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Barbie

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Barbie'ssmall and so petite
Her clothes and figure look so neat
Herdazzling outfit rings a bell
At parties she will cast a spell
Skirts, andhats, andgloves galore

And all the gadgets gals adore!

—The jingle tothe first Barbie commercial.

A popular doll line that has been around since 1959, originally an offshoot of the earlier Bild Lilli fashion doll line which Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler came across in the mid-Fifties and eventually acquired the design and patent right in 1963. Partly a revolution in doll design, because until then most fashion dolls were made to look like little girls. Barbie was made to look like a young woman. When she was first created, her figure was more akin to a normal young woman's, but later adjustments made her dimensions were adjusted in different ways so that she would maintain a more natural figure under the thickly-hemmed clothes.

Barbie is also the subject of controversy, due to her figure being stylized and therefore impossible inReal Life, and thereby supposedly giving girls an "unrealistic" role model, though her figure was slightly modified in the late 1990s in response to these complaints. Mattel is careful to make sure Barbie's image remains "wholesome" and getting dolls into roles that were once seen as unsuitable for women. Mattel featured a NASA Astronaut Barbie just two years after Valentina Tereshkova (from the Soviet Union) became the first woman to go into space and Mattel has been releasing "Barbie for President" dolls since 1992.

The original storyline attached to the dolls was that of Barbie Roberts, a teenager and the oldest of many sisters, and her career as a model. Her surname and age have now been long since forgotten, and she generally plays adult characters, being showcased invarious careers. Barbie has also been featured in a series of animated direct-to-video features since 2001 (each with a tie-in toy line), most of them based onFairy Tales, but also including originals like theFairytopia series. They tend to be accused ofTasting Like Diabetes, especially the newer ones, but have surprisingly strong, positive portrayals of women: i.e., the girls help each other without second intention and don't always bond only over guys.

Barbie has become astock parody over the years;The Simpsons has Malibu Stacy (Lisa's frustration with a talking model that had the personality ofThe Ditz was the focus of a whole episode, inspired by a real controversy over a talking Barbie which could say "Math class is tough!"), andRugrats had Angelica's favorite toy, the Cynthia doll. Then she's finally parodiedherself inToy Story 3.

Alive-action film based on the franchise was released in 2023, starringMargot Robbie (ofSuicide Squad fame) as the titular character andRyan Gosling as Ken.

There have been a number of movies starring Barbie, including:

Films of the 2000s:

Films of the 2010s:

Films of the 2020s:

She's currently^[when?] starring in her own "reality" web show:Barbie: Life In The Dreamhouse.

Currently the Barbie line has two main Categories:

The Playline:

The dolls who are usually seen in stores, this line has a few sub-categories:

The Fashionistas

The most poseable dolls in the entire playline, these dolls areNo Name Given, with the name on the box being thestyle of the doll, though the most recent set (Swapping Styles) have had a webseries similar to Mattel's other line,Monster High, on the Barbiewebsite.
- As of 2011, the line has been reverted to a sort ofFashion Fever line, with Barbie, Teresa, Raquelle and Nikki taking over and eliminating the No Name Given element. It was also the first line to includeRyan.

The So In Style girls:

A set of all black dolls featuring Barbie's friend Grace who has moved to Chicago, she meets two best friends (Trichelle and Kara) and participate in a pseudo-tutoring program (The Little Sibling program, featuringDajh's clone as the first little brother).

My Scene:

A line that was created to compete with theBratz line, featuring Barbie with anAnimesque head and living in New York with her friends Chelsea, Madison (Westley), Nolee and Delancey. The line was the first line to feature webisodes (with a nice artistic quality to them). Barbie then left the line and was replaced withKennedy (Barbie in this line had been thetomboy and Kennedy was agirly girl. It then found a hugefanbase in Latin America;after a huge amount ofPandering to the Base, it then becameNo Export for You (the line is only sold in Latin America now). The webisodes also changed to a more cartoonish style and became lessfunny and morecurrent.

TheCollector line:

Barbie has a hugePeriphery Demographic who are in it for the fashion and wit, so Mattel created this half of the Barbie line specifically for them. The dolls are usually not sold in stores (unless it's a store exclusive) but on the Barbie collectorwebsite. Sub-categories include:

The Dolls of the World line:

This line is, well,dolls themed around different places in the world. The most recent^[when?] dolls include the Samurai Ken and Kimono-clad Barbie.

The Basics line:

One doll, one theme outfit. The first line was theLittle Black Dresses, and the second was the simple jeans and Tee line (and three male dolls were included this time).

Tropes used inBarbie include:

Animated Actors: Kind of, as the films have Barbie "playing" characters.
- Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale takes this a step further: This time it's about the actress Barbie.
Action Girl: InBarbie and the Three Musketeers, andToy Story 3.
Ambiguously Gay: Ken has a long history ofaccidentally appealing to other crowds than young girls.Toy Story 3 finallyembraced it with all its heart.
Background Halo: The cape that Barbie as "Fantasy Goddess of the Arctic" wears, has what appears to be a hood, but acts more like this.
Barbie Doll Anatomy: Now theTrope Namers, as the dolls are infamous for it, especially poorKen. More recent iterations have modeled patterns over their featureless groins to resemble underwear.
The Bechdel Test: Surprisingly, several of the movies pass this. The girls discuss guys once in a while, but they more often talk about friendship and their own goals.
Beware the Nice Ones: A common aspect in the movies. Donot threaten Barbie's friends if you know what's good for you.
Breast Expansion: Inverted. Ever since the '90s. The original Barbie was much more well-endowed, something still commonly seen in parodies.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Stacie and Krissy.
Cloudcuckoolander: Teresa's latest movie roles tend to be this sinceDiamond Castle.
Costume Porn: All of the specialty dresses.
The Dandy: Ken inToy Story 3.
Deadly Fireworks Display: Towards the end ofBarbie and the Diamond Castle,Vain Sorceress Lydia tries to cast a spell onthe protagonists, but it backfires and hits her instead, surrounding her with swirling green sparkles until she disappears in a flash of light.Though she turns out to beNot Quite Dead...
- Also in 2 of the 3 the Barbie Movies which are located in Fairytopia (respectively the first part; Fairytopia and the third part; Magic of the Rainbow), where theBig Bad of several movies gets hit by the Power of the Rainbow and (after getting swirled about in the first movie,) "explodes" in a rain of rainbow-colored sparkles.
Ermine Cape Effect: When it involves the royalty-related tropes mentioned here.
Everything's Better with Princesses: A lot of her dolls and films.
- InBarbie and the Diamond Castle, she's a peasant but still becomes princess of music at the end, just because.
Everything's Better with Sparkles
Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry
Evil Brit: Like many movies, the villains often had British accents, even though with the exception of Preminger, who actually was supposed to be from England, they aren't from England. The Mouse King (Russian), Gothel (German), Max (Portuguese), Rowena (German), Ariana (Italian), Philippe (French), Gwyllion (Welsh), are several examples.
Fairytale Wedding Dress
The Fashionista
Five-Token Band: Teresa's the Hispanic one, Renee's the Asian one, Nikki took over Christie's role as the black one, Summer's the Australian one, Midge is the Irish one, and Barbie's the white one, though you can get her in any ethnicity. This turned out to be a problem when Mattel released Oreo Barbie with the African-American option. Oops.
- The 60s and 70s line featured Barbie, and in addition featured British Stacey Richards, Irish Kelley Donoghue, brunettes PJ (usually) Maybarry and Steffie Hawthorne. The Rockers are multicultural. The 90s featured Vietnamese Kira, later replaced by Macanese Lea Bing in the 2000s, and there was no Asian mainline friend until Renee Chow (Honda in Spy Squad) starting in 2016 and still existing to this day.

Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Many of her outfits have feather trim.
Follow the Leader: TheDisney Princess line.
Framing Device: Several movies, especially her earlier ones, had Barbie telling the story to Kelly, and then it would cut to the actual story, and then Barbie would take up the narration again as the story ended.
Gem-Encrusted
Genius Ditz: Barbie is portrayed as a borderlineDumb Blonde inToy Story 3 (albeit with redeeming qualities). And thenwham, democratic philosophy out of nowhere:

"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from threat of force!"

Giant Poofy Sleeves: A few of her fancy dresses.
Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Many outfits, including her 1994 holiday dress.
Graceful Ladies Like Purple
Green Aesop:Barbie Presents Thumbelina.
"Happy Holidays" Dress: The "Happy Holidays" line is theTrope Namers.
Hair of Gold: Barbie and her little sisters.
Held Gaze: This happens several times in her movies, notablyBarbie as the Princess and the Pauper after Dominik and Erika's love duet.
Hidden Depths: SeeGenius Ditz above.
Hormone-Addled Teenager: Despite the fact that Barbie is technically an adult. One of her "talking" lines drew a lot of criticism for having phrases like "Let's go shopping!", "Math is hard!" and "Will we ever have enough clothes?" A group called Barbie Liberationdecided to do something about that, swapping out Barbie's voice boxes with those fromG.I. Joe, so Barbie instead said things like"Vengeance is mine!"
It's Fake Fur, It's Fine: Officially, she wears fake fur. Of course, the fur actually is fake, but in the early years, that was likely for economic reasons.
"I Want" Song: Several of her movies feature this, often as duos between the leads. An example is "I Need to Know" fromBarbie as the Island Princess, amongst the more usual "I Want" Songs like "Free" from her first movie musical,Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper.
Impractically Fancy Outfit
Lady in Red: Many of her dresses, especially her holiday dresses.
Limited Special Collectors' Ultimate Edition: See Barbie Collector above.
Official Cosplay Gear: So young girls can try on the outfits.
Only One Female Mold: Most of Barbie's friends have exactly the same body shape as she does.
Opera Gloves
Peacock Girl:The Island Princess
Pimped-Out Cape: A few dolls had some, notably the "Fantasy Goddess of the Arctic" doll.
Pimped-Out Dress: She's been given loads of elaborate dresses over the years.
Pink Means Feminine /Pink Product Ploy: Barbie is all aboutpiiiink. Her logo is pink. Her Dream Car and Dream House are pink. Packaging for most of the dolls and accessories are pink. One of her first outfits, "Enchanted Evening", has a pink evening gown.
- Hersignature color is "Barbie Pink" and can't be used by another company without getting permission from Mattel. However, it should be noted that when other products try to do thePink Product Ploy, it's usually a very close comparison to Barbie pink (never a darker or lighter shade of pink). It is very much the Gold (Pink) Standard to which other pink products aspire to.
Pragmatic Adaptation:Barbie in the Nutcracker and stories likeBarbie as the Princess and the Pauper could count as this.
Pretty in Mink: Loads of her outfits (officially being fake is the only nod to that trope, so the rest count as this).
- This started as early as the white fur wraps she wears in the "Enchanted Evening" and "Gay Parisienne" dolls, and the white fur jacket she wears for the "Icebreaker" doll.
- For that matter, it seems 90% of the time when one of her outfits has fur, it's white.
Princesses Prefer Pink: Some of the movies have princesses wearing pink clothes, especially if Barbie is playing a princess.
The Rival: The recent movies have Raquelle in this role.
Rule of Glamorous
Sexy Santa Dress: Even she has worn some of those.
Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Guess which end Barbie is on.
Stylish Protection Gear: A few, like her astronaut suit, which is pink and gold.
Sweater Girl: A number of her outfits over the years. Theearly 80s set "Fashion Jeans" included a pink, fuzzy sweater, even though that name could have included any kind of top.
Thememobile: Her Dream Car.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: ADouble Subversion in one of her fairy tale movies, where Barbie's characteractually tried to kill the villain. Then it turned out that her newfound magical powers couldn't be used to harm anyone.
Toyless Toyline Character: The villains from the movies rarely have toys made of them.
True-Blue Femininity
Trans-Atlantic Equivalent:Sindy, which first emerged in 1963.
Tuckerization: Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler named the Barbie and Ken dolls after her children Barbara and Kenneth respectively.
Unlimited Wardrobe: Probably the most of any fictional character ever, perhaps.
Vague Age: Barbie is constantly changing from someone in her early-to-mid twenties to a teenager (sometimes even a high schooler).
- And considering she (and all her friends) run for President every four years, it seems that she's at least 35 too.
Virtual Paper Doll: Some of the games.
Winter Royal Lady: Her line of "Winter Princess" dolls, among others.
Workaholic: She's had loads of careers that her dolls have covered.
Yet Another Christmas Carol: One of the 2008 videos is an adaptation of this story.

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Barbie?oldid=2122952"

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