Yeah, I admit it, I played with Barbie. As a child, I saw Barbie simply as a plaything and not much more. Today, on the verge of a new millenium, Barbie’s existence takes on entirely new meanings. Her placement both in 1976 in "America’s Time Capsule," and in 1993 in a Parisian wax museum confirmed her role as an American icon forever. According to Hicks and Gwynne, "A language…is the integrated use of many sounds, many gestures, and many tones of voice, every one of which is a symbol in its own right. Hence a language is an integrated system of symbols"(Hicks and Gwynne 50). Barbie has served as a language, or conglomeration of symbols, ideologies, values and fads from the original days of her inception; thus, Barbie is a language of America.

As an object, Barbie has had major reformations since her birth, but through everything she has managed to continually represent her country in one way or another. In 1959, when Ruth Handler, owner of Mattel Incorporated, envisioned creating a new doll for her daughter to play with she had very specific requests. The doll was to represent a teenage role model for girls to look up to. Barbie was melded of a light plastic that wore a healthy tan skin tone and donned a sleek black hairstyle. Her body proportions were exaggerated and her chest and butt were perfectly suitable for a woman with twice her waist size. Her face, in 1959, was heavily painted with make-up and her eyes cast a flirtatious sideways glare. This version of Barbie, just like real-life American teenagers, would soon change. Barbie has experienced many changes that accurately reflect the life and times of her real-life counterparts. Her hair eventually turned blonde and her lascivious disposition became focused and determined. As Barbara Carson states, "Objects help us understand history"(Carson 129). Barbie’s changes are perfectly reflective of the society that was experiencing metamorphosis around her.

Barbie is recognized as everything from a symbol of utopian femininity to a blonde bimbo. To her creators and the Mattel corporation, she represents a way of making social statements to young girls. According to Ruth Handler in 1964:

		Parents thank us for the educational values in the world
		of Barbie…They say that they could never get their
		daughters well groomed before- get them out of slacks or
		blue jeans and into a dress…get them to scrub their
		necks and wash their hair.  Well, that’s where Barbie 
		comes in.  The doll has clean hair and a clean face, and
		she dresses fashionably, and she wears gloves and shoes
		that match.(Urla and Swedlund 279)

So, then, what does Barbie represent? Is it matching shoes and gloves? Or, does this 11 and ¾ -inch doll have a greater social consciousness than many modern world leaders? Barbie is an adaptable and stable symbol of American teenagers. Throughout her existence she has been able to alienate herself from great social threats and continues promoting positive pop culture images. For instance, in the sixties amidst the Beatles craze, the hippie revolution and the free love movement, Barbie was able to establish a new fad- a fashionable one, not a political one. For generations, Barbie was thought to stand for independence because she was her own woman and that she could invent a new self as simply as changing costumes. Moving into the seventies and eighties Barbie became cooler by wearing the newest clothing styles. Later, in 1967, Mattel introduced the first Black Barbie doll and attempted to cross the line of racial integration. Although the first version of this doll was unsuccessful, the fad caught on with young children- the color did not matter, the personality was distinct. Barbie stood tall as a fashion model and has been a representation of teenage fads since 1959.

Barbie’s careers also changed with the times. As America became more gender conscious and women’s movements gained in numbers and effectiveness, Barbie’s careers demonstrated her inability to see the glass ceiling. In order, major career distinctions in Barbie’s lifeline include: model(1959), ballerina(1961), stewardess(1961), teacher(1965), medical doctor(1973), athlete(1976), news reporter(1985), corporate executive(1985), and animal rights volunteer(1990). Throughout her life Barbie’s careers represent women’s liberation movements that few other American icons can demonstrate.

Barbie through the years has represented a heightened social consciousness on many issues, including race, gender equality, fashion, and career success.

There are many specific aspects of Barbie that represent significant iconic details in Barbie’s world. Mentioned earlier, analyzing the dolls’eyes is integral in understanding the mentality that she represents. In her earliest years, the promiscuous eyes of a teenage girl was cute, and encouraged. However, when Barbie’s attitude toward career success shifted, so did her stare. Emerging in the mid-seventies, the dolls' eyes face front, representing a new, head-strong, determined woman with goals and aspirations. This slight change in her appearance represents one of the many changes cultural beliefs that occurred over her life’s span. Other symbols that are associated with Barbie are her cars. Barbie has driven in style in different models of Porshe, Corvette and other expensive autos. Yet another interesting symbol that surrounds Barbie is her male counterpart-Ken. The Ken doll was not introduced until two decades after Barbie. The delay in male doll production represents many cultural beliefs of the time period immediately following World War II. Men were soldiers, not dolls. This was the common mentality surrounding male figures as dolls and upon introduction, Ken immediately played the most important role he could in Barbie's life, the dependable boyfriend. For many women, it was the introduction of Ken that made them understand Barbie because in the early sixties a woman was almost wholly defined by her man. These icons further enhance the image that Barbie demonstrates as a pop culture icon.

Although Barbie has been a representation of pop culture for over thirty years, she is still open to interpretation. Today, there are countless arguments against the mass production of a doll that, some say, represents an impossible physical appearance and flightiness of personality. Many modern feminists believe that Barbie’s super-human physical traits present a false image to children and offer the opinion that Americans are infatuated with concepts of external beauty. There have been several case studies of women who have experienced up to thirty plastic surgery operations in attempts to emulate Barbie’s appearance. In early 1998, the issue of introducing a pregnant Barbie was raised by concerned consumers that wanted to ensure that their children were viewing accurate representations of American women. And, furthermore, Barbie’s clothing has resorted to a more conservative, business style, fully fashion conscious, but also politically correct. The emergence of these alternative views and interpretations by women is as much of a cultural icon as the arguments themselves.

Although Barbie always dodged political issues by presenting herself as a non-issue, we can now truly see that the Barbie doll was manufactured as a tool to sway children’s views toward the political agenda of the conservative side of America. And, as a cultural icon, Barbie represents only that view of American life. For example, a foreigner given only Barbie dolls to reconstruct the history of America with would never know about the hippie revolution of the sixties, because Barbie avoided it.

Yes, these interpretations are out there. And, yes, Barbie does not provide a complete history of popular culture in America. But, remember, "in every second of every day, two Barbie dolls are sold somewhere in the world"(Urla and Swedlund 286). Why are people buying it? Because Barbie represents a place that people can go to, where their realities do not exist, and where changing your lifestyle is as easy as changing your clothes, an entire lifestyle can be altered. This is the American dream, to own your own destiny. And, for many people, Barbie is representative of that destiny.

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Hicks, David and Margaret A. Gwynne. Cultural Anthropology., New 
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Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life in the U.S.A., 2nd
	ed., Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Motz, Marilyn Ferris. "I Want to Be a Barbie Doll When I Grow Up: The
	Cultural Significance of the Barbie Doll." The Popular Culture
	Reader. Ed. Christopher Geist and Jack Nachbar. Bowling
	Green University Popular Press: Bowling Green, Ohio, 1983.
	122-136.

Urla, Jacqueline and Alan C. Swedlund. "The Anthropometry of Barbie:
	Unsettling Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture."
	Deviant Bodies. Ed. Jennifer Terry and Jacqueline Urla.
	Indiana University Press: Bloomington, 1995. 277-313.