"The comic character that Barbie is based on is described as a 'gold digging prostitute'.”
The greatest surf queen on earth, and no it ain’t Hawaii’s Queen of Crazy Mason Ho, is the recently un-retired eight-time champion Stephanie Gilmore, one of the game’s best choreographers.
There’s an accessibility to her surfing as well as a freedom and a joy, even if it feels a little confected sometimes and even if it refuses, like fellow champ Pippy Toledo, to go left.
You’ll remember, last year, when fan favourite Gilmore was wheeled out as part of Rip Curl’s massive PR counteroffensive amid the wreckage of their trans misstep, the Kathamndu-owned surf brand signing Gilmore on an eight-year contract worth between six and ten mill.
Anyway, toy company Mattel, that wild biz success story, founded in a LA garage six months before the end of the Pacific War by Harold Matson and husband and wife team Ruth and Elliot Handler, and famous for their Hot Wheels and Barbie toys, has released unveiled the first-ever Barbie Dream Team to mark International Women’s Day.
The initiative honours eight trailblazing women from around the world who achieved groundbreaking “firsts” in their fields, immortalising them as one-of-a-kind dolls crafted in their likeness.
Among them is Stephanie Gilmore, whose fabulous record cements, as I pointed out earlier, as one of the most dominant athletes in surfing history. Gilmore joins a diverse global lineup that includes tennis legend Serena Williams (23 Grand Slam singles titles), research astronaut Kellie Gerardi, British footballer Chloe Kelly, Mexican racecar driver Regina Sirvent Alvarado, German pop star Helene Fischer, Polish mountaineer Zoja Skubis (the youngest Polish woman to summit Everest and Manaslu), and Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana (the first from her country to score centuries in all three international formats).
“Barbie has always championed the belief that girls can be anything,” said Nathan Baynard, vice president and head of Barbie.
(Haz and Gilmore discuss logistics for Ken doll above.)
Anyway, not everyone’s thrilled by Barbies, it’s safe to say.
Feminists, particularly that wild second wave from the sixties through the nineties, protested Barbie as a symbol of sexual objectification and impossible ideals, with some calling her a tool that trained girls into self-hatred or conformity.
From Julie Bindel, feminist journalist, activist,
“I hate the Barbie industry… I am sick to my stomach that Barbie is modelled on a German ‘porn doll’ called Lilli, who was in turn based on a comic strip character marketed to lecherous men… The comic character that Barbie is based on is described as a ‘gold digging prostitute’.”
And she ain’t wrong.
Barbie was inspired by the Bild Lilli doll, created in 1955 in Germany and based on a very racy comic strip in the newspaper Bild-Zeitung. Lilli was portrayed as a bold, gold-digging woman (implied to be a prozzy in the strips), and the doll was originally marketed as an adult novelty item or gag gift for men, with suggestive undertones.
Ruth Handler, Barbie’s creator, encountered Lilli during a trip to Europe and adapted it for children, launching Barbie in 1959.
As a kid who loved his GI Joes, I think dolls very good for children’s imaginations etc although maybe telephones have ended all that sorta stuff and now they’re just decorative items.
Where do you stand on this important matter?
And Bild Lilli or Gilmore Barbie, which would you prefer on your nightstand?