Thursday, July 29, 2010

Was Barbie the First Bombshell?

“We didn’t know how to run a business, but we had dreams and talent.” – Ruth Handler

Ruth Handler was the woman behind Barbie.  Lots of controversy surrounds Barbie’s body, as the measurements are out of proportion, estimating that 1 in 100,000 women could have a figure like that.  People have gone to great lengths to estimate Barbie’s measurements and height if she were real.  But to me, if you take her body out of the equation, and look at the story behind it, and the constant updating to go with the real-life times, the concept of Barbie could be the first Bombshell.   The time line and history of Barbie is quite lengthy and fascinating to me.

The creation of Barbie came from family values and parents who had a dream.  Ruth and Eliot Handler started in business, making picture frames.  With another partner, they founded Mattel.  Believe it or not, Mattel did not start out as a toy company. Eliot started to make doll furniture with the scraps from the picture frames.  About 10 years later, Ruth invented the Barbie doll.  It was named after their daughter. (Ken was named after their son).    At the time, the only dolls were baby dolls and paper dolls.

If we don’t look at Barbie’s body and we look at the story behind it, you can find a woman with great family values, business sense, and success.

In 1967, Ruth became President of Mattel. Quite a feat for that day and age.

The point of all this.  It really is a matter of perspective and what we as adults teach our children. If we are so focused on body image ourselves, we naturally pass that on to our children. Spoken or unspoken.  If we teach our daughters they can be anything they aspire to be, then Barbie can give them a ton of options to “see” the possibilities. I have found, in recent years, when I go back and look at the history of something, what prompted the actions or the design or the idea, it changes my perspective on the situation. I often find success sprouted from the family values AND a dream.  NOT someone’s body or what they looked like.

Often, we are running so fast to get through our life, using facebook, twitter, and email to catch glimpses of someone, we forget to truly know people.  What makes them tick? What are their values?  What life circumstances make up their WHOLE?What is the story behind the 140 characters?

So my question of the day:  Who or What represents your first image of a bombshell  AND why?