Barbie: The world’s greatest influencer? | DW Documentary
She’s available in all skin colors, she’s diverse and inclusive. Created by businesswoman Ruth Handler, unveiled in New York in 1959, Barbie’s long been a money-maker. With millions of followers on Instagram, she’s now an influencer, too.
The documentary dives into the world of Barbie content creators, meets the most famous collector (who owns 18,500 dolls), and speaks to fans and feminists. Barbie: the first doll with her own career. Still, she’s an object of love and hate. More than any other toy.
Barbie was a president and an astronaut, long before reality caught up. More recently, Barbie starred in her very own Hollywood movie, putting the whole world in pink Barbie fever. But what few people know: Barbie was invented in the 1950s by an ambitious businesswoman named Ruth Handler, an American immigrant with Jewish-Polish heritage. Together with her husband and a friend, Handler founded the toy company Mattel.
On a trip to Europe, she discovered a doll: Lilli, sold by a major tabloid newspaper. For the first time, Handler set eyes on an adult doll with her own style. Handler immediately recognized the sales potential. Up to that point, girls were limited to playing with baby dolls that served to prepare them for motherhood.
Barbie was unveiled at the 1959 New York toy fair. Mattel sold around 350,000 in the first year alone. The Barbie universe was born. The concept was coherent and economical. And, as a woman with her own house, her own car and her own career, Barbie caused a furor.
With millions of followers on Instagram, now she’s an influencer too. Many successful women have found eternal life as a Barbie figure. Most recently, the German marine biologist Antje Boetius. This documentary sheds light on the phenomenon known as Barbie.
#documentary #dwdocumentary #barbie
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Пікірлер: 93
I grew up in Zimbabwe but my mum made it a point to get me a dark-skinned Barbie on one of her trips. I also made her a whole wardrobe of clothes and accessories from patterns in a magazine and my own designs ☺
@bellaolum9768
2 ай бұрын
Thank God she got you a black Barbie. When my girls were young there was only blonde Barbie 😅😅
I find it funny that people complain about Barbie being an unrealistic and harmful body image for girls. For us boys, we grew up with He-Man and is absurdly muscular physique!
@Curling_Rack
2 ай бұрын
do you even lift bro
@Penny-mk7fv
2 ай бұрын
Men, we don’t care what other men think of us
@jurassicthunder
2 ай бұрын
boys look for inspiration through toys but girls look for similarities within their lives. look at some of the researches done on that.
@user-4m9-dr80h4
2 ай бұрын
It's done wonders for the universal weights, gym, and fitness industry, not to mention Hollywood and Got Talent Shows.
@GloryDaze73
2 ай бұрын
Dude....I hear what you're saying. The thing about barbie is that women are Expected to also emulate her ideal image through our behavior and aspirations. It became a whole image to aspire to. Do you think that sometimes men also want to get the approval of other men to look fit? Just asking for my info
Growing up I hated baby dolls and loved Barbie, I do think looking back it was a positive thing for me growing up to have a creative outlet for my dream adult life and I can’t say I ever wanted to look like Barbie, nor do I remember any of my friends who loved Barbie ever expressing that. (I think we all just wanted her wardrobe more than her waistline tbh) My body dismorphia and drive to be thin definitely didn’t kick in until I was a teenager, and now I definitely think social media is a much more dangerous influence on how young people see their bodies than Barbie ever was or will be.
@whosaidthat4299
2 ай бұрын
I threw my baby dolls in the garbage, until my mother bought me a skipper doll, I wasn't impressed until I got THE BARBIE 😂 I was a brat.
@joeyh3167
2 ай бұрын
The problem with some girls is that they are the one who cannot accept others those who are different and better than them . I know numbers of girl who played barbie and dont mind at all their bodies does not resemble not even close to barbies because they are being realistic that barbie is just a doll .
I still have my 1975 Malibu Skipper doll in her turquoise floral outfit.
“Barbie Doctor” lol that’s so cute 😅
I also had (and still have) a couple of Flower Princess dolls… the one with a purple dress and the bride 😊
More of this please! Tricky ❤
Barbie's sexual relationship with Ken is strange. They've been mating since the franchise was young but nearly married. Who would exit the joint when it is time to launch the marriage?! That's crazy! I wouldn't have my loved one have such denial! It could somewhat be a symbol of divorce!
@Callum0777
Ай бұрын
It wasn’t a sexual relationship. They couldn’t do that because they would be called out
@daveotuwa5596
Ай бұрын
@@Callum0777 They were together in the blockbuster movie.
Been waiting for documentary on barbie,this is a perfect example!👛👡
Why did you remove the video about Ecuador?
@julie3161
2 ай бұрын
what video was it?
Still seems like a consumer push to young girls.
“Star spangled hammered” 😂😂😂😂 that’s hilarious 😂😂
If they make a plump and cuddly Barbie, I'll get one.
@bellaolum9768
2 ай бұрын
😂😂😂
The perfect Aryan 😅
@florinmoldovanu
2 ай бұрын
priceless coment 👍
@jurassicthunder
2 ай бұрын
at least not the perfect Ghetto.
I love ❤ Barbie and have since I was a young boy. I wasn't allowed to have one as a kid, but always played with them when I got the chance with my girlfriends. I never aspired to be Barbie or Ken but just play and have fun. 😊
Who was the ORIGINAL designer? What was their story? Much more interesting than the story of mass production. Mattel STOLE someone else’s idea. Nothing is real, authentic or uplifting about a piece of plastic. All we have now are people (men and women) living PLASTIC lives, with plastic money, consuming plastic in our oceans and land. Way to go Mattel!
Would love to have English subtitles.
Barbie and Ken have been married many times and been married for a very long time I think they renew their wedding vows all the time when they release a wedding Barbie and wedding ken dolls
wowww! she is!
Barbie is a ripoff of a German doll named Bild Lilli.
@syarh
2 ай бұрын
well Mcdonld didnt invented burgers nor the german invented wheels or cars. Business or successful products is not bout who invented what first it's about who made the product successful
@hal90001
2 ай бұрын
Get educated! The rights of use for the original German doll were LEGALLY BOUGHT!
@p3812
2 ай бұрын
Barbie did it better
@TheStockwell
2 ай бұрын
@@hal90001 YOU get educated. 😂 Having a lawsuit filed against you for copyright infringement - and settling out of court - isn't the same as buying the rights: "Lilli was a German doll created in the 1950s, and she also had a similar appearance and wardrobe to Barbie. In fact, Barbie was based on Lilli, as Mattel's co-founder Ruth Handler saw the doll while on a trip to Europe and was inspired to create her own version. This similarity caused the creators of Lilli to sue Mattel for copyright infringement, though it was settled out of court." Best wishes from Vermont ❄️
@madsen0000
2 ай бұрын
"Get educated" lmao
So Barbie didn't do coke to keep up with that shape.
@GloryDaze73
2 ай бұрын
😅 bardie does coke for sure
I can't wait until Matel starts making life size fembots.
Every Barbie girl had her favorite Barbie doll
I remember making an outfit with my cousin ❤ I love Barbie forever 😍
inclusive... where's the average looking, chubby, curvy and obese barbies then? what? fat barbie promotes obesity? so does skinny barbie promotes anorexic... and the best seller is still the aryan barbie...
My barbie thought ken was a bore, so she had makeout sessions with GI Joe when he had that moveable head and was as big as her, but still she did her own thing, loll
For those who lives in social media
I wonder what these women think of the Barbie movie.
So Barbie is a rip off? 😮. Did they give credit and residuals to the original creator?
i think its great that barbie line is so diverce now. because my white kkkens finaly rule over appropriate ones
😱 omg 😮
anyone else's in German??
@ryleewinquist8986
2 ай бұрын
i cant switch it.
Love how the middle-age woman derides ken and men in general in the first minute of the video. Get therapy
@chelseafisher6881
2 ай бұрын
I don’t think it’s men in general, I think it’s Ken in particular. Ken was really an afterthought in the Barbie Ecosystem - that’s why the narrator says he’s barely worth mentioning. Seems to me like you’re the one whose projecting here
@GloryDaze73
2 ай бұрын
It did sound a bit glib, but it was definitely aimed at Ken. The Mattel company did not think through his design and evolution.
dream of every child.
perfection is BOOoooring
Yes, let's sell the illusion that only Barbie,,women succeed in life, it seems that we are all sick
Western working woman model is most misogynistic thing one could imagine. No matter which of 230 jobs she did, always what matters is how she looks... "Na wygląd trzeba sobie zapracować" ~ Kobieta Pracująca No Barbies in Eastern Block, yet +50% of employed in STEM are woman, in USSR 70% of teachers and academic workers.
Religion isn't Barbie's idea although she's named after a Jewess. The founder should've created the first religious Barbie with a Star of David on her attire.👠
Thanks, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie 😅 but most importantly, thank you 😊 Germany 🇩🇪 😊 for creating 😀 Barbie 🍸 🎉❤
@Callum0777
2 ай бұрын
Germany didn’t create barbie. Ruth handler took inspiration from the german doll
@kojo7485
2 ай бұрын
@Callum0777 Still the same thing, there's no Barbie without Germany 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇩🇪
Perfect toy to indroduce body Dysmorphia at a young age... 🙁
That a very bad documentary. And the point of barbie is not that she is relevant and "always will be, for generations and generations blablabla" because it's a good toy, it's a because it's a cool tool. Create your perfect "woman" that needs sees life like Barbie would. Buy buy buy, be best, be beautiful, be the only thing that matters in the world, be you ...YOUUUUUUU HAVE THE POWEEEEEEER because your plastic (i)doll said so... This "documentary" is basically whitewashing, to not say brainwashing...
@syarh
2 ай бұрын
are you ok?
@GloryDaze73
2 ай бұрын
@@syarh Glad you asked😂
Good morning to you from Kenneth D in Hamilton New Zealand 😂😂😂😂😂
The Barbie movie is loved by feminists / fe em ceIs worldwide
first
@kojo7485
2 ай бұрын
Bully for you 😤
@snicker576
2 ай бұрын
Nice!
So... What about he-man? Can you make an episode about unrealistic standards for boys as well? Because the way i see it, both sexes have unrealistic standards, but just one is crying about it.
@matchaa121
2 ай бұрын
Are you salty that DW made a documentary about Barbie?😅 Not everything is about you bro, get over yourself😂😂
@ecocodex4431
2 ай бұрын
Because men are not expected to look like He-Man, but women are expected to always look like Barbie. Just about all dolls or human characters aimed at young girls depicted a very pretty and very thin white woman. Toys and TV show/movie/video game characters for boys, however, came in a variety of body shapes, sizes, and appearances. For just one example, look at X-men. Cyclops, Professor X, Beast, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler all have significantly and noticably different body shapes and sizes. But what about the women? Jean Gray, Polaris, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, and Dazzler are all incredibly beautiful, thin, curvy, and (with the exception of Storm) either very light skin or white. So maybe it is not the women who are "crying about it", it is YOU who is crying because someone is simply mentioning an issue that otherwise never affected you, but since you are uposet when we are not about you, you start crying.
@madmax5841
2 ай бұрын
@@ecocodex4431 A study by dating app OkCupid found that women find 80% of men unattractive or 'below average'.
@GloryDaze73
2 ай бұрын
Please stop making everything about gender. You are being part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Free free Palestine
@ironman8257
2 ай бұрын
I doubt this will help in any way
@snicker576
2 ай бұрын
Ew gross, how bout no
@streetsarecold
2 ай бұрын
I burped out my breakfast
@sdeichemed
2 ай бұрын
Barbie was Palestinian you tell me
Oh no she's blonde... how awful eh?
Free free free Palestine
oh
@Armann_
2 ай бұрын
gosh, your username is ultimate cringe. Hope you’re embarrassed.
persisting in escaping from reality looks like insanity :)