DR.

IOAN MESOTA NATIONAL COLLEGE ENGLISH CERTIFICATION PAPER

THE BARBIE PHENOMENON

COORDINATOR: CRISTINA BACIU RODICA ROGOZ

AUTHOR: ADNANA IOANA PARPALA 12-A E

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1.Foreword pag. 3 2.Toys pag. 4 2.1.History of Toys. pag. 4 2.2.Child Development pag. 5 3.The Barbie Doll an American Icon. pag. 6 3.1.The Story.. pag. 6 3.2.The Debut. pag. 7 4.Fashion and Beauty pag. 8 4.1.Famous Designers. pag. 9 4.2.Beauty pag. 10 5.Controversies.. pag. 11 6.Barbie Facts. pag. 12 7.Conclusions. pag. 12 8.Bibliography pag. 13

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1.FOREWORD
I have chosen to approach this particular American icon because it is one that has influenced not only my life as a child, but the life of all the girls that ever played with a Barbie doll. I have started this paper with the curiosity of learning more about the doll that has managed to be for over 50 years in the spotlight. She is a role model for young girls that develops their creativity and encourages them to dream further. I remember being a child when my whole word was spinning around this tiny blonde doll, and all I could think about was to collect all the possible accessories for her: she had a car, a wardrobe and an RV. Not only could I have a fashion show, and drive around town, but I could go camping and hiking all in the confort of my own room. In the first part of the paper, I have tried to present some general facts about toys. The history is brief, as I tried to outline the main changes that took place in their manufacture and their importance in child development. In the second part, I have focused on the significance of the Barbie doll in the American society as a nationar icon: a strong influence in girls dreams and the reflection of a continuously changing society. Since its debut, Barbies popularity has rarely decreased, and today she is the most successful in the history of the toy industry. Furthermore, two of the most commonly used words when talkin about this doll are fashion and beauty, mostly because they are two defining elements of the brand. Famous designers like Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent have created fashions for the doll and a team of hair stylists and make-up artists make sure that she is always picture perfect. Last but not least, towards the end of my paper, I have touched upon some of the controversies that came to light once the brand became famous. In conclusion, I believe that The Barbie Phenomenon is something worth taking into consideration when talkin about the American Society because it marks more than 50 years of history.

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2. TOYS
A toy is a thing used in play. Toys are usually associated with children and pets, but it is not unusual for adult beings to play with toys. Many items are processed to serve as toys, but goods, or services produced for other purposes can also be used as toys. A child may pick up a household item and "fly" it around pretending that it is an airplane, or an animal might play with a pinecone by batting at it, biting it, chasing it, or by throwing it up in the air. Yet, some toys are produced primarily as collectors items and are not intended to be played with.

The teddy sits and stares at you With loving eyes so baby blue They sit and listen to your fears And help to stop the flowing tears So next time that youre feeling sad Just grab your bear and youll be glad That someone bought that bear for you The one woth loving eyes so blue

2.1.

History of toys

The origin of toys is prehistoric; dolls representing infants, animals, and soldiers, as well as representations of tools used by adults are readily found at archaeological sites. The origin of the word "toy" is unknown, but it is believed that it was first used in the 14th century. EARLY TOYS The earliest toys were made from materials found in nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs which were made from stone, pottery, and wood. In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terracotta, sticks, bows and arrows, and yoyos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.

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 MODERN TOYS As technology changed and civilization progressed, toys also changed. Whereas ancient toys were made of materials found in nature like stone, wood, and grass modern toys are often made of plastic, cloth, and synthetic materials. Ancient toys were often made by the parents and family of the children who used them, or by the children themselves. Modern toys, in contrast, are often mass-produced and sold in stores. Today there are dolls that can recognize and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and choose among hundreds of pre-programed phrases with which to respond. The materials that toys are made from have changed, what toys can do has changed, but the fact that children play with toys has not changed.

2.2.

Child development

Toys have many purposes for both humans and animals. They provide entertainment and at the same time they have an educational role, stimulating creativity. Play gives children fun and joy and develops a childs personality, helping them to realize their potential.It helps them to develop their speech, reading, thinking and problem solving skills. Play is also integral to helping child manage emotions, develop values, understand and interpret the world around them. Toys for infants often make use of distinctive sounds, bright colors, and unique textures. Thus, by playing with them infants begin to recognize shapes and colors Certain toys, such as Barbie dolls and toy soldiers, are often perceived as being more acceptable for one gender than the other. It has been noted by researchers that, "Children as young as 18 months display sexstereotyped toy choices.

Rubik's Cube. Invented in the 1980s, solving the cube requires planning and problem-solving skills

Playing with toys stereotyped for the opposite gender sometimes has negative consequences from parents or other children. In recent years, mainly in western countries, it has been looked down upon for males to play with toys that were originally stereotyped as being "for girls". However, it is generally not as awkward for females to play with toys designed "for boys", an activity which has also become more common in recent years.
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3.The Barbie Doll an American Icon

Shes got blonde hair, blue eyes, a small waist, and long legs. Shes perfection in every sense. One day shes a doctor, the next a model. Her level of recognition is among the likes of Mickey Mouse and Elvis. However, unlike Elvis, she never ages. At the age of 52 she is as much of a teenager as she was in 1958. Shes perhaps one of the most popular beings in the world, well despite the fact that you have to buy her friends. Her name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, but you can just call her Barbie. She is possibly one of the biggest icons of the past 50 years. She has grown to represent a culture and more than one generation. Ruth Handler undeniably invented an American icon that functions as both a strong influence in girls' dreams and a reflection of the American society that is continuously changing. This can be seen in the history of Barbie's clothes, and even her various "face lifts" to suit the times. But, who exactly is Barbie? To many she is just a popular toy for girls, while to others, a sort of unobtainable goal. Everyone seems to have an opinion about her, but as everyone knows, you need to know a bit about something in order to form an apropriate view.

3.1.

The story

She's a successful businesswoman, a member of a rock band and a Women's World Cup Soccer player. Who is this superstar? It's none other than Barbie doll. A little hard to believe, but the Barbie Doll started out as a human being! She was Barbara Handler, the daughter of Ruth and Elliot Handler. In the early 1950s, Handler saw that her young daughter, Barbara, and her girlfriends enjoyed playing with adult female dolls more than with baby dolls. Handler thought that it was just as important for girls to imagine what they themselves might grow up to become as it was for them to focus on what caring for children might be like. Because all the adult dolls then available were made of paper or cardboard, Handler decided to create a three-dimensional adult female doll, one natural enough to serve as an inspiration for her daughter's dreams of her future. Handler took her idea to the ad executives at Mattel Corp., the company that she and her husband, Elliot, had founded in their garage some years before: the (all-male) committee rejected the idea as too expensive, and with little potential for wide market appeal. Soon after that, Handler returned from a trip to Europe with a "Lilli" doll, modeled after a character in a German comic strip.
Lilli Doll

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He spent some time designing a doll similar to Lilli, and even hired a designer to make realistic doll clothes.The result was the Barbie doll (named in honor of the Handlers' daughter), a pint-sized model of the "girl next door."

3.2.

The debut

Mattel finally agreed to back Handler's efforts, and the Barbie doll debuted at the American Toy Fair in New York City in 1959. Girls clamored for the doll, and Barbie set a new sales record for Mattel during its first year on the market (351,000 dolls, at $3 each). Since then, Barbie's popularity has rarely decreased and today, with over one billion dolls sold, the Barbie product line is the most successful in the history of the toy industry. The first Barbie doll has a ponytail hairstyle, black and white zebra-striped bathing suit, open-toed shoes, sunglasses and earrings. A line of fashions and accessories was also available. Yet, buyers at the industrys annual Toy Fair in New York were not impressed, but little girls certainly were and the Barbie doll took retailers by storm. Consequently, Mattel was so swamped with orders that it took several years for supply to catch up with demand. The Barbie doll was introduced as a teenage fashion model, but in the years that followed she has taken on many aspirational roles. She has confronted almost every conceivable profession, including dentist, doctor, firefighter, astronaut, paleontologist even Presidential candidate. That was not enough though.The public wanted more. Against Mattel's wishes but by popular demand, they introduced Barbie's "handsome steady" Ken in 1961. They had coordinating outfits for fraternity parties, lawn picnics, drive-ins, and the beach. Magazines began to run comic-book like stories about the couple, a series of books were published by Random House, and Barbie sang about her new boyfriend Ken on a record. These inventions helped kids to understand relationships and manners. Ken was an important addition to Barbie's world as a reflection of the majority of society's attitudes. Mattel was against the introduction of Ken because there was no history of male dolls on the market, but requests for a boyfriend for Barbie were endless. Criticism of the couple was bound to arise, but Ken's role involved much more than Barbie needing a date for Friday night. Granted, Barbie may not have been a women's rights activist in 1961, but she was a reflection of women's roles in society at the time. These roles were often defined by the
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men in women's lives; they were happy with raising families and being housewives, nurses, and hostesses. The couple's relationship exemplified the contemporary attitudes of teens who were celebrating peace and prosperity. Moreover, critics should have realized that her boyfriend was still only a mere accessory. Barbie and Ken's ensembles were named for recreational activities and for the outfits themselves because the American mindset was not about men and women competing for careers in the job market. It would have been odd for Barbie to have outfits named for her many careers because most women were not concentrating on a career other than raising a family. Barbie portrayed an alternative, a life before marriage, without discarding the traditional values that accompanied this lifestyle; she transformed proper behavior and made it glamorous. Inevitably, these roles would soon change, and Mattel would refashion Barbie to conform to these standards.

4. Fashion and beauty

The commercial success of Barbie is mainly based to the fact that she had been equipped with a variety of wardrobes for every occasion, right from the start. Her inventor,Ruth Handler once said said: The doll sells the fashion and the fashion sells the doll.

Barbie originally sold with swimsuit and therefore urgently needed something else to wear! The first clothes were influenced by Haute Couture fashions and were also named after these. Jacqueline Kennedy had been a stylish example in the early sixties, and this influence was noticeable in Barbies fashion. Like her shining examples, the haute couture models of famous designers, many of Barbies dresses are equipped with a label. For combined ensembles only one piece of clothing has a label in it, these can be found inside the collar or at the helmline.
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From 1967 Barbie has worn fashions that were oriented closely to the mod-fashions by Carnaby-Street. Also later fashion trends such as those from the TV series "Dynasty" influenced the fashions of the eighties, Disco-fashions as well as most designer jeans made an impact on Barbies wardrobe. When talking about "Barbie fashion", most people think about the "Pink" - color which actually had not been the case during the first Years. Barbie always was up to the latest fashions and wore always the actual colors according to the specific season. In the 1950es and the early 1960s the colors were much more soft pastel and only in the late 1960s more brilliant and gleaming colors became fashionable. During these Years Mattel began to pack their dolls into pink colored boxes. Eversince this date this dark gleaming rose color is protected under the trade mark: "Barbie-Pink". Until 1972 the labels with the dolls na mes were woven in handwriting, whereas between 1973 to 1978 no markings or labels can be found. Although the dresses can be identified according to their manufacturing specifications (at the time the buttons that were used consisted of square metal plates stitched to the fabric). From 1979 the woven labels reappeared, and this time the dolls names were in print. From the 1990s not only fashions and /or casual clothes were offered, but also fantasy outfits to disguise Barbie into mermaids, elves or saga princesses. For the Year 2010 some fashion designers like: Vera Wang, Marc Jacobs and Diane von Fuerstenberg are said to create special fashions again for Barbie. Already back in the 1960es, Mattel offered clothing and fabric accessories that enabled children to apply the colors. Such accessories are manufactured up to today and they add a great deal to the fun and the playing possibilities.

4.1. Famous designers

There are some famous designers that created fashions for Barbie as the years passed. Biba (Barbara Hulanicki): She opened the legendary Biba boutique in London . Biba stocked the "total look" in which shoes, tights, and other accessories coordinated with the clothes. Biba clothing was extremely inexpensive, which fit perfectly the budgets of many young women.

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Marc Bohan: He succeeded Yves Saint Laurent as head of the House of Dior. In the late Sixties he explored the ethnic styles of fashions that were becoming increasingly popular, with exotic prints and more fluid shapes. Pierre Cardin: He was a French couturier who adopted Mod styles of clothing in the Mid Sixties". He, with Courrges, was responsible for what became known as the "Space-Age Look", with futuristic designs and helmet-like hats Andre Courrges: He is credited with inventing the miniskirt, but in reality he just brought it to couture fashion, thus helping to make the mini universal. Paco Rabanne: He began his career designing plastic jewelry for Dior and Givenchy before turning to fashion design. These jewelry designs were a prelude to the fashions for which he became famous. In 1965 he designed a dress made of plastic discs linked together like chain mail. Also, he designed dresses made of metal squares, discs or triangles joined together, in long or short lengths, and used unusual materials such as crinkled paper and aluminum. Yves Saint Laurent: His first collection, designed for the House of Dior in 1958, introduced the Trapeze dress. In 1965 YSL started a Pop Art movement in couture fashion when he created his "Mondrian" dress, based on Mondrian's painting "Broadway Boogie Woogie". Like Courreges and Cardin, YSL created daring, contemporary designs that reflected the sixties youthful movement in fashion.

4.2.

Beauty

Barbie isnt just another pretty face she actually has a lot of pretty faces seven different skin tones to be exact. And, with a team of talented hair stylists and makeup artists, the beauty of Barbie is constantly refined so shes always picture perfect. Barbies hair comes in seven different shades of blonde, woven together in various combinations to achieve highlights or lowlightsAfter her hair is brushed and styled, Barbie is placed in a customized heating machine to set her hairstyle. Whats in her beauty bag? Barbies hair is styled with hair gel exclusively for mulated for her. Bad hair day? Even Barbie gets tangled up. A light conditioner and water does the trick to manage her hair.

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A true fashionista never leaves her house without makeup and the same goes for the most well-known fashionista of them all. When creating a new Barbie face up to 15 fine artists work on Barbie dolls face using water-based acrylics and tiny brushes to paint one of the most recognized faces in the world. Its all about blending. Every color used on Barbie dolls face is applied in thin washes so no brush mark is obvious. The process takes up to 3 hours. Although Barbie is known for her vibrant and colorful makeup, brown is still her favorite eye shadow and worn the most frequently. In fact, Barbie has more than 300 different shades of brown in her beauty kit

5. Controversies
The first Barbie doll was already criticized for promoting an unrealistic idea of body image (39-18-33 inches or 29-46-84 cm) which corresponded rather to the male fantasy than to the actual measurements of a normal young woman. Consequently, the self-confidence of girls could suffer more than it would encourage them, so, Jack Ryan, the sixth husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, redesigned the doll. The chest width was reduced while the waist slightly widened.

In 1965 Slumber party Barbie came with a book entitled How to lose weight which advised: dont eat! The doll also came with pink bathroom scales reading 110lbs, which would be around 35lbs underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall. In 1991 a doll named "Happy to be Me" was brought in the shelves by another manufacturer, her proportions looked more realistic, but she did not sell and disappeared after a few years from the market. Repeatedly Barbies figure was blamed for leading to eating disorders and girls who attempted to copy her would become anorexic. Thus, Barbie-dolls could become a bad example for young girls. According to some British research conducted by the University of Sussex, the blonde toy-dolls with their ultra narrow waist suggest children to be a role model, as a result even small girls will be dissatisfied with their own bodies,reported the Sunday Times. Colored Francie made her debut in 1967, and she is sometimes described as the first African American Barbie doll. However, she was produced using the existing head molds for the white Francie doll and lacked African characteristics other than a dark skin. In March 2000 stories appeared in the media claiming that the hard vinyl used in vintage Barbie dolls could leak toxic chemicals, causing danger to children playing with them.
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However, the claim was rejected as false by technical experts. A modern Barbie doll has a body made from ABS plastic, while the head is made from soft PVC.

6. Barbie facts
Barbie has never been married (she just likes to model

wedding gowns for her designer friends); Barbie and Ken are currently friends (but we hear he wants her back); Barbie has never been pregnant (that was her best friend Midge); There actually is no such thing as Caribou Barbie but, there have been four Barbie for President dollsBarbie has run as an Independent representing the Party of Girls; Barbie is a noun, not an adjective. Many people have adopted the Barbie moniker, but make no mistake, there is only ONE Barbie; Because shes plastic, Barbie technically has had plastic surgery on her face and body; Barbie once said, Math class is hard! but changed it to, Math class can be hard, but not impossible! Obviously Barbie wouldnt have excelled in her science and math classes to later become a surgeon, dentist, baby doctor, zoologist and many other science-savvy professions; Barbie released her own re-recorded version of the 90s hit song Barbie Girl .

7. Conclusions
Contrary to what critics say , Barbie has encouraged girls to dream it all, try it all, and live it all. For over fifty years, Barbie has inspired girls to play out their dreams and aspirations, by giving them the opportunity to "try on" different roles and careers. Celebrating her milestone 125th career in 2010, Barbie has proved there isn't anything a girl can't conquer or discover or overcome. Because every time a girls plays with Barbie, her choices are infinite. Roleplaying with Barbie leads to real life opportunities. Fantasies are the first step to realities. There's no such things as too wild a dream, too big a hope, too fantastic a wish, too hard a goal.

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8.Bibliography:

o o o o o o o

www.barbiecollector.com www.barbiemedia.com www.localhistories.org www.dailyrecord.co.uk www.toyingonline.com www.mattel.com www.wikipedia.com

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