The first black Barbie was much more than a doll – Culture

What The first thing that comes to mind is the Barbie doll? If you answered “blonde hair and skin, slim, fashionable and young”, you probably haven’t dabbled in Barbie dolls for a long time. Today’s Barbie has diversity.

“If I ask thirty kids, I get twenty-six different answers,” claims the diversity boss of Mattel, the company that developed Barbie Mason Williams.

And why not argue? Mattel has tried hard to push the Barbie brand in a more modern direction, and Williams is proof of that.

Williams is one of the many interviewed by Netflix Hello Barbie in the documentary (2023). Laguería Davis the direction explores the history of the Barbie doll with a racial perspective.

Long has already recognized the fact that Barbie is not just a doll or a toy, but a popular culture institution that connects generations, especially defined girlhood, among other things. Greta Gerwigin BarbieIn connection with the movie (2023), the media was encouraged to think about the meaning of the Barbie doll with a side and minute trade. It was often concluded that considering Barbie only as a narrow role model is an old-fashioned notion.

Davis also ends up in the same way, although he says in his documentary that he cares little about dolls himself. However, the director has a special perspective on the subject of his own grandmother Beulah Mae Mitchellin through.

Grandma went to work at a young age Ruth and Elliot Handlerin To the Mattel company as a toy assembler and progressed upwards in the company. After Ruth developed the original Barbie in 1959, dark-skinned workers suggested making non-light-skinned dolls as well. The detained boss promised to consider the matter. In the 1960s, Mattel introduced Francine and Christie, which were darker. However, they were cast as Barbie’s friends, and their facial features resembled those with light skin.

The first actual black Barbie was only launched in 1980. In the spirit of blaxploitation films, the box bore the slogan “She’s Black! She’s beautiful! She’s dynamite!”. For creating a doll Kitty Black from Perkins became a legend in his field, and many in the documentary recall their first experiences of playing with a doll that for the first time resembled their own appearance.

Since Mattel has partnered with many famous non-white Americans to create their namesake dolls. One of those who got his own doll is a successful TV writer and producer Shonda Rhimes, who is also one of the producers of the documentary. Rhimes and partners remind us of the important example that toys set for children.

The compellingly told documentary is clearly about empowering things. One of its central questions is whether a child can dream of something he has not seen. After all, play is also about fantasy, imagining the impossible as possible.

Musta Barbie, Netflix.