Why Barbie Is An Accurate Barometer For Women's Equality

Since our beloved Barbara first made her appearance in the American toy market in 1959, she has been quite the ambitious and successful young lady. Once only an avid shopper, Barbie quickly learned that all that shopping would require a steady income. Perhaps for a few years, she would be willing to let Kenneth pay the rent and handle her finances, but she only caught the tail end of the fifties, and so that wouldn't fly for long. Here, we saw the first indications of what the corporate toy industry thought of women, or at least what it thought the public thought women should be.

Barbie's first jobs, in keeping with traditional gender roles, included stewardess, school teacher, and nurse. It would take another two and a half decades for someone to look at Stewardess, Teacher, and Nurse Barbie, and think that perhaps the blonde was capable of working the higher-paid gigs in the corresponding male-dominated fields: Doctor Barbie hit store shelves in 1988, Pilot Barbie followed two years after, and eventually throughout the nineties, Barbie explored more specific areas of study such as art, dance, sign language, and Spanish, presumably in order to find her calling.

While it does me old heart good to see my childhood friend succeeding and pursuing no small measure of personal and professional excellence, it is worthwhile to note that Barbie, being the international consumable that she has come to be, was (and is) primarily designed and distributed to generate as much money as she possibly can. As such, she must reflect what the market expects her to be. When the market of the 1960s expected her to be in a traditional female role, so she was. When the 70s and 80s brought about radical change for women's equality, Barbie began to assert her competency in many male-oriented professions. But much about Barbie has not changed.

Take a look at UNICEF Diplomat Barbie:

Beauty queen, maybe. Diplomat, probably not. Late eighties though, so what about modern Barbie? Like Pediatrician Barbie?

Hmm... That's quite a bit of lip gloss for a day on the job there, Barb.

I don't know if you see what I'm get at here, but what I want, what I really wanted as a child... I wanted Barbie to look like me. I wanted Barbie to be really real, and really be someone I could look up to and envision myself being one day. And that just wasn't Barbie. When was Barbie going to be flat-chested? Have frizzy hair? Be a little pudgy? Come to work without her mascara? Perhaps Barbie's creators have focused for two long on the wrong thing: maybe little girls never wanted Barbie to be like a man, never wanted her to break out of her traditional roles. Not specifically anyway (what do kids know of tradition and roles?). Maybe what girls really wanted was to see someone like them do the things they wanted to do, whether it was being a mommy or flying an aircraft.

But Barbie has to be pretty, you say. After all, she has to be appealing to consumers, they expect Barbie to look like Barbie.

Exactly. Because no matter how far women have come, no matter how many professions we've excelled at or obstacles we've conquered, we are still expected to look attractive in everything that we do. That's where we are. Miles we've crossed toward equality, yes, with better pay, better choices, better prospects.... But still the single thing that is most expected of us is to be beautiful. Barbie isn't allowed to be normal-looking. And neither are we.