time.
Jeffrey: We're also seeing this
phenomenon of barbiecore.
Pink is everywhere, right.
Pink is being embraced.
What's going on?
>> I will take it right now,
because it's very rare in our
culture that we celebrate
femininity and celebrate
femininity positively.
And so I will take this
barbiecore pink moment as a way
of saying women are fabulous and
they can be feminine as well as
be powerful.
Jeffrey: Andrea Nevins is
director of "Tiny shoulders:
Rethinking Barbie."
Thank you very much.
>> Great to talk to you.
Geoff: As always, there is a lot
more online, including a look at
fun facts behind Barbie's
lasting appeal.
That's at pbs.org/newshour.