Barbie: Is she the real creator of the doll in the Margot Robbie movie?

Warning, this article contains spoilers for the movie Barbie.

Have you seen Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and wondered who Will Ferrell portrayed as “the ghost that haunts the Mattel building”?

This is Ruth Handler, creator of the Barbie doll. Died in 2002, the latter is portrayed on screen by actress Rhea Perlman, who has previously appeared in Matilda, Cheers and The Mindy Project. The latter appears at the end of the film in the form of a meta wink, it is he who leads his “creation” to emancipation.

Thanks to her creator, Barbie dares to prove herself and take her destiny into her own hands.

The creation of Barbie

In 1959, Ruth Handler discovered that her daughter Barbara, then 10 years old, was abandoning dolls in favor of paper dolls, often representing movie stars or music. Therefore, the mother of the family imagined an adult plastic doll, which was far from the eternal babies offered at the time.

She then pitches the idea to her husband, Elliott Handler, and his co-worker, Harold “Matt” Mattson, head of Mattel (a combination of their two names), a company that manufactures frames. But the two men then think that this toy will not sell.

While traveling in Europe, Ruth Handler discovers the Bild Lili fashion doll from the German company O. & M. Hausser. It is originally a character from a Reinhard Bottien comic strip published in a German newspaper. Bild Zeitung.

Ruth decides to take inspiration from this and remake her new doll, which she christens Barbie, nicknamed her daughter Barbara. At the end of the featurette, when Margot Robbie decides to become human and gives her name, she says her name is Barbara Handler, not Barbara Millicent Roberts, which is the doll’s full name. He nodded to the designer.

Introduced at the New York Toy Fair on March 9, 1959, the Barbie doll terrified young girls and became a huge success worldwide.

Ruth Handler then decided to create Kenny, this time inspired by her son Kenneth’s name. It should also be noted that all the characters in the world of Barbie bear the names of friends of the Handler family. Thus, Alan (Michael Cera’s role in the film) is the first name of his daughter Barbara’s husband, producer Alan Segal.

For Ruth Handler, creating a grown-up doll was important so that little girls could imagine being something other than their mother. This is also explained in the first scene of the feature film, which depicts Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey. The most astute viewers will notice many other cinematic references in Greta Gerwig’s film.

Confrontation

But very quickly Barbie is controversial. His physical condition and especially the circumference of his chest are criticized and considered unrealistic. Many experts say that Barbie makes it difficult for girls because of her size.

In 1990, Mattel decided to make some changes to their famous doll and reduced the size of her breasts. The company launches different ranges: Barbie Dream jobs, Barbie Princess, Barbie Fashionistas and over the years has diversified its dolls with different colors, different sizes and even with disabilities, so that every child can find himself in Barbie or Ken.

So many dolls that appear in Greta Gerwig’s film and that Margot Robbie set Mattel to embody the “stereotype” doll.

Directed by Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Michael Cera, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Simu Liu, Dua Lipa or even Kingsley Ben-Adir, Barbie is now in theaters.