Barbie's full name: Barbie Millicent Roberts

Date of birth: March 9, 1959

Height: 17cm

Weight: 5kg

Kenny's full name: Ken Carson [Edit this paragraph] The controversy caused by Barbie is sure to be popular.

1. In September 23, Saudi Arabia, a Middle Eastern country, banned the domestic sale of Barbie, believing that Barbie did not conform to Islamic ideas. The Committee's vice-chairman for reproductive ethics and prevention said: "The revealing clothes and shameful posture of the Jewish Barbie doll are symbols of the degeneration of the West. We should pay attention to her danger and be careful. "

2: There is a doll named Fula in the Middle East countries. Fula doll is similar to Barbie, but its design caters to the Islamic market, and she is not produced by Mattel. In Iran, there are Sarah and Dara dolls to choose from outside Barbie.

3. "Barbie" has become a derogatory slang to describe stupid women, the most famous of which is the song "Barbie's Girl." In 1992, Mattel produced a talking Barbie. This series of dolls can say the following sentences: "Do we think we have enough clothes?" "I love shopping!" And "Want a pizza party?" . Each doll is set to speak four of the 27 sentences, so no two dolls should be the same. Although only 1.5% of dolls will say, "Math class is very difficult!" However, it has attracted criticism from the American Federation of University (Graduate) Women (American Association of University Women). In October, 1992, Mattel announced that Barbie would never say that again, and offered a replacement to the owner of the doll.

4: Barbie's waistline One of the most widespread criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes unrealistic female body images, which leads to anorexia among women who imitate Barbie. Critics say that if a woman wants to have Barbie's figure, she needs to be 7 feet 2 inches tall, weigh 115 to 13 pounds, have a hip circumference of 3 to 36 inches, a waist circumference of 18 to 23 inches and a chest circumference of 38 to 48 inches. At the same time, she will lack 17% to 22% fat enough to maintain menstruation. After Barbie was redesigned in 1997, her waistline increased. Mattel said that this change would make Barbie more suitable for wearing modern fashion designs.

5: "colored Francie" was first produced in 1967, and she is sometimes described as the first African-American Barbie. However, she is made from the mold of Caucasian Francie doll, and has no correct racial appearance except dark skin. Kristi, who debuted in 1968, is usually regarded as the first African-American doll in Barbie series. Black Barbie and Latino Barbie were put on the market in 198.

6: In 1997, Mattel cooperated with Nabisco to jointly promote Barbie and Oreo cookies. Oreo Fun Barbie was marketed as a doll that little girls could play with and share with after-school "America's most popular cookies", and Mattel routinely launched white and black versions of dolls. Critics say that Oreo is a derogatory name in the African-American community, describing people who look like this cookie: black in appearance but white in heart. This kind of doll was not successful in the market, and Mattel recovered the unsold inventory, which aroused the interest of collectors.

7: In May 1997, Mattel introduced the doll Share a Smile Becky in a pink wheelchair. Kjersti Johnson, a 17-year-old high school student suffering from cerebral palsy in Tacoma, Washington, pointed out that the doll could not enter the elevator in Barbie's dollhouse, and later Mattel announced that it would redesign the dollhouse to match the doll in the future.

8: In December 25, Dr. Agnes Nairn of university of bath published a research report, suggesting that girls usually go through a stage of hating Barbie, and they treat Barbie with different punishments, including beheading and putting the doll in the microwave oven. He said that denying Barbie is like a ceremony to deny your past. [Edit this paragraph] Barbie was born. Ruth Handler was the founder of Barbie, the longest-selling toy in the world toy market, and later founded Mattel Toys Company, one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the United States. Now, "Barbie" dolls have been sold to more than 15 countries in the world, with total sales exceeding 1 billion yuan.

On April 28th, 22, various newspapers and periodicals forwarded a surprising news one after another: the 85-year-old Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie doll, passed away. For half a century, Barbie created by Ruth has almost become the darling of little girls all over the world. With the popularity of this doll with big eyes and long hair, Barbie today is not only a toy, but also a symbol of American women and American culture, just like McDonald's and KFC all over the world. As Ruth who created this brand, she has given dreams and hopes to women all over the world with her life's efforts.

in p>1916, Ruth Handler was born in Denver, the capital of Colorado. Her parents were originally Polish. In order to escape military service, like countless immigrants who came to the United States to find their dreams, they took a hot and dirty steamboat and came to the other side of the ocean.

Ruth's father is a blacksmith, who lives on a small income to support Ruth and her nine sisters. Her mother works hard for the family all day, but the hardships of life don't seem to bring much harm to this big family. Father and mother never lose their temper with their children. Later, Ruth Handler once recalled that as the youngest child, she never lacked love when growing up. It is because of growing up with so much love that she will have the childlike innocence and design a lovely Barbie.

At the age of p>19, Ruth was just a sophomore. She was not tall, but she was full of curiosity. Out of curiosity about movies, she came to Hollywood alone, but she came to this tempting place not to be a movie star, but to study industrial design. Fortunately, she got a job in the famous paramount photo studio. Here, she met the love of her life, Elliot Handler. They fell in love quickly and got married soon.

In p>1942, the ambitious Handler and his wife started their company in a garage. The original product was wooden picture frames, Elliot developed samples and Ruth was responsible for the sales.

By chance, Handler tried to make small furniture from the waste left over from making picture frames, and found that it sold well, so the company added another business to design and manufacture furniture for children's playrooms. A few years later, the company began to make money, and its main business turned to producing toys. In 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Handler started a company with their friend Manson. Later, it became the most famous and successful company to produce dolls. The company is named MATTEL, MATT is named after Manson, and EL is named after Elliot.

At that time, Ruth had a daughter. As a mother and a businessman who made toys, she attached great importance to the children's ideas. One day, she suddenly saw her daughter Barbara playing paper-cut dolls with a little boy. These paper-cut dolls were not the usual babies at that time, but teenagers with their own occupations and identities, which made her very addicted. "Why not make a mature doll?" Generate was inspired in Ruth's mind.

although there is inspiration, the journey to realize it is arduous. Before Barbie was born, the toys for little girls in the American market were mostly cute little angels, round and chubby, similar to the screen image of the famous child star Shirley Temple. This is the imagination of adults for children's toys, but judging from the interest of older children, this kind of toys is slightly "naive". They need playmates of their own age, not a baby.

what do you want to make your doll look like? Ruth thought hard. At this moment, she needed to travel to Europe on business. So Ruth came to Germany. Here, she saw a doll named "Lily". Lily was very beautiful. It was first made in 1955 and was made according to a famous cartoon image in the West German Times Beard. Lily is made of hard plastic and is 18 ~ 3 cm high. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail and dragged to the back of her head, wearing a gorgeous dress. The figure is impeccable, all kinds of signs are available, and the clothes are very "exposed".

So, Ruth bought three "Lily's" and brought them back to America. She told her male colleagues in the company that she wanted to design a "mature" toy, but they thought that "Lily's clothes were too revealing, which was the product of satisfying men's fantasies and was not suitable for children.

Ruth was not discouraged. She thought, why can't I combine these two points? What children need is a grown-up doll, but it's not exposed. The little girl needs not only a doll of her own age, but also an ideal image when she grows up. As a result, the appearance of Barbie became more and more mature in Ruth's mind. With the help of company technicians and engineers, Barbie was born!

With a woman's care, Ruth then invited Charlotte Johnson, a fashion designer, to design Barbie's clothes. In 1958, they obtained the patent right to produce Barbie. This kind of doll will change an era. She is different from previous dolls. She is an adult, with slender limbs, fresh and moving. Although she has a good figure, she is tightly wrapped in beautiful clothes, and her face is as mysterious as Marilyn Monroe, although she is only 11.5 inches tall. Finally, Ruth gave her daughter Barbara the nickname "Barbie" to this lovely doll. [Edit this paragraph] The first batch of Barbie dolls that grew up with Barbie were made in Japan and made their debut at the American Toy Fair in 1959. The name of the exhibition was "Barbie-a role model for girls". But to Ruth's surprise, "Barbie" was not snapped up, but was given a cold shoulder by toy dealers. After all, she is a brand-new thing and an adventure, and the dealers are unwilling to do so, but only reluctantly enter a few.

But the market proved that Ruth's judgment was correct. Barbie, which was placed in the corner of the dealer's shelf, was warmly welcomed by children. More and more people began to buy this fresh and gratifying toy, especially the little girl, who was extremely enthusiastic about it, and sold 35, in the first year.

in p>196, dealers completely changed their minds, and orders flew to Mattel like snowflakes. It took several years for the company to meet people's demand for Barbie. In 1 years, the public bought Barbie for 5 million dollars.

However, while Barbie has been widely welcomed by the public, it has also been criticized from all sides. American women's organizations first stated that Barbie was too sexy and perfect, and set unattainable goals for little girls. The final result was to hurt their self-esteem and make them feel inferior about their appearance and figure, so she was not a symbol of women's liberation, but played the role of "persecuting women". Ruth doesn't think so. "Barbie" is a girl's idol. The idol is naturally perfect, and the little girl won't feel inferior because of her idol.

To prove that Barbie is not a vase with an empty mind, but a professional woman. Ruth has designed more kinds of Barbie. She has more identities, such as doctor, astronaut, businesswoman, police officer, athlete, and even worked as a volunteer for UNICEF. So far, she has more than 8 occupations. She can be China, Indian, black, and she represents 45 nationalities. She has more than 4 kinds of pets now. The first pet is a horse named Dancer. She has her boyfriend "Ken", which is named after Ruth's son. She also has three sisters of her own, namely Joby, who went public in 1964, Stacy, who was released in 1992, and Kelly, who appeared in 1995.

This is an ordinary toy, but it is so real. On the one hand, she is incredibly beautiful, and she is a "thousand-faced girl". On the other hand, she is so close to us because she has her own preferences like any little girl.

Opposition will still ring, but as a market image, "Barbie" is so successful. According to Mattel's statistics, an 11-year-old American girl may have owned 1 Barbie dolls, while a French girl of the same age has 5. In addition to children, millions of adult women buy Barbie. "For them, no matter their age, she is not just a doll," Ruth said. "She has become a part of them." Barbie collectors are even more gender-neutral: a Barbie doll that was priced at $3 in 1959, if well preserved, may be worth $5, now.

The first batch of Barbie dolls were made in Japan and made their debut at the American Toy Fair in 1959. The name of the competition was "Barbie-a role model for girls". The appearance of Barbie was warmly welcomed by children, and more and more people began to buy this kind of dolls. In the first year, 35, dolls were sold. In the next 1 years, the amount of Barbie purchased by the public reached 5 million US dollars. [Edit this paragraph] The development of "Barbie" Rose Handler found that her daughter Barbara (abbreviated as Barbie) likes to play with paper dolls, and prefers to play with toys like adults rather than babies or children. At that time, most three-dimensional dolls appeared in the image of babies or children. Rose knows that there is room for the development of adult dolls, so she put forward the idea of Barbie dolls with her husband, Ai Lu, one of the founders of Mattel. Unfortunately, Ai Lu and other decision makers in the company are not interested in this plan. Rose Handler said, "Being able to play with a doll with breasts is very important to a little girl's self-image."

In 1956, when Rose went to Switzerland with Barbara and Kenneth, she found a German doll named Bild Lilli doll in a shop window in Lucerne. This adult doll coincides with Ruth Handler's doll, so she bought three Bild Lilli doll, one of which she gave to Barbara and the other two to Mattel. Lilli doll is based on a popular cartoon character. She appeared in Reinhard Beuthin's comic column in the newspaper. She is an independent professional woman. Lilli doll was first sold in Germany in 1955. The original target customers were adults, but it was also popular with children because they could dress up dolls with clothes sold separately.

After returning to America, Rose, with the help of engineer Jack Ryan, set out to design the doll again, and named it Barbie after her daughter Barbara. Barbie doll was first exposed at the American International Toy Fair in new york on March 9, 1959.