Around the Covid-19 pandemic, when American film director Greta Gerwig started working on the Barbie film, little did she know the seismic effect it would have, in ways beyond the cultural and social context.
Barbie, released in 2023 starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, took the world by storm and got everyone talking; adorning and owning the signature flushed hue– pink.
This year, Barbie fever erupted in India but not for its opulent pink. Everyone has the “Indian Barbie” phrase at the tip of their tongues with the latest Barbie X Anita Dongre collaboration. Indian designer Anita Dongre’s partnership with Mattel– an American toy manufacturing company, launches a Barbie Diwali Doll adorned in Dongre’s designs. This doll flaunts a Moonlight Bloom Set featuring a floral lehenga skirt and is paired with a choli top and a vest highlighting the dahlias, jasmine and Indian lotus motifs.
Dongre’s global collaboration undoubtedly ignites a sense of pride, as she is the first Indian designer to collaborate with the ‘Barbie’ brand. But I wonder, what could be a larger narrative behind such a collaboration? What does the union between these two signify?
Anyone who has ever played with a Barbie doll before, I, for instance, would describe her as a blonde doll with a sleek physique and blue eyes– a symbol of perfection. As superficial and flawless as it sounds, Barbie has somewhere failed to resonate with young girls across the globe. The doll primarily has a target audience between the ages of 3-12, where young girls go through several changes such as puberty and cognitive and emotional changes. For young children to own a doll that symbolises the idealisation of what women should be and MUST be can often convert into a strong disassociation with reality and hamper one’s concept of self leading to self-doubt.
S. S. (name concealed) shares, “When I got older, I did start to think that she (Barbie) is too perfect and falls under the unachievable beauty standards of society. I can definitely see that having a negative impact on young girls who see Barbie not as a mere doll but instead as someone they want to be like.” Apart from the perfection aspect, the dolls also somewhere failed to cater to an audience that came from different backgrounds that imbued beautiful yet distinct physical features. Chicago-based real estate lawyer, Priti Nemani wrote the paper titled ‘Globalization versus Normative Policy: A case study on the failure of the Barbie doll in the Indian market’ in 2010, addressing in Times of India; a daily newspaper of India, about feelings of alienation– “outsider at home”. She quotes,
Barbie never felt like home to me as a portly Indian American girl growing up. My parents had immigrated from India in the 1980s and shortly after my birth, the family moved to a small town in southern Illinois of around 14,000 people. I was already an outsider to many of my classmates at my all white grade school and Barbie–perhaps because of the tone of her ceramic skin or her miniscule waist or her bright blue eyes–made me feel like an outsider at home.
Imasha Costa, an Irish Journalist in an essay article online shares how the Barbie doll reflected the Western beauty standards. She writes,
She was too perfect. I realised that maybe playing with Barbie had not prepared me for the real world — not the real world I lived in, anyway. Barbie made me feel like I was not enough in this world because I was not fair-skinned. Because I was not middle class, and because I did not have my perfect stable dream house growing up.
To address the issue and be a part of the conversation revolving around diversity ever since its launch, Mattel came up with the 1967 Barbie Colored Francie the first dusky skin tone Barbie, followed by the 1968 ‘Christie’ Barbie doll– many considering it to be the first black barbie doll, and nurse ‘Julia’ doll– a black character from the show Julia in 1969. Since then Mattel’s Barbie has launched several dolls with different ethnicities, skin tones and different body types.
A collaboration such as Barbie X Anita Dongre is one of the subtle responses by Mattel regarding its approach to diversity. In 1998, Mattel launched a Diwali Barbie, which caused fear amongst Indians that Mattel would exploit religious festivals in India, while others felt that the characteristics of this Diwali Barbie were still very Western with fair skin and blue eyes.
Currently, the toy brand has Barbie with not only different ethnicities but also different professions, body shapes, hair colour/style and disabilities. In 2022, Mattel launched an Indian Barbie who wore a power suit with bangles (a bracelet that is a significant part of South Asian culture) and Jhumkas (big chunky earrings; typically silver, worn by the South Asian community). This was in partnership with Deepica Mutyala, the CEO and founder of Live Tinted cosmetics line.
As simple as it seems, it may be a little more complex once we try to decipher Mattel’s attempts at this representation of diversity. The problem with the ‘67 Francie Barbie was that although it was labelled as “African American” Mattel only changed the doll’s skin colour, making it duskier. Its other features were still very much like the American Barbie. This led to Christie being tagged as the ‘first’ black Barbie because she was made keeping in mind all the black features.
Matell’s move to create a wide range of Barbie dolls for a large audience and market is apt and smart, but where it falters deeply is how the dolls are images and created. Anita Dongre’s Indian Diwali Barbie wears the right ensemble for Diwali, and holds the right features for its “Indianness”. But for 2022 Indian Barbie inspired by Mutyala felt forced. Considering her Indian-American origin, the idea of adding Jhumkas and bangles might be a stereotypical way of imagining how an Indian Barbie would look.
Will we ever see a day of light where an Indian Barbie is freed from a saree or lehenga?
Might I suggest Mattel widen the essence of “Indianness” and look beyond.
At a price point which is suitable for consumers residing in the urban areas of India (or Indians in the West), an Indian Barbie draped in a saree or lehenga (without any festive context) will organically lead to a disconnect and raise questions of stereotyping. It can be said that the manufacturers have learned their ways to cater to subjects of diversity and inclusivity, but it can not be concluded.
The bigger picture that I intend to paint here does not lie in deciphering what makes the Barbie brand inclusive and fits seamlessly with the diverse audience. On the contrary, I intend to seek answers pertaining to the accessibility of these unique and diverse toys, and where they stand in the market graph. As Barbie holds a typical notion of being a slim blonde American woman, does anything that aspires to substitute this symbol in the name of inclusivity, diversity or change actually be reflected by demand in the market? This is where the Mattel brand ends its response to inclusivity and diversity, and leaves it up to the consumers to take the conversation forward.
As a renowned American toy manufacturing company established in 1945, Mattel has brands like UNO, Hot Wheels, Monster High, Fisher-Price and more under its wings. Being the second largest and most successful toy brand– after LEGO, the brand is partly driven by consumers. The reason Barbie is still imagined as it was during its inception is that the Barbie idea was widely sold on those premises to begin with. When a young girl grows up with a fair-skinned, and blonde-haired female doll, it seems unlikely that she would want to switch to a doll that represents her ethnicity. In those cases, the ideal Barbie stays, and the others remain unchosen.
What Mattel owes us is not a superficial symbol of beauty, but an acknowledgement of the true South Asian spirit free from stereotypical notions – so the next time we see Barbie upholding our culture, we see her liberated from the bindis and the drapes. We must not restrict children from this diverse exploration, and neither should we restrict anything as mere yet crucial as children’s toys be restricted from diversity.
