Image via Mattel
It’s the year of the Flatgate, courtesy the brouhaha at the Cannes Film Festival, where officials waffled on whether or not women were allowed on the red carpet in flats. Now Barbie too has joined the flat brigade. The new Barbie collection will be seen wearing flat sandals, sneakers, comfortable pants and midi skirts! Mattel just launched its first Barbie Fashionista line this week, designed to represent the modern day stylish girl, one who is obsessed with street style.
This must be some much-needed relief for Barbie who has been standing on tiptoes for 56 years now. That’s a high accumulation of bunions, arch problems and mangled toenails. Whether in stilettos, boots or just hanging out at home, the fashion icon has rarely been seen without her signature heels.
Those who dissed Barbie for her unrealistic hour-glass figure and well…the stilettos, will have something to cheer about with this new collection. The new collection, in fact, is as real as Barbies could get with flat footwear and clothing that doesn’t emphasise certain areas. The transformation from sensual to sensible is very evident.
Image via Mattel
But few people realise that Mattel, the toy company that produces Barbie has always strived to keep it real, up a point. Whether it was changing the face from painted eyelashes to rooted to make it look real, or introducing dolls with near genuine hair that could be gelled and styled or even the various ethnic versions they brought out, like Hispanic, black, Indian and so on.
Sure the issue of Barbie’s figure still comes up, as does the kind of body image issues it brings with it to children. But by creating a figure that would easily allow children to put on most kinds of clothes from older Barbie dolls, the toy company keeps the experience real. Moreover, Barbie has actually done womankind a big favour through the years.
In fact, the working woman was popularised largely due to Barbie. Not your woman CEOs, not the achievers or the advocaters, not even the feminists. In fact, this vital aspect to the feminist movement was fuelled largely by a doll, whom everybody has dissed for its ‘sexual overtones’.
Image via Mattel
The Barbie doll made the working woman a cool and coveted thing to be for girls, at an early age itself. When girls role played with Barbie versions dressed as nurses, astronauts, gold medallist, surgeon, and storm troopers among others, it was themselves that they possibly saw in those versions, doing similar roles and jobs. While this may not seem like a big deal now, for a girl in the 50s and 60s who drew inspiration from the doll, it certainly was.
What’s more, Barbie was the first woman to run a presidential campaign, with her new edition of Barbie Presidential Candidate. Way before Hilary Clinton, in fact.
The body image issue can be easily addressed with sensible clothing and design. But the bigger point here is that a Barbie doll is not just a doll you role play with. It’s aspirational. Small wonder then that it has inspired so many movies and a music album too – ‘I am a Barbie Girl’.
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