America Icon Barbie Doll

¶ … Barbies, Ourselves" and "Barbie, G.I. Joe, and Play in the 1960's," Emily Praeger and Gary Cross, respectively, discuss the cultural importance of children's toy dolls, and of Barbie and G.I. Joe in particular, although from different perspectives. Praeger focuses primarily on messages about femininity, lifestyle, appearance and personal identity absorbed by little girls as they play with, dress, and acquire new outfits for their Barbies; Cross explores the advent of Barbie and G.I. Joe as early consumer objects for children and the durability (although less so than for G.I. Joe than for Barbie) of their popularity.

At the beginning of her essay, Praeger states that upon first learning Barbie had been designed by a man, "suddenly a lot of things made sense to me . . . Let's be honest: Barbie looks like someone who got her start at the Playboy mansion. She could be a regular guest on the Howard Stern Show (766). Praeger then muses that Barbie might even have been designed as "a weapon" or "the dream date of weapons designers" (767). However, if Barbie is the end result of a male designer's fantasy, she is also, as Praeger observes, "in feminist terms . . . definitely her own person. With her condos and fashion plazas and pools and beauty salons, she is definitely a liberated woman, a gal on the move" (Praeger). Yet for all of Barbie's independence and "vast popularity . . . "she was also a sixties woman" (768), Barbie's visible sexuality (i.e., her big breasts) as opposed to her play doll boyfriend Ken's non-sexuality (genitalia not clearly displayed) may have given young girls playing with Barbie the idea that Ken's sexuality was somehow more sacred or valuable than Barbie's; thus, suggests Praeger, "twenty-five years later, movies and videos are still filled with topless women and covered men."

While Praeger's essay suggests how young girls playing with their Barbies may have been influenced, psychologically, emotionally, or socially, by Barbie's independence and autonomy (combined, however, with her obvious sexuality and whatever conflicting or otherwise confusing messages that may have given them), Cross's essay focuses more on Barbie as a consumer object, and how Barbie and G.I. Joe (although Barbie more so than G.I. Joe) have withstood the test of time, and in Barbie's case, changed in appearance and in other ways over the years to reflect the changing times.

Cross states Barbie was actually invented by a woman, Ruth Handler, which contradicts Praeger's assertion that Barbie was designed by a man named Jack Ryan. This may have something to do with the different focuses of these essays: Praeger implies that Barbie's appearance and "image" could have been the result of a male fantasy; Cross suggests that Barbie, invented by a woman, has had much to do, since her initial appearance in the 1960's, with teaching young girls how to shop (first for Barbie and later for possessions in real life) for clothes, accessories, etc. As Cross states: If Barbie taught that freedom meant consumption, the Barbie line was designed to maximize parents' real spending. Playing consumer meant that Barbie have a constantly changing wardrobe of coordinated clothing and accessories" (771). As a consumer item in her own right, Barbie soon acquired doll friends like "Midge," and a younger doll sister, "Skipper," who also needed to be clothed and accessorized (Cross, 770-71). In essence, "Mattel tapped into a young girl's fantasy to create a demand for possessions" (772).

GI Joe, suggests Cross, was the 1960's Barbie equivalent for boys, and like Barbie (although not now) began as a dress-up doll: "He represented the average soldier, evoking memories of fathers' experience in World War II and the Korean War" (773). Moreover, "G.I. Joe's success was based on a boy's identity with the all-male worked of heroic action aided by modern military equipment and gadgetry. The play was conventional, featuring male bonding in adventure." Unlike Barbie, however, G.I. Joe has not stood the test of time, or reinvented himself nearly as successfully. Cross describes how, in the 1970's, with the unpopularity of the Vietnam war, G.I. Joe also became less popular. Today, while Barbie remains remarkable similar to the 1960's original, G.I. Joe has been transformed into a high tech hero named "Super Joe," sporting "lasers and rocket command vehicles" (774) instead of guns, combat boots, and fatigues.