Barbie may owe her existence to a trip to Switzerland

Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken. © 2022 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

On July 20, the film based on the iconic doll that graced the childhood of several generations was released in cinemas. A long story that began in the Switzerland in the 1950s.  

This summer, whether you want it or not, you will be swept away by a huge shocking pink wave. This colour will invade your senses everywhere, creeping into your everyday life. Blame it on the ambitious marketing campaign for the release of the ‘Barbie’ film in cinemas around the world.

The feature film by Greta Gerwig, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is more than just a film. It is an experience that targets millennials who grew up with the iconic doll; her house with the lift, the bubble bath, the different outfits, the horses, … in short, a real blast from the past.

But it is also a way of bringing her up to date thanks to the huge strategy devised on social media and the various collaborations with fashion and cosmetics brands launched by the American toy company Mattel. 

On TikTok the hastags #barbiecore and #kencore are on fire. Thanks to the Barbie Selfie Generator, one can transform into a Barbie or a Ken in a click, and on Airbnb it is possible to book (in truth, until 2025 there is no availability) a night in Barbie’s house in Malibu. In short, it is possible to totally immerse oneself in the colourful world of Barbie.
 

Pink is on trend this summer, as at Pride parade in New York. 2023 Invision

Barbie ‘born’ in Switzerland

But how and where was this doll born? Barbie’s origins can be traced back to March 1959 thanks to Ruth Handler, wife of Elliot Handler who partnered with Harold ‘Matt’ Matson to create the Mattel company (the name derives from the fusion of their names). And Barbie was born thanks to a trip to Switzerland. It was here that Ruth first saw a doll that did not exist on the US market.
 

Ruth Handler is the inventor of the iconic doll. Keystone / Cassy Cohen

Nicoletta Bazzano, associate professor of Modern History at at the University of Cagliari and author of the book La donna perfetta. Storia di BarbieExternal link (The Perfect Woman. History of Barbie) explains.

“While walking with her children and her husband in Zurich or Lucerne, she saw a doll in a tobacconist’s shop that her daughter Barbara immediately wanted to have,” says Bazzano. “It was Lilli, a doll 29.5 centimetres tall sold in a shop frequented by men and inspired by a character from a comic strip that was published in the ‘Bild’ newspaper. It was not a toy doll, it was more of an ornament. Ruth Handler took her home and turned her into Barbie [named after her daughter, Barbara while Ken was named after her son Kenneth]”.
 

‘Lilli Doll’, the doll that inspired Ruth Handler. Any resemblance to Barbie is purely coincidental…. Keystone / Frank Hormann

‘The diva’

Barbie however was not the typical doll that little girls were used to playing with. She had the features of a woman or rather a diva. 
“Barbie is a diva. Ruth Handler had worked as a young woman at Paramount and she was therefore familiar with the world of cinema. And the world of cinema inevitably influenced the imagination of even children in the United States. Barbie is a model with a rich wardrobe,” says Bazzano.

She was an immediate success, but also faced some criticism because ‘little girls were given a doll with ample breasts and very long legs, a doll that represented what they wanted to become’, Bazzano adds.

The transformation of Barbie

Barbie in her early years mirrored the society in which she existed. She does a few jobs, such as babysitting or playing hostess, purely feminine tasks and also has outfits for the kitchen and a wedding dress.  But after criticism from feminists both in the US and in Europe, the blonde doll emancipated herself. She became the girl who can do everything and began to collect professions: so there was the firefighter Barbie, the astronaut, the US presidential candidate…

Then, closer to today, Mattel also began to work on her physique (no longer size 99-55-83), but shorter, rounder, imperfect Barbies were put on the market to meet the current need for inclusivity.
 

Barbie has managed to keep up with the times. Keystone / Mattel / Handout

Barbie and society

“Barbie absorbed everything she produced from the Western world and so she never got ahead of herself, she always conformed to what the values were and started to progress. In the East, on the other hand, it was so innovative that it was demonised. It was banned throughout the Muslim world because it conveyed a message of an ideal of an independent woman. It is no coincidence that a twin was invented, called Jasmine, who is strictly veiled and has a prayer mat among her accessories, possesses all those characteristics that can lead the girls who play with her to elaborate a female ideal that is accepted in that society,’ adds Bazzano.

Barbie and the world

Barbie has changed over the decades: from the woman in the kitchen she has become the woman capable of doing everything and able to represent all the aspirations of little girls. And also in the film, Barbie is faced with an unprecedented challenge. At one point she discovers that she has flat feet, a novelty since her classic figure is based on a particularly arched sole designed for very high heels. 

“It changes her perspective”, Bazzano emphasises, “because she no longer wears pink heels, but very normal shoes, and here her viewpoint of the world inevitably changes”.