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71 - Barbie - The Evolution of an Icon · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an air wave media podcast. Hi everybody,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to hoodd W now the history podcast That's
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Speaker 1: not your History class with me, your host Katy Charlwood,
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Speaker 1: history Harlott and reader of books. So there are a
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Speaker 1: couple more listeners than the well last week. Hi and welcome,
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Speaker 1: and this is your disclaimer. It's always best just to
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Speaker 1: be clear right off the bat. So here on this show,
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Speaker 1: my podcast, I like to try and talk to you
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Speaker 1: the way I would talk to a friend or at
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Speaker 1: the very least someone I do not despise. And as such,
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Speaker 1: I'm going to use language that I use typically. Some
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Speaker 1: have called it colorful, some have called it despicable and
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Speaker 1: will make sailors blush. But if you know general curse
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Speaker 1: words do not ruffle your feathers. Welcome. I'm glad to
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Speaker 1: have you here at the Guild of Historical Descent. Oh.
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Speaker 1: I have been upsetting people left right in center this week.
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Speaker 1: So the first thing comes from the British East India
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Speaker 1: Company video right, because I do like a companion video
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Speaker 1: to go along with last week's episode, and I gave
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Speaker 1: like a really like condensed version, trying to keep it
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Speaker 1: within ninety seconds because that's the limit for Instagram, and
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Speaker 1: I try not to make TikTok to go much over it.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, very short, very small, and you know, there's
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Speaker 1: all these people going like, go, why didn't you talk
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Speaker 1: about this or you missed it this, you missed out
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Speaker 1: the Opium Wars or what they did to China. I
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Speaker 1: was like, I know, I know, but again the finite
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Speaker 1: amount of time, which is fine, Like I understand, and
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Speaker 1: I'll discuss things later on, you know, when I have
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Speaker 1: time where it's relevant or whatever. And I had that
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Speaker 1: video but because i'd already put a video up previous
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Speaker 1: play about the British Museums Act, which is effectively the
2:05
Speaker 1: UK made it illegal for the British Museum to give
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Speaker 1: back to repatriate the stuff that looked from other countries,
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Speaker 1: like it made it illegal, like there's like certain rules
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Speaker 1: like it has to be either duplicate or damaged or
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Speaker 1: unfit for collection, although I'd say being stolen makes it unfit,
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Speaker 1: but that's just me anyway. So obviously the Union Jack
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Speaker 1: Brighado after me, and it's like, well, why don't you
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Speaker 1: make a video in why don't you make a video
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Speaker 1: on that? And so I found the best response to
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Speaker 1: that is, if you want me to make a specific
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Speaker 1: video on a specific topic, hey you get a penny
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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty year O, please thank you, because
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Speaker 1: like you want me to go and do the research,
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Speaker 1: you know, find the information, fact check the information, pull
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Speaker 1: that information out, and then like smoosh it down into
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Speaker 1: digestible form that's you know, easy to take in. Like
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Speaker 1: that's what I have to do. It's a lot of work,
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Speaker 1: even for again a ninety second video, so you know,
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Speaker 1: Pevy and they get real mad at that. They're like, oh,
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Speaker 1: you were a grifter where you were coward and it's like, now,
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Speaker 1: clearly you're just broken. Rap it off opinions here, mate,
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Speaker 1: I don't know. The second thing I did was I
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Speaker 1: gave an incredibly mild critique about a True Creme podcast
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Speaker 1: that I used to listen to quite regularly and was
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Speaker 1: a fan until one of their episodes just turned my
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Speaker 1: stomach a little bit, you know. And yeah, I've heard
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Speaker 1: some of their very avid fans just come at me
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Speaker 1: and just ranted me just aggressively, like I've started doleating
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Speaker 1: comments because I'm not taking abase like no, But it
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Speaker 1: was a very mild critique and somebody was like, well,
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Speaker 1: they would never bash another podcaster, and I'm like, I'm
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Speaker 1: not bashing. It's a critique. I'm just saying what, I
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Speaker 1: don't listen to them anymore, and you know, and I
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Speaker 1: wasn't actually gonna tell the story that made me not
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Speaker 1: listen to them anymore because I don't want to trigger
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Speaker 1: people in that way because it's just it's just bad.
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Speaker 1: But let's talk about good news for a minute. So
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Speaker 1: I submitted my episodes episodes my entry into the Irish
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Speaker 1: Podcast Awards, So I guess we're gonna wait and see
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Speaker 1: how that goes, because I'm kind of excited about that one,
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Speaker 1: because even if I don't make it into the history thing,
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Speaker 1: which I would love to, I'd say Ifen Dires is
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Speaker 1: gonna Dwyers or he's gonna win that one. But good
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Speaker 1: for him. But yeah, I sounded so insincere. Yeah whatever,
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Speaker 1: but no, he does a little work in a lot
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Speaker 1: of research, and I'm fairly certain he was really nice
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Speaker 1: to me when I started out, So yeah, he's probably
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Speaker 1: gonna do really well on it, and good for him.
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Speaker 1: But I think I might be able to get like
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Speaker 1: the Listener's Choice one. I think the vote comes out
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Speaker 1: in like September or August or something like that. But yeah,
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Speaker 1: I just I think I could do well with y'all
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Speaker 1: because you guys are amazing and you leave me amazing
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Speaker 1: reviews that make my heart sing, and you and you
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Speaker 1: respond to stuff in the videos that I've said that
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Speaker 1: I have forgotten. I've said it's the eighty AHD and
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Speaker 1: it's so good because I'm like, oh, yeah, that's the
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Speaker 1: thing that I discussed. Yay, and I had I've got
5:42
Speaker 1: trave a trip happening, So May twenty four, May twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty four, there's a vacation to Scotland with me, and
5:50
Speaker 1: I don't live in Scotland. I live in Ireland, so
5:52
Speaker 1: it's been a while since I've been to Scotland. And
5:55
Speaker 1: also there's like all these places I've never been, and
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Speaker 1: so castles a fucking lovely castle, you know, a lovely castle.
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Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm gonna get more details at the end
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Speaker 1: of the show for that for people who are interested.
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Speaker 1: So yay. Also, I'm gonna go see the Barbie movie
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Speaker 1: this weekend, and you bet your bottom dollar that I
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Speaker 1: have an outfit. But I know when you're thinking, you're
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Speaker 1: thinking it has been six minutes. Quit your gibber chabber
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Speaker 1: in fact me, in fact you, I will. But first
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Speaker 1: we've got to get our source on. Our sources are
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Speaker 1: Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber, The Good, the Bad,
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Speaker 1: and The Barbie by Dania Lee Stone, Forever Barbie by
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Speaker 1: mg Lord, Barbie Culture by Mary f Rogers, Dream Doll,
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Speaker 1: the Ruth Handler Story by Ruth Handler. And of course
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Speaker 1: we have articles upon articles. We have houstory dot Com,
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Speaker 1: We've got Gizmoto, we have BuzzFeed. Yet even BuzzFeed is
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Speaker 1: in on this. Oh in finally the documentary on Netflix,
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Speaker 1: The Toys that Made Us. I was sitting comfortably good.
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Speaker 1: Then let's begin. So this week's episode is actually dedicated
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Speaker 1: to Maggie in Canada. You know who you are, Maggie Via.
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Speaker 1: It's of all the episodes to dedicate to you, Barbie
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Speaker 1: from dream House to World Domination. I regret nothing about
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Speaker 1: my tagline. I thought it was funny and I stick
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Speaker 1: by it. So I knew that I wanted to do
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Speaker 1: something on Barbie. I'd been thinking about this for a
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Speaker 1: long time, and I considered doing her little like Fictional
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Speaker 1: History of Barbie Millicent Roberts her whole thing, but like,
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Speaker 1: how do I put this in a way that makes sense.
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Speaker 1: There's like so much to tell, but really not a
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Speaker 1: lot to tell. And then I realized that there's actually
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Speaker 1: a lot going on with Barbie and the history of Barbie.
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Speaker 1: So let's start with Ruth Handler going on a family
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Speaker 1: vacation to Europe. Now the story of the origins. The
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Speaker 1: location wiggles a bit, right. Some versions say Germany, others
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Speaker 1: say Switzerland. I'm prone to think Switzerland, but that's just
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Speaker 1: my personal opinion. So Ruth, she's on holiday and she
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Speaker 1: sees this doll, like not like a baby doll, but
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Speaker 1: like an adult woman doll. Bit small, right, so it
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Speaker 1: has breasts and shapes, and you know that's a little sexy.
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Speaker 1: Said going on, and she thinks, yes, this is a
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Speaker 1: toy that girls need because there's a gap in the market.
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Speaker 1: She noticed that when her little girl was playing with dolls,
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Speaker 1: that the only dolls that were available to her were
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Speaker 1: like caregiving dolls, right, They were babies and things that
8:58
Speaker 1: needed taken care of, you know, little toy kitchens and things.
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Speaker 1: They were all very homemakery, you know, but there was
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Speaker 1: nothing that involved like imaginative play of having to be
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Speaker 1: you know, something else whereas like boys like cars and
9:15
Speaker 1: rockets and little army men and all this stuff. Right,
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Speaker 1: So like you used to get these wee paper dolls.
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Speaker 1: You still do, actually because I'm fairly certain I've seen
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Speaker 1: them recently, like you cut them out of a magazine
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Speaker 1: now though, And so Ruth notices that her daughter has
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Speaker 1: a habit of like dressing the little paper dogs, and
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Speaker 1: she would like cut little outfits out and dress up
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Speaker 1: the wee doll and how she would act out with them,
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Speaker 1: and she would have more fun like playing with these
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Speaker 1: and acting at little scenes with them than she was,
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Speaker 1: you know, playing with a baby doll. But as a
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Speaker 1: we side Barton, quite an important one actually is that
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Speaker 1: there were adult style dolls for young girls to play with.
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Speaker 1: There was those dolls happened to be racist. These would
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Speaker 1: be mammy dolls sort of based on servants of color,
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Speaker 1: like the character and Gone with the Wind, which really
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Speaker 1: popularized these dolls. So that that did exist, but you know,
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Speaker 1: not the same way as a little white girl having
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Speaker 1: a doll that where it presents herself. But yes, back
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Speaker 1: to Switzerland, and Ruth sees this doll build Lily, which
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Speaker 1: is a German doll which is based off which was
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Speaker 1: like a character like this smutty comic strip of this
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Speaker 1: this sex worker, this German sex worker. And so there
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Speaker 1: was this little doll. And this doll was like a
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Speaker 1: gag gift. So like men would give it to each other.
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Speaker 1: They'd like hang it from the mirror in the car,
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Speaker 1: or like put it on the front like a trophy,
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Speaker 1: and it'd be like you'd give it to someone on
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Speaker 1: a stag do or you know, you'd give it to
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Speaker 1: like a lady friend. Is like a little winky winky
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Speaker 1: joke of what's to come, you know. It was It
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Speaker 1: wasn't like a thing that had's played with. It was
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Speaker 1: an adult toy. Yeah, and she saw this and she's
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Speaker 1: like absolutely yes, need this. So she brings a bunch
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Speaker 1: of these back and effectively copies it. Ah, does feel
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Speaker 1: a little bit illegal, but there we go. But I
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Speaker 1: guess it wasn't. So. Ruth brings three of these dolls
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Speaker 1: back to the States from her European vacate, and her
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Speaker 1: and Jack Ryan they work together to like redesign the
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Speaker 1: doll of it and on what is to become Barbie's
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Speaker 1: official birthday March ninth, nineteen fifty nine, the Barbie doll
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Speaker 1: Is debuted at the American International Toy Fair. And here's
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Speaker 1: the thing. This was an absolutely massive deal because there
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Speaker 1: was no other doll on the market like this. This
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Speaker 1: was a teenage fashion model and she looked like a
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty sigh she did. She had the shape, you know,
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Speaker 1: and so she was there in this black and white swimsuit,
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Speaker 1: which for many felt was very scary. She had little
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Speaker 1: pododle curls and her hair up in a ponytail, and
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Speaker 1: she had again, like beal Lily, that little siltry six
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Speaker 1: aside eye she does. She does look like she wants
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Speaker 1: to give you a wee smooch. She does, though, and
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Speaker 1: like she doesn't just show up as a blonde like
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Speaker 1: she's available as blonde or brunette, which is good because variety.
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Speaker 1: And of course you can't have a fashion model without fashion.
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Speaker 1: So Charlotte Johnson, she's the fashion designer for Hotel and
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Speaker 1: she creates Barbies like outfits and looks because you know,
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Speaker 1: the purpose of the dolls to get her dressed and
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Speaker 1: change her clothes and you know, look fucking awesome. And
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Speaker 1: this debut in the New York It was in New
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Speaker 1: York that the International American Toyfair was on. But the dolls,
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Speaker 1: unsurprisingly were made in Japan and the outfits themselves were
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Speaker 1: like physically they were handstitched by Japanese workers. So really
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Speaker 1: it was, you know, a global partnership. Speaking of global,
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Speaker 1: al Barbie basically takes the world by storm, and by
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Speaker 1: world I mean America. She takes the USA by storm.
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Speaker 1: She's so popular. The very first doll was like three
13:22
Speaker 1: dollars I think to buy, and they sold what was
13:27
Speaker 1: it over three hundred thousand and like that first year alone,
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Speaker 1: Like that's how a big deal this doll was. So
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Speaker 1: it's selling for you know, a couple of years. And
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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty one, the creators of Beal Lilly sue Mattel.
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Speaker 1: So they're pissed off, like you've copied our hip joint,
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Speaker 1: Like that's the official thing, and like you've copied her. Look,
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Speaker 1: you've copied her joint. I think the hip joint thing
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Speaker 1: was more of like an official patent issue. And they're like,
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Speaker 1: this is a blatant copy and you owe shit. So
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Speaker 1: a couple of years later it does get settled out
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Speaker 1: of court, but like, yeah, maybe don't steal an entire
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Speaker 1: dolls design. But you know, Barbie came to be. And
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Speaker 1: so Barbie is living her best life. She's just existing
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Speaker 1: life in plastic. Thing's fantastic. She's got loads of clothes,
14:24
Speaker 1: but where's she gonna put them? Where's she gonna live?
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Speaker 1: She needs a dream house. So there's this like fold
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Speaker 1: down I think it's cardboard like dream house that gets
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Speaker 1: released in is it sixty two or sixty three? And
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Speaker 1: it causes some issues it's sixty two, and it causes
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Speaker 1: some issues because her her dream house doesn't have a
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Speaker 1: kitchen because like the typical sort of women at the
14:55
Speaker 1: time was supposed to be like a good housewife, like
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Speaker 1: that was the purpose. And barb they didn't have a kitchen.
15:01
Speaker 1: What she did have was a high five stereo. She
15:07
Speaker 1: had mid century modern furniture. So she was just like
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Speaker 1: funky and partying and just an independent woman living her
15:14
Speaker 1: best life. So she's having a great time and some
15:18
Speaker 1: of the moms are really mad. So they're like really angry,
15:22
Speaker 1: not only because she looks like a woman, but like
15:25
Speaker 1: she's sixteen. She looks like a woman, but she's you know,
15:31
Speaker 1: doesn't have a husband. See one of the things people
15:34
Speaker 1: were worried about with Barbie is that she had like
15:37
Speaker 1: low morals and that she was just a single lady
15:39
Speaker 1: having a good time. And in nineteen sixty one, actually
15:43
Speaker 1: so teears after release, Ken was introduced Kenneth Sean Carson
15:49
Speaker 1: so like, and Ken exists as a companion to Barbie,
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Speaker 1: a friend, a boyfriend, like it's always aimed as a boyfriend, right,
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Speaker 1: He's just kind of there, although effectively he's just treated
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Speaker 1: like another accessory of Barbie's. This was to appease certain people, right.
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Speaker 1: And it is kind of weird though, because Ruth Handler's
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Speaker 1: kids are Barbara and Kenneth, and she named the dolls
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Speaker 1: Barbie and Ken and made them date. I'm just I'm
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Speaker 1: just saying it's weird. It's fine, but like even I
16:21
Speaker 1: think growing up they were like, ah, we didn't really
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Speaker 1: like it because we got a lot of unwanted attention,
16:26
Speaker 1: which is fair, don't disparage that. So yeah, Ninet's sixty one,
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Speaker 1: Ken makes his debut right in a swimsuit, like in
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Speaker 1: a wee shorts. That's beach I think that's where the
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Speaker 1: joke for beach Kin comes from. It's just he's in
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Speaker 1: shorts and he's there having the time of his life.
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Speaker 1: So like, the in universe story is that Ken and
16:47
Speaker 1: Barbie met on the set of a commercial, a fashion
16:52
Speaker 1: commercial or TV commercial, some kind of commercial. Right, they met, right,
16:56
Speaker 1: and that's how they got to know each other, and
16:58
Speaker 1: how Ken becomes one of Barbie's main friends boyfriend. And
17:03
Speaker 1: you'll see over the years that like people just sort
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Speaker 1: of appear in Barbie's life as a way of solving
17:11
Speaker 1: a problem, Like characters will be introduced to just kind
17:16
Speaker 1: of fill a gap, right, because the purpose of Barbie, right,
17:20
Speaker 1: she is an independent woman and you can imagine her
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Speaker 1: as anything. She can be a doctor, a surgeon, an astronaut,
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Speaker 1: a footballer, an artist, fashion designer, whatever, right, she can
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Speaker 1: have any queer she wants. But she's not tied down
17:36
Speaker 1: specifically to another person. Like Barbie will never get married.
17:40
Speaker 1: She'll wear a wedding dress, yes, but she will never
17:42
Speaker 1: get married. She will never have children. But and off again,
17:45
Speaker 1: on again boyfriend wasn't the only thing that Barbie needed
17:48
Speaker 1: in her life. Mittel decided that Barbie needed friends, and
17:53
Speaker 1: so nineteen sixty three, welcome Midge. Midge's like auburn haired
17:59
Speaker 1: and she's a bit more demure than Barbie is. So
18:03
Speaker 1: she's the same size, but she doesn't wear makeup, her
18:06
Speaker 1: hair isn't his fancy, she's she's a prim little lady.
18:11
Speaker 1: But you can also swap clothes. So like Medge had
18:14
Speaker 1: her own fashion line and Barbie had her own fashion line,
18:17
Speaker 1: Ken also has his own clothes so he can change
18:19
Speaker 1: into which is good because it'd be weird if he
18:21
Speaker 1: was consistently on a swimming costume. I'm just saying, So
18:26
Speaker 1: Medgie's introduced to like fill this gap. But one of
18:29
Speaker 1: the first Barbie controversies comes out in nineteen sixty three
18:35
Speaker 1: with slipover Barbie because she's got a little book and
18:39
Speaker 1: a set of scales, and you know what it said
18:42
Speaker 1: on that tiny little book and Barbie's tiny little arms
18:46
Speaker 1: don't eat like that. That was so to children. Good job, Mattel.
18:53
Speaker 1: And in nineteen sixty four, Skipper was introduced, who is
18:58
Speaker 1: like the teenage young sister with Barbie. So again Skipper
19:02
Speaker 1: is introduced to be slightly younger. She's gotten more of
19:06
Speaker 1: a girly shape. I think she's only to be like
19:09
Speaker 1: twelve or fourteen or something. I mean, part of it
19:12
Speaker 1: is obviously sell more toys, like, that's the purpose of
19:14
Speaker 1: a toy company. It's sell more toys, sell more versions,
19:18
Speaker 1: and sell all their accessories and things like that. But
19:21
Speaker 1: you know, being based on a sexy doll does make
19:24
Speaker 1: Barbie a wee bit sexy, and by bringing these characters
19:28
Speaker 1: it sort of makes it more acceptable. So this joke
19:32
Speaker 1: starts getting like pallid around and it's about how Ken
19:35
Speaker 1: is queer coded, right, and Mattel does not help themselves
19:39
Speaker 1: in the matter because in nineteen sixty four they give
19:43
Speaker 1: Ken his own special friend, Alan, Alan can fit into
19:48
Speaker 1: Ken's clothes and they share clothes, and that's like, that's
19:52
Speaker 1: the selling point of Alan, who is just Ken's special friend.
19:59
Speaker 1: But you remember, Barbie is an independent woman and also patriotic.
20:04
Speaker 1: Because this is during the Cold War, there's a space
20:07
Speaker 1: race going on, so before you know, the USA sends
20:13
Speaker 1: men to the moon, Barbie goes to space nineteen sixty five.
20:17
Speaker 1: Barbie is an astronaut, and I think this is actually
20:21
Speaker 1: before women were allowed to go to space. So go you, Barbie,
20:26
Speaker 1: actually fuck those boys, but don't actually fuck those boys,
20:29
Speaker 1: because I feel like that's illegal and also kind of creepy.
20:32
Speaker 1: And by that I mean misogynistic astronauts. You leave buzz
20:35
Speaker 1: Aldren alone. I am fairly certain he's not a dick.
20:38
Speaker 1: Leave him alone. So we're in the swinging sixties, right,
20:41
Speaker 1: She's been an astronaut, and Barbie again, she still kind
20:44
Speaker 1: of looks awey bit like an nineteen fifties housewife, so
20:46
Speaker 1: she's looking a wee bit uncool to these like ninety
20:49
Speaker 1: twelve year old girls, which is like Mattel's like core
20:53
Speaker 1: group at this point. And so they start bringing in
20:56
Speaker 1: like this British Maude influence. So barbe Bay gets a cousin,
21:02
Speaker 1: her mod cousin, Francie from Britain. I don't know why
21:09
Speaker 1: I made her like a really crappy dick van Dyke
21:11
Speaker 1: like Cockney. Could have made her from Liverpool, could be
21:17
Speaker 1: from Liverpool, she could be from there on no Castle
21:21
Speaker 1: or Welsh or she could even be from up North,
21:24
Speaker 1: you know. But yeah, Francie, she's away a bit skinnier
21:27
Speaker 1: than Barbie is, so she doesn't quite fit into Barbie's clothes.
21:31
Speaker 1: But luckily Francie has a friend Casey, who is also
21:35
Speaker 1: skinny and fits into Francie's clothes. Wow, what a crazy
21:40
Speaker 1: random happens stands how serendipitous. So instead of updating like
21:47
Speaker 1: Medge and Allen and making them cooler, they decide to
21:50
Speaker 1: just like sweep them under the rug, partially because they
21:54
Speaker 1: decide to make Kennewy bit buffer, you know, cooler, tougher
21:58
Speaker 1: like a Gli Joe, and Alan can't share his clothes anymore.
22:02
Speaker 1: It's that he's going to go and Midge's boring now,
22:04
Speaker 1: so that she's going to go here. And remember that
22:07
Speaker 1: wee bit of racism we were mentioned earlier. So they
22:10
Speaker 1: release what is known as Black Francie, and it's basically
22:16
Speaker 1: the same mold as the Francie doll, but they've just
22:20
Speaker 1: made it a woman of color, but she has the
22:23
Speaker 1: same features as someone of the Caucasian persuasions. So it's
22:27
Speaker 1: not quite right, but it's it's kind of like a
22:30
Speaker 1: tiny half step in the right direction. And I think
22:34
Speaker 1: this is round about the time that the very first
22:36
Speaker 1: sort of celebrity barbie is released, because they release like
22:39
Speaker 1: a Twiggy Barbie. Like Twiggy is like the first working
22:43
Speaker 1: class super model. Maybe she's the first supermodel, but she's
22:46
Speaker 1: definitely the first working class super model, right, And there's
22:49
Speaker 1: this brilliant sort of interview with Woody Allen where he's
22:53
Speaker 1: trying to make her seem dumb, and it's really really
22:58
Speaker 1: brilliant because she owns him by just showing up his
23:02
Speaker 1: pseudo intellectualism. It's fantastic. It's an absolute delight. I suggest
23:05
Speaker 1: to watch it. But yeah, Twiggy is the celebrity doll,
23:07
Speaker 1: and it is massive. Now. I'm not sure if Black
23:10
Speaker 1: Francie is supposed to be like a friend of a
23:15
Speaker 1: Francie in the other one, or whether Black Fancy is
23:19
Speaker 1: also supposed to be a cousin of Barbie, but anyway,
23:23
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight, Barbie gets her very own black friend, Christy,
23:28
Speaker 1: who still doesn't quite have African American features. She has
23:33
Speaker 1: a mad hairstyle and a funky swimsuit. I fucking love it.
23:36
Speaker 1: It's gorgeous. There's just so much color. God, I want
23:39
Speaker 1: one the doll of the suit. I will take either,
23:42
Speaker 1: thank you. And the very next year, Barbie gains two
23:45
Speaker 1: more friends, one being Brad, who's Christy's boyfriend. So I
23:49
Speaker 1: guess it's maybe like a double dating scenario with like
23:52
Speaker 1: Ken and Brad and Christy and Barbie. Maybe maybe, Yeah,
23:58
Speaker 1: so you've got them, And then Pete, who you know,
24:02
Speaker 1: looks a lot like Midge, but with more makeup on.
24:07
Speaker 1: So remember when I mentioned earlier about how Barbie you know,
24:10
Speaker 1: was never gonna have kids and never get married. So
24:12
Speaker 1: in order to sort of bridge this week gap of
24:15
Speaker 1: why there are no infants around, Barbie gets more siblings
24:21
Speaker 1: who are much younger than her and Skipper, and it's
24:24
Speaker 1: Totty and Todd. These were twins, so at some point
24:29
Speaker 1: I can't remember whening the lore, but like, Barbie gets parents,
24:33
Speaker 1: and these parents are George Roberts and Margaret Roling Roberts.
24:38
Speaker 1: So those are her parents who apparently like having children.
24:45
Speaker 1: I don't know why there was such a massive gap
24:47
Speaker 1: between Todd and Toutty and Skipper, but there we go.
24:51
Speaker 1: Maybe George walked over seas, maybe Margaret was just sick
24:55
Speaker 1: of his shit, or you know, maybe they had like
24:57
Speaker 1: the Barbie equivalent of IVF to say, it's nineteen seventy
25:02
Speaker 1: one and things are about to get groovy because Barbie
25:07
Speaker 1: gets kiried out with her own camper van. It is
25:10
Speaker 1: pretty sweet. It's like yellow, like a wet top. It's
25:13
Speaker 1: got like a rainbow motif on the side, a pop
25:16
Speaker 1: up tent, it's got sleeping bags. So Barbie in her
25:19
Speaker 1: pals to just go out and adventure and see the
25:22
Speaker 1: world and just have a good fun time. But this
25:26
Speaker 1: sweek new ride is not the only thing that Barbie gets.
25:28
Speaker 1: Oh no, she gets a new look. So instead of
25:32
Speaker 1: her little sultry side eye, she starts looking forward, which
25:36
Speaker 1: ends up being the very last creative decision that Ruth
25:39
Speaker 1: Handler makes on her beloved Barbie, because three years later,
25:44
Speaker 1: both her and her husband Elliott are removed from Mattel
25:48
Speaker 1: because investigators discovered that they had not been quite true
25:54
Speaker 1: with some money stuff. I think the actual quote was
25:59
Speaker 1: had provided false and misleading financial reports. So I'm not
26:04
Speaker 1: sure whether it was because they said they were doing
26:07
Speaker 1: better than they were or that they were doing worse
26:09
Speaker 1: than they were and they were siphoning off something to decide.
26:12
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what was going on, but they were
26:16
Speaker 1: removed from their posts. So nineteen seventy four, Ruth Handler
26:20
Speaker 1: is out, and I don't know who is the driving
26:23
Speaker 1: force behind Barbie at this point, but they decide to
26:27
Speaker 1: release a skipper called Growing Up Skipper in nineteen seventy five,
26:32
Speaker 1: and what happens here is Barbie's little sister, you would
26:39
Speaker 1: you would give me away pump right, and she would
26:43
Speaker 1: grow and she would grow breasts naturally. This did not
26:50
Speaker 1: go down well with parents. I don't know how it
26:55
Speaker 1: went down with Barbie, but it did not go down
26:57
Speaker 1: with parents. Roll on to nineteen eighty and instead of
27:03
Speaker 1: just having a token friend of color, two Barbies are released,
27:07
Speaker 1: a Latina Barbie and an African American Barbie. And I
27:12
Speaker 1: don't know who's in charge of the fashion, but whoever is,
27:14
Speaker 1: they gave the African American Barbie the best outfit. It's
27:18
Speaker 1: like this, like Egyptian neckline. It's so eighties. I am obsessed.
27:25
Speaker 1: So while Barbie's out there living her best life, just
27:27
Speaker 1: trying to do what she does, Mattel decides to venture
27:32
Speaker 1: into video games and it does not go well, and
27:36
Speaker 1: the company is basically on the verge of bankruptcy. It's
27:40
Speaker 1: it's not done well. But you know what Barbie says,
27:43
Speaker 1: and I'm paraphrasing here, but she says, fuck that for
27:45
Speaker 1: a game of soldiers. I'm gonna collaborate with one of
27:48
Speaker 1: the most famous fashion designers on the planet, Oscar de
27:51
Speaker 1: la Grina, And so they released these beautiful jewel toned,
27:56
Speaker 1: gorgeous like line of just beautiful fashion, so beautiful, and
28:01
Speaker 1: it's like nineteen eighty four, it's fantastic, And this sort
28:04
Speaker 1: of gives a resurgent back into like the fashion part
28:07
Speaker 1: of Barbie, because the following year it's like CEO Barbie.
28:12
Speaker 1: It's the day to night. I don't know if you've
28:15
Speaker 1: seen like the press tour with Margot Robbie wearing the
28:18
Speaker 1: outfit with Versace. It is fucking gorgeous and I'm obsessed
28:23
Speaker 1: with it. I would wear it. I love pink though,
28:26
Speaker 1: I do love pink clothes. I love pink everything. My
28:29
Speaker 1: hair is currently half pink, half tangerine, so I like pink.
28:34
Speaker 1: So she's wearing this gorgeous outfit and it's this like
28:39
Speaker 1: pink like suit with like a skirt and it goes
28:42
Speaker 1: into like this fashion sparkly night outfit. It is an
28:47
Speaker 1: absolute delight. So in nineteen eighty five as well, they
28:50
Speaker 1: diversify a little bit more as well. So you've also
28:53
Speaker 1: got Kira, who's meant to be Nadi of Hawaiian, Miko
28:56
Speaker 1: who's Asian American, and in like Europe, she was known
29:01
Speaker 1: as Marina, and like this was part of like the
29:03
Speaker 1: tropical Barbie range, and this was around but at the
29:07
Speaker 1: same time as Barbie launching this we Can Do Anything campaign,
29:11
Speaker 1: and it's basically telling girls that they can be anything,
29:15
Speaker 1: like with Barbie, you can be anything, sort of reaffirming
29:21
Speaker 1: this concept of seeing yourself in Barbie, of Barbie representing you.
29:27
Speaker 1: You know, you can be anything, just like Barbie. And
29:32
Speaker 1: it is huge. So I am sitting in what I
29:35
Speaker 1: think is the noisiest chair in the world, and I
29:39
Speaker 1: don't know if it's like being picked up on the mic.
29:41
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. The very next year, Barbie gets like
29:45
Speaker 1: solidified in pop culture history, or at least pop art history,
29:50
Speaker 1: because Andy Warhol does a painting of Barbie. Now it
29:54
Speaker 1: was supposed to be of this like jewelry designer, but
29:57
Speaker 1: she was like, I have a massive barb recollection. I
30:01
Speaker 1: love Barbie, I am Barbie, so don't paint me. Paint
30:04
Speaker 1: Barbie and Andy Warhol being Andy Warhol did and so
30:10
Speaker 1: we have reached the nineteen nineties, or as I like
30:12
Speaker 1: to tell everyone, the late nineteen hundreds. And in nineteen
30:17
Speaker 1: ninety Bob McKie, the costume designer, collaborates with Barbie and
30:23
Speaker 1: these dogs. I think they're going for like five grand.
30:26
Speaker 1: Now they are just stunning. They're very extra, but they
30:31
Speaker 1: are gorgeous. And nineteen ninety two becomes the start of
30:37
Speaker 1: an era for Barbie because Barbie starts running for president.
30:43
Speaker 1: Like every single like electoral term in the US, Barbie
30:49
Speaker 1: runs for president. So like since nineteen ninety two, like
30:54
Speaker 1: every electoral term, Barbie Barbie's run is for president, like
30:59
Speaker 1: I think it's seven times now and she's and I
31:03
Speaker 1: think the last time she actually went on a campaign
31:05
Speaker 1: trail and there was like a woman only ballot, which
31:10
Speaker 1: was really fun but really annoyed some very very staunch conservatives.
31:15
Speaker 1: It means place. It's in the kitchen, sweetie, that is
31:19
Speaker 1: where the knives are. Like the nineteen ninety Jo Barbie
31:22
Speaker 1: has this like American theme dress for like the ball
31:25
Speaker 1: and everything, and then I think it was at twenty sixteen,
31:30
Speaker 1: there's even like like a vice President Barbie, Like there's
31:34
Speaker 1: a full president vice president, like a whole fucking team
31:39
Speaker 1: Brian a bloody lovet. Now I'm not saying that President
31:42
Speaker 1: Barbie is not cool, but totally hair Barbie is totally cool.
31:48
Speaker 1: So it's like the best selling Barbie to date, I
31:52
Speaker 1: think it's like the most popular Barbie that's ever existed.
31:57
Speaker 1: She's in this like brightly colored swirly dress. It's very
32:02
Speaker 1: in right now. If you look at sort of people
32:05
Speaker 1: who are wearing like nineties fashion, they're like very much
32:07
Speaker 1: wearing this bold, like swirly printed outfit. So she's got
32:13
Speaker 1: like crimped hair, and I'm trying to remember if she's
32:18
Speaker 1: the one that had the hair that came off, because
32:21
Speaker 1: there was a Barbie that you had like a velco
32:25
Speaker 1: bit on the back of the head where they just
32:27
Speaker 1: like stick extra hair on, and there was one where
32:30
Speaker 1: you would like pump the back and more hair would
32:33
Speaker 1: come out. I wonder if that's the same one, or
32:36
Speaker 1: if if I just having a fever dream. I mean,
32:39
Speaker 1: it's a really good thing that that barbie did so
32:41
Speaker 1: well because the same year they released teen Talk Barbie.
32:46
Speaker 1: So there was like two hundred and seventy voice options,
32:49
Speaker 1: and it had four sort of voice things it would say,
32:54
Speaker 1: so you'd press the button, it would say like four phrases.
32:57
Speaker 1: And because there was two hundred and seventy phrases, they
33:00
Speaker 1: were all sort of different dolls would say different things.
33:04
Speaker 1: So it made the doll more collectible because you wanted
33:05
Speaker 1: to have all the phrases right, but like one of
33:09
Speaker 1: the phrases is like matth is hard. And this whole
33:14
Speaker 1: thing inspired a Simpsons episode about Malibus Stacy where they
33:19
Speaker 1: try to make Malibu Stacey's like alternative smart doll and
33:24
Speaker 1: it's like the same dolls released by Malibus Stacey, except
33:28
Speaker 1: it's got a hat, and it's everyone goes for the
33:32
Speaker 1: hat because it's a gimmick. It's it's It's true though
33:36
Speaker 1: I would buy something if I had a hat. I'm
33:40
Speaker 1: so shallow sometimes and I like I like things. That
33:44
Speaker 1: being said, if anyone ever gets me like a retro
33:47
Speaker 1: care bear, I will love you forever. That's just That's
33:50
Speaker 1: just how it is. I like retro things. Clearly, I'm
33:55
Speaker 1: desperate for simpler times, Like when Barbie freaked everyone out.
34:00
Speaker 1: They still do so. Then five years later, more controversies arise,
34:06
Speaker 1: and by more I mean at least two, so the
34:10
Speaker 1: first one being well hit. I put this see Mattel
34:15
Speaker 1: and Barbie. They're trying to diversify, right, but they don't
34:20
Speaker 1: quite do the right research, they don't talk to the
34:23
Speaker 1: right people, and they don't quite stick the landing. See
34:28
Speaker 1: here's the thing. For the past like seven years, Barbie
34:31
Speaker 1: had been you know, working with African American focus groups
34:35
Speaker 1: to like remodel like the black Barbie's features to be
34:39
Speaker 1: you know, that of a woman of color and not
34:42
Speaker 1: just you know, Malibu Barbie. So it's a way shame
34:47
Speaker 1: they didn't also talk to these focus groups when they
34:50
Speaker 1: decided to collaborate with the whole Cookie Crackers situation, so
34:56
Speaker 1: they released these Barbies. There was an Oreo Barbee who
35:03
Speaker 1: was black under Ritz Cracker Barbie who was white. Now
35:10
Speaker 1: Mattel claims that no one, no one from like conception
35:16
Speaker 1: to production to sail picked up on the fact that
35:22
Speaker 1: both of these are slurs. Like I'm not laughing at slurs,
35:28
Speaker 1: I'm laughing at the idiocy of every single level of Mattel,
35:34
Speaker 1: which is clearly full of just yes men. And like
35:39
Speaker 1: Orio is a very cross term. It's a very good
35:42
Speaker 1: way of describing a person of color. It's basically saying
35:46
Speaker 1: that they're black on the outside, way on the inside,
35:48
Speaker 1: like they have no cultural heritage. You know, you know what, No,
35:52
Speaker 1: that's me getting my timeline mixed up. That happened in
35:54
Speaker 1: two thousand and one when they did the Nibisco like deal. Initially,
36:00
Speaker 1: when they released the Oreo Fun Time Barbie, they only
36:03
Speaker 1: released like a White Barbie the first time, which still
36:07
Speaker 1: a little weird. But it was two thousand and one
36:09
Speaker 1: when they released the other like collection of Barbie's But
36:14
Speaker 1: like I said, that was not the only controversy. Do
36:17
Speaker 1: you hit Barbie in nineteen ninety seven because they created Becky.
36:22
Speaker 1: Becky's mold was basically Skippers was still Skippers like face,
36:28
Speaker 1: but they gave her different hair. So Becky is disabled,
36:32
Speaker 1: Becky is in a wheelchair, and the issue with Becky
36:37
Speaker 1: is that Becky didn't fit into Barbie's world. Barbie's world
36:43
Speaker 1: could not accommodate Becky. So the wheelchair couldn't fit into
36:49
Speaker 1: the elevator of the dream House, she couldn't fit into
36:52
Speaker 1: Barbie's car. There was just all this stuff that nobody
36:57
Speaker 1: thought about in the planning process. It's like, oh, yeah,
37:01
Speaker 1: we'll just put on a wheelchair. It's fine, not maybe
37:04
Speaker 1: figure out how this will adapt with the system we
37:08
Speaker 1: already have in place. So like Michel took this on
37:11
Speaker 1: board and they ended up like redesigning the Barbie dream
37:15
Speaker 1: House to like fit the wheelchair and stuff. But Becky,
37:19
Speaker 1: Becky gets pulled. Things don't go well for Becky. But yeah,
37:23
Speaker 1: they didn't actually do that, and Becky just vanished a
37:29
Speaker 1: lot like her siblings. So yeah, we're in the millennium.
37:36
Speaker 1: It's two thousand and one. We have our Orio School
37:40
Speaker 1: fun Time Barbie situation that's bad, and it doesn't actually
37:46
Speaker 1: cause as much controversy as in two thousand and three
37:49
Speaker 1: when Midge is back and so is Alan. So Midge
37:55
Speaker 1: and Alan they get married, right, And then in two
37:59
Speaker 1: thousand and three they release a Midge doll where Midge
38:05
Speaker 1: is pregnant, right, So the whole concept is that Midge
38:08
Speaker 1: and Alan are grown up adults as opposed to non
38:12
Speaker 1: grown up adults, and she's pregnant and she gives birth. Well,
38:15
Speaker 1: it doesn't like she had two tommies and one was
38:19
Speaker 1: sort of rounder and the baby was in it, and
38:21
Speaker 1: then one was like flat and you took the baby
38:23
Speaker 1: out Like that's it was like a big massive deal
38:27
Speaker 1: in midges in a real lavender dress and her moomo.
38:32
Speaker 1: It like caused such a stink. People really freaked out
38:35
Speaker 1: about it because they were like, it's promoting teen pregnancy
38:38
Speaker 1: and it's like they're they're adults, they're married they're fine,
38:44
Speaker 1: And in two thousand and four we have some more
38:47
Speaker 1: Barbie in Ken controversy. But I just realized there's a
38:51
Speaker 1: bunch of funny stuff about Ken I didn't mention so
38:55
Speaker 1: back when Ken was first released, right with Handler gets
38:59
Speaker 1: into this like little tiff with sort of the higher
39:01
Speaker 1: ups at Mattel right because she's demanding that Ken be
39:08
Speaker 1: slightly more anatomically correct. They want like a bulge in
39:11
Speaker 1: the crotch area, and she does win initially, but when
39:15
Speaker 1: the doll is in Japan and they're trying to get
39:18
Speaker 1: like the clothes on it, like the shorts would not
39:22
Speaker 1: go on Kin because of this bulge, so they had
39:25
Speaker 1: to sort of make him a unick. And this was
39:29
Speaker 1: like for two reasons. Obviously the practical thing of getting
39:32
Speaker 1: like the trousers on or the shorts on, but also
39:34
Speaker 1: they realized they would save like so many cents for
39:37
Speaker 1: every every doll they made by not having this bulge.
39:41
Speaker 1: So it all worked out in the end. But as
39:43
Speaker 1: I was saying it before, that Ken is basically queer coded,
39:47
Speaker 1: and I don't know if this was a deliberate thing
39:49
Speaker 1: people did just for fun, but like at one point
39:54
Speaker 1: in the eighties, they have him in this like God
40:00
Speaker 1: and this outfit, this leather looking outfit, right, and his
40:05
Speaker 1: necklace is a cock ring. I again, I guess everybody
40:13
Speaker 1: Mattel was really sheltered or somebody knew what it was
40:15
Speaker 1: and was like, I'm not telling them what it is
40:17
Speaker 1: because they're going to know too much about me, because
40:19
Speaker 1: this is this is not a good era to be
40:22
Speaker 1: mentioned in this, right. And then like in the nineties,
40:26
Speaker 1: they created this shaving Ken. So Ken has a beard
40:31
Speaker 1: which you would like, you had this little like razor,
40:34
Speaker 1: but it was a sponge and you would get it
40:36
Speaker 1: wet and it would make his beard disappear. So Ken
40:41
Speaker 1: had a disappearing, reappearing beard. So clearly Barbie's had enough
40:47
Speaker 1: of this nonsense, right, And in two thousand and four,
40:51
Speaker 1: Barbie and Ken break up, right, it is over between them,
40:56
Speaker 1: And I mean Ken is clearly heartfel because she's Barbie
41:01
Speaker 1: and he's just Ken. And so in Barbie she gets
41:07
Speaker 1: a rebound boyfriend, a surfer called Blaine, and it's Anderson,
41:12
Speaker 1: but Blaine the surfer. So initially Ken was beach. He
41:18
Speaker 1: was beach Ken, he was you know, at the beach,
41:22
Speaker 1: Ala Beach. And I'm just saying that it's interesting that
41:26
Speaker 1: Barbie chose to have a rebound with someone who is
41:30
Speaker 1: of the beach. So her and Blaine are dating or
41:34
Speaker 1: whatever anatomically incorrect dolls do. And Ken is clearly not
41:39
Speaker 1: happy with this, so he does what any man from
41:42
Speaker 1: a two thousand rom com would do, and that is
41:46
Speaker 1: trying to win her back using billboards, billboards, and there's
41:51
Speaker 1: this massive campaign and then Barbie and Ken get back
41:56
Speaker 1: together just in time for Valentine's Day. My oh my,
42:01
Speaker 1: isn't love grand? So Barbie turns fifty. It's two thousand
42:07
Speaker 1: and nine, and in celebration, there's this New York Fashion
42:12
Speaker 1: Week runway show, right, and all of these like massive
42:16
Speaker 1: designers they create like hope cuture looks for these Barbies,
42:20
Speaker 1: and then they also make like life size like outfits.
42:25
Speaker 1: So this show goes on and it is just the
42:28
Speaker 1: talk of the town. But like the other thing Barbie
42:31
Speaker 1: does that year is it creates the so in style range.
42:36
Speaker 1: And this is where they actually listen to the African
42:40
Speaker 1: American focus groups, and so they have a range of
42:42
Speaker 1: like facial features, shape sizes, styles, and it's all very
42:47
Speaker 1: much related to women of color. So Barbie's for Bam
42:52
Speaker 1: in poc and for one glorious year. Things are going
42:56
Speaker 1: really well for Barbie. But in twenty ten release a
43:00
Speaker 1: sticker book like computer Engineer Barbie, and like nobody really
43:04
Speaker 1: looked at it for a while, But in twenty fourteen
43:08
Speaker 1: someone did a computer Engineer in fact and she noticed
43:12
Speaker 1: that in this book, Barbie is like trying to design
43:14
Speaker 1: this video game, but that what happens is she accidentally
43:19
Speaker 1: releases a virus or creates a virus, and she has
43:22
Speaker 1: to get help from the men to fix it and
43:25
Speaker 1: help her finish her video game. It's this engineer. She
43:28
Speaker 1: ends up putting it online and then all these other
43:30
Speaker 1: coders come in and they go in and they start
43:32
Speaker 1: rewriting the code and fixing it for Barbie. And in
43:35
Speaker 1: a way, it's nice that people came together, like they
43:38
Speaker 1: made this like feminist hacker Barbie app It was absolutely amazing.
43:43
Speaker 1: So back to twenty ten, in Mattel released a Barbie
43:46
Speaker 1: doll that freaked parents the fuck out. So it was
43:52
Speaker 1: video Girl Barbie. So it's basically a Barbie doll with
43:56
Speaker 1: a camera in it and it could record was like
43:59
Speaker 1: half an hour thirty minute, so footage and it could
44:01
Speaker 1: be streamed to a computer. So this memo goes out
44:04
Speaker 1: to like law enforcement agencies and stuff, basically saying don't
44:08
Speaker 1: disregard this as a toy because there is a slight
44:12
Speaker 1: possibility that this could have evidence of assaults, molestation, things
44:19
Speaker 1: like that. So it's just like a warning. So this
44:22
Speaker 1: release or this information gets lead to the press and
44:27
Speaker 1: parents go nuts, and it's like it's not saying people
44:32
Speaker 1: are going to hack into your little Barbie cam. They're
44:34
Speaker 1: saying that don't disregard this evidence. So that was a
44:39
Speaker 1: whole thing. So in twenty twelve, Mattel released this friend
44:45
Speaker 1: for Barbie called Ella. Ella is Bald because Ella's going
44:48
Speaker 1: through chemotherapy. There was a limited number of these dolls
44:52
Speaker 1: and they were given directly to hospitals. But then this
44:56
Speaker 1: cancer patient's mum petition Mattel saying that these need to
45:01
Speaker 1: be available for wide of release, and in twenty fourteen
45:04
Speaker 1: they did also in twenty fourteen, which I think is
45:07
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing of all out of everything, this still
45:10
Speaker 1: is weird to me. Barbie makes it onto the cover
45:13
Speaker 1: of Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated like the cover and she's
45:19
Speaker 1: in this like remake of or a redesign of like
45:22
Speaker 1: the black and white like original swimsuit, Like it's okay,
45:27
Speaker 1: that happened, you know, another thing to happen that year.
45:31
Speaker 1: Barbie just really rolls with the trends and becomes an influencer.
45:37
Speaker 1: Which it's kind of like fill circle really when you
45:39
Speaker 1: think about it, because she was like a teenage fashion
45:41
Speaker 1: model and now she's an influencer with her own Barbie
45:45
Speaker 1: Style Instagram account, and it is so popular, like people
45:51
Speaker 1: are going mad for this, They're obsessed, And honestly, I
45:58
Speaker 1: don't know who's in charge of the Barbie Style Instagram account,
46:01
Speaker 1: but like a lot of the time, it's hits not missus.
46:05
Speaker 1: That being said, it does miss occasionally, because in twenty eighteen,
46:12
Speaker 1: they released this photo of a Barbie with like cornas
46:17
Speaker 1: like on a wee bit and like a massive blonde
46:18
Speaker 1: weave on the other side, and a lot of women
46:22
Speaker 1: of color were very mad of that because it looked
46:24
Speaker 1: like she hadn't like finished her hair or they were
46:28
Speaker 1: just really really unhappy with it. Like clearly no one
46:31
Speaker 1: was consulted. Somebody saw one photo of somebody doing that
46:34
Speaker 1: one time and they were like, we're going to recreate this,
46:37
Speaker 1: but yeah, it didn't go down well. But back to
46:40
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, Barbie is also vlogging, so she's like got
46:45
Speaker 1: her own channel and she is talking like to the camera,
46:49
Speaker 1: and she's talking about serious issues like she talks about
46:53
Speaker 1: like billying and depression, and you know, instart to be
47:00
Speaker 1: a bit more again of this like role model again,
47:02
Speaker 1: where it's about challenging certain norms like girls often apologizing
47:07
Speaker 1: even when they've done nothing wrong, like things like that,
47:10
Speaker 1: and it's like very very healthy actually in a pretty
47:13
Speaker 1: decent thing. But that's not the only thing they did.
47:15
Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen. They created like a Barbie Hiros and
47:19
Speaker 1: it was about women who were like breaking barriers and boundaries,
47:23
Speaker 1: and so there was one was created for each like Shiro.
47:29
Speaker 1: So there was Kristin Chenow with Sydney Kaiser, Emmy rossum
47:35
Speaker 1: Eva de Verni, and Trishia Yearwood. And see the reason
47:38
Speaker 1: these kind of things are happening and the changes are
47:40
Speaker 1: being thick and fast is because the gen xers, right
47:44
Speaker 1: that we're playing with Barbies at like nine and twelve
47:46
Speaker 1: years old, like they're feeding into the nostalgia of it
47:50
Speaker 1: because of well, living through a series of historical events
47:54
Speaker 1: can be quite traumatic for people, and so they want
47:58
Speaker 1: to share something good with their children, and so they're
48:00
Speaker 1: buying Barbies, and they're buying them for like a younger demographic.
48:04
Speaker 1: So Barbie's original demographic was like nine to twelve year old,
48:09
Speaker 1: but like they're giving them to the much younger now.
48:13
Speaker 1: So they want to see change, they want to see representation,
48:18
Speaker 1: and that's another thing that Barbie does in twenty sixteen.
48:23
Speaker 1: It brings a selection of all of these different like
48:26
Speaker 1: body types, and of course, you know, a certain group
48:31
Speaker 1: of people were not happy about it because they wanted
48:34
Speaker 1: to keep the big bosomby blond Barbie and they were
48:37
Speaker 1: mad at anyone else having any form of representation because
48:41
Speaker 1: it's forced diversity, which is not a real fucking thing.
48:45
Speaker 1: Numb nuts. But anyway, it's fine. So there's like Carvy tall, Petite,
48:53
Speaker 1: there's all these different like shapes and sizes, and like
48:58
Speaker 1: it actually puts Barbie on the cover of because, yeah,
49:01
Speaker 1: mattel It's sales were going down and they really needed
49:05
Speaker 1: to shake things up if they wanted people to buy
49:07
Speaker 1: their product. So this line comes out. There's like twenty
49:10
Speaker 1: two eye colors. They say colors I feel like they
49:13
Speaker 1: mean shades. It's like light brown, dark brown, hazel black.
49:18
Speaker 1: You know, I pink, not pink. Pink's a stilly eye color, blue,
49:21
Speaker 1: dark blue, light blue, green, seafoam, you know. I feel
49:24
Speaker 1: like it's shades of colors. So there's like twenty two
49:27
Speaker 1: eye colors, seven skin tones, and twenty four hairstyles on all.
49:33
Speaker 1: So now it's like thirteen eye colors, ninety four hair colors.
49:38
Speaker 1: I don't know about styles, but hair colors. We have
49:42
Speaker 1: five body types and twenty two skin tones. So like
49:46
Speaker 1: it goes through a fairly decent range. Actually, and things
49:50
Speaker 1: are looking up. But they're really on a roll with
49:52
Speaker 1: Barbie and Mattel. Think International Women's Day twenty eighteen, this
49:56
Speaker 1: is it. We're going to promote hashtag more role models.
50:01
Speaker 1: It's gonna be fantastic. So they have all of these
50:05
Speaker 1: women from history are really important. You've got Chloe Kim
50:10
Speaker 1: Parry Jenkins, Catherine Johnson, Amelia Earhart and mister Copeland Iris
50:16
Speaker 1: at faull O. There's more other, so many more. Frida
50:19
Speaker 1: Calo Freda Carlo is the one I actually want to
50:21
Speaker 1: talk about because there's this legal battle that comes about
50:25
Speaker 1: because it turns out that Freda CALO's niece like illegally
50:31
Speaker 1: or illegitimately used the rights, so Mattel didn't actually have
50:39
Speaker 1: the likeness rights for Freda Calo, and so they really
50:42
Speaker 1: shouldn't have been making the doll. But that being said,
50:44
Speaker 1: the doll shouldn't have been made anyway, because Freda Calo
50:49
Speaker 1: was very anti capitalism, like I've got a whole episode
50:53
Speaker 1: on her, like you can go listen, but like she
50:56
Speaker 1: would have been really fucking pissed to see her face
50:58
Speaker 1: used in such a commercial. But yeah, that that happened.
51:03
Speaker 1: I think Mattel ended up suing the nise or something
51:05
Speaker 1: like that, but yeah, that was one of the things
51:07
Speaker 1: that happened. And in twenty nineteen, because it's Barbie's sixtieth anniversary,
51:12
Speaker 1: they redesigned the doll again, so like they slammer down
51:16
Speaker 1: a little bit, they reduce the bust, they give her
51:18
Speaker 1: toned arms, her waist is thicker, and they make her
51:21
Speaker 1: just a little bit more realistic, like they're like Barbie
51:25
Speaker 1: Barbie doll, which is nice. It's a good change. So
51:29
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, they start releasing these
51:33
Speaker 1: more she roll dolls, so You've got Naomi Osaka, Madison
51:39
Speaker 1: de Rosario, Kirby White, and Samantha Christopher Ready. So they've
51:45
Speaker 1: got all these different people from all these different sort
51:48
Speaker 1: of backgrounds. Like I think my mum was telling me actually,
51:52
Speaker 1: like she recently saw Barbie that had sort of a
51:55
Speaker 1: prosthetic leg. So like, you've got these Barbies now that
51:58
Speaker 1: actually have accouterments, you know, accessories that are relevant for
52:04
Speaker 1: their for their different needs. So again, girls of different
52:11
Speaker 1: like backgrounds and situations and accessibility needs, they can see
52:18
Speaker 1: themselves in Barbie. And again, I know it's capitalism. I
52:22
Speaker 1: know they're just trying to sell a doll to me,
52:24
Speaker 1: and the accessories and the funky pink Barbie socks I'm
52:29
Speaker 1: currently wearing. I know, and I know I fell for
52:32
Speaker 1: Hookline and Sinker. But if it is pushing companies to
52:36
Speaker 1: be more diverse, to show more options for women, for girls,
52:41
Speaker 1: to have them fund all these projects, then fucking yes,
52:45
Speaker 1: I will buy that merch and I will show them
52:49
Speaker 1: with my money because that's what they listen to, and
52:52
Speaker 1: I'll do it. And so Barbie has been here, Barbie
52:57
Speaker 1: has been happening. And I think now with the movie
53:01
Speaker 1: coming out in the resurgence of it, and just the
53:05
Speaker 1: ridiculously amazing marketing of Mattel for this whole thing. I
53:10
Speaker 1: think has just created another like Barbie resurgence. And I
53:13
Speaker 1: have a weird feeling that because of who is involved
53:16
Speaker 1: in this film, that it's going to become like a
53:19
Speaker 1: cult classic movie and it's probably gonna make me buy
53:24
Speaker 1: more pink clothes. I'm just just saying. But anyway, that
53:29
Speaker 1: is the history of Barbie. Thank you for listening. I'm
53:33
Speaker 1: glad you did so. If you liked my retelling of
53:38
Speaker 1: Barbie's timeline history stuff, feel afraid to write in review
53:43
Speaker 1: five stars and tell me if you ever got a
53:46
Speaker 1: Barbie and what your favorite Barbie was, because I want
53:49
Speaker 1: to know because I had a skipper, right, I had
53:53
Speaker 1: this skipper who came with like a blue hair, Misscara,
53:57
Speaker 1: and she had these pale blue like what was it?
54:00
Speaker 1: What was it? It was corduroy. She had pale blue
54:04
Speaker 1: corduroy dungaways and a little hat and this blue muscar.
54:08
Speaker 1: And I adored this doll. I wanted to have clothes
54:14
Speaker 1: like this doll. I actually would not say no to
54:18
Speaker 1: some like flared corduroy dungarees. I think I'd rock that,
54:23
Speaker 1: like I'd make it work because it came like in blue,
54:26
Speaker 1: and then I think she had a friend who like
54:28
Speaker 1: wore green and someone else who wore another color. But like,
54:31
Speaker 1: I loved that. Although I was originally a Cindy girl
54:34
Speaker 1: growing up, not a Barbie girl, but like, oh wait,
54:36
Speaker 1: I know Cindy had a jeep that had like a
54:39
Speaker 1: little roof thing that turned into like a jet ski.
54:42
Speaker 1: That was pretty sweet. But yeah, if you like the video,
54:46
Speaker 1: do't forget to rate and review five stars. I would
54:48
Speaker 1: love it very much, thank you. And it really helps
54:50
Speaker 1: me and the podcast and it helps make it up
54:53
Speaker 1: the charts and the ratings. I don't know how the
54:55
Speaker 1: algorithm works, but it does, so Spotify or Apple podc
55:00
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts, just yeah, and if
55:03
Speaker 1: you listen all the way to the end, it also
55:05
Speaker 1: really really helps my stats. It really really does. So
55:08
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk about Trova trip for like a hot minute.
55:11
Speaker 1: So what does a trip to Edinburgh that you be
55:13
Speaker 1: sharing with me? I actually I've been to Edinburgh once.
55:18
Speaker 1: Actually I've been to Edinburgh once in my life. And
55:19
Speaker 1: I'm literally flying over and flying back and like one
55:22
Speaker 1: day to go see my friend's comedy show Fringe, and
55:26
Speaker 1: then I'm flying back. I'm gonna have no sleep. It's fine,
55:29
Speaker 1: it's fine, but I'm not really gonna enjoy any like
55:33
Speaker 1: time in Edinburgh. So I'm actually really looking forward to
55:37
Speaker 1: this because I fucking love a castle. So it's a
55:42
Speaker 1: seven day trip. It's going to like four different locations.
55:46
Speaker 1: We're gonna have local guides, but you also have me
55:49
Speaker 1: your Trova trip host, so we're gonna have that and
55:53
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run for the list of everything we're doing. Okay,
55:56
Speaker 1: So there's an Edinburgh City Walking Tour, a castle one
56:00
Speaker 1: ad walk Edinburgh Castle Tour, Dunkeld State Village, Visit karen
56:05
Speaker 1: Gorm's National Park, Highland Folk Museum, Whiskey Distillery Tour and
56:09
Speaker 1: Testing Bonn Urn of Clava Visit Island, Dunham Castle, Visit
56:14
Speaker 1: the Isle of Sky Tour, Armada Castle, Visit Museum of
56:17
Speaker 1: the Isles, Saint Conan's kirk Coln Castle. And that's the
56:23
Speaker 1: locked and loaded itinerary, right, So there's six breakfasts, two dinners,
56:27
Speaker 1: but I will find really good places for us to
56:30
Speaker 1: eat because I speak the Lingo or at the very
56:34
Speaker 1: least I can understand the lingo because I don't live there.
56:37
Speaker 1: I live in Ireland, right, And yeah, I'm gonna do
56:41
Speaker 1: like we hang out on one of the nights, and
56:44
Speaker 1: I'm even gonna do like a dark and twisted history tour,
56:49
Speaker 1: and I'm currently working on like a live like podcast
56:53
Speaker 1: as well, but that's I'm trying to work that out. Otherwise,
56:57
Speaker 1: I'm I just be telling you stories. Let me tell
57:01
Speaker 1: you about the Battle of Colode and just like going off,
57:05
Speaker 1: let me tell you what Outlander got right and got wrong.
57:09
Speaker 1: So it is normally it's normally three four hundred and
57:14
Speaker 1: forty five dollars in total, but the first like eight
57:18
Speaker 1: people get an early bird price and they get two
57:22
Speaker 1: hundred dollars off, so it's three thousand, two hundred and
57:24
Speaker 1: forty five. So you're in like three star hotels. All
57:29
Speaker 1: the city transfers are covered, like the airport like transfer
57:33
Speaker 1: is covered as well, so that's pretty neat. So like
57:37
Speaker 1: for example, if you fly into Glasgow, it'll take you
57:40
Speaker 1: to Edinburgh, or if you fly into London, you can
57:42
Speaker 1: get up to Edinburgh. Like you're not going to be
57:45
Speaker 1: stuck in another part of the country. It's pretty cool.
57:47
Speaker 1: So if you are interested in that and hanging out
57:49
Speaker 1: with me and having just a fucking cool time, there's
57:52
Speaker 1: a wee link in the description down below, and it's
57:55
Speaker 1: on all my socials and it'll be really cool because
57:59
Speaker 1: once people start like adding on to it, then we
58:04
Speaker 1: can have like a proper chat and we can plan
58:06
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do, and we can like maybe do
58:08
Speaker 1: like a pub quiz and shit places, because I think
58:11
Speaker 1: it'd be really fun just to do some like proper
58:14
Speaker 1: local stuff, because like there's loads of places in Scotland
58:17
Speaker 1: I haven't been to, and like I've only been to
58:21
Speaker 1: Edinburgh on this list, I don't think I've been to
58:22
Speaker 1: anywhere else. So I think it's gonna be just so
58:25
Speaker 1: fucking fun. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. But a
58:29
Speaker 1: recommendation time obviously recommendation time. So reading, I was rereading
58:35
Speaker 1: Jeanette McCarthy's I'm Glad my Mom Died like or my
58:39
Speaker 1: Mom's Dead like. I loved it. It's poignant and dark
58:43
Speaker 1: and it is funny, but you have to like have
58:47
Speaker 1: that dark humber within you to like relate to it.
58:49
Speaker 1: I think otherwise you might just feel sad. But that's
58:53
Speaker 1: our reading recommendation. Our watching recommendation is I'm I'm gonna
58:58
Speaker 1: recommend you go watch the Barbie movie. And for listening,
59:01
Speaker 1: I am going to recommend if you're into true crime
59:04
Speaker 1: at all and you want people that are victim first
59:07
Speaker 1: and really just good people, I'm going to recommend murder
59:12
Speaker 1: most Irish. Now, they can get a bit chatty at
59:16
Speaker 1: the beginning of an episode, like me, but they're always considerate,
59:22
Speaker 1: thoughtful and respectful to like victims, victims' families. But you
59:26
Speaker 1: know they're not afraid when it comes to perpetrators to
59:28
Speaker 1: call it dick a dick. And that is everything for today.
59:32
Speaker 1: So I am going to say farewell to you until
59:37
Speaker 1: next time. Are you els au revoir as in my friends,
59:42
Speaker 1: Bye bye