Barbie Kidult Time Capsule Peaches/ Cream

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There’s an entire wave of people that have grown up with this toy that feel this attachment and want to have this giddy moment. I see people planning their outfits or, what you saw last summer which you’re seeing again, which is the Barbie-core stuff coming — not just the clothes, but also the interiors, and really anywhere where you can have that moment of exuberant girliness. In the ’70s, there was a protest of the New York Toy Fair, where people were protesting, in part, against Barbie and how sexist she was. It’s like what you said, there’s historically been a wave of articles critiquing her body and calling out these unrealistic proportions and the expectations they put on young girls. Right, like the Barbie paradox. She’s capable of everything in her world — even if that world hasn’t always been a “great” place.

I think Barbie represents the pinnacle of womanhood and an achievement of that — and so she’s always going to be a mixed bag. We can think about supermodels or you know, young A-list starlets that are walking the red carpet or what have you. They are existing within the patriarchy and they are reflecting some of those values the Barbie does too. This Barbie is the “pinnacle of womanhood.” Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures When I’ve been on book tour, there are people that will come up to me and they’ll tell me their favorite Barbie. It’s almost like they’re telling you what their sign is astrologically. Like, when they say, “I was a Peaches ’n Cream Barbie,” “I was a Day-to-Night Barbie,” they’re giving you their personality. They’re giving you this, like, key piece of themselves. They still identify that way as an adult. Right, it’s really damaging and damning stuff to put into a little girl’s head. The scales were set to a certain number, I think it was like 110 or something like that. The point is these toys were like an instruction manual, and you’re giving them to a little girl saying, “Do this.” And with these toys, you’re really starting them down this lifetime path of potential body dysmorphia and issues with weight. Barbie is definitely complicit in that historically, and I think we have to remember that Barbie, she has all these incredible careers now — but her very first career was teen model. Barbie is the type of movie that I think gets overlooked. Like it’s not created to be Oscar bait. That’s very much an Oppenheimer thing — you know, vehicles that are this hyper-masculine, very tortured, and have a dark and sinister type of vibe to it. That appeals to Oscar voters.that help Barbie choose an exciting date and different ways to wear her boa. But no matter which way she wears her boa stole, Barbie always looks gorgeous, just like a royal princess that seems to float while strolling through the peach orchard! Barbie’s big moment is one of those rare things that feels both like a fiery overnight phenomenon and a long-simmering success. To better understand Barbie culture, Barbie’s history, and what we mean when we talk about Barbie, I spoke to Maria Teresa Hart, a Barbie expert and author of Doll, which she describes as a “non-fiction pop-culture feminist critique of dolls, doll history, and doll culture.”

In your book, you mention that Barbie’s world is a utopia or a fantasy, and on the one hand, it’s great. But on the other hand, the woman who gets to experience that power fantasy has to be a beautiful, blonde, skinny woman. Not at all. Barbies in the early days really doubled down on both unrealistic beauty standards and on diet culture. One of them was Slumber Party Barbie. I believe she came with a scale and had these little diet books with the “diet advice” in them that was like, “Don’t eat.” Oooh. On that note — I wanted to ask you about criticism. I’m an old millennial, and I think when you see this excitement toward Barbie , it feels a little weird because, in my adult life, I think I’ve seen several different iterations of Barbie and Mattel criticized for being sexist.There’s freedom to be able to throw on the sequins and the marabou feathers. To saying here I am, and like feeling that Barbie’s world is something that’s made for this — to validate and to amplify this feminine energy. Obviously, I don’t think Slumber Party Barbie and her scale are making the cut in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. I want to ask you where you think this all turned. Like everyone seems genuinely excited about this movie. How do we go from “Barbie is problematic” to now? Thematically, Barbie vs. Oppenheimer also feels like opposing forces. Barbie seems to be about creation, imagination, and finding a new world, and Oppenheimer is about massive destruction.