[possibly NSFW] When designed by Ms. Handler fifty years ago, was Barbie supposed to be slender, busty, or something in between?

Barbie was copied after a German doll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild_Lilli_doll#History

Barbie started out busty with a thin waist. Here is her progression https://www.popsugar.com/beauty/barbie-beauty-evolution-39101850

I have seen on facebook photos of the supposed real life German model used for the original doll. I have not verified those memes across facebook are true.

Handler wanted girls to be able to play with grown up dolls not just baby dolls. Supposedly, she didn’t want the only toys girls played with to be about becoming a mother. Barbie was an adult and could do anything. Be a lawyer, doctor, own her own house, and wasn’t dependent on a man.

Here is a wikipedia link about Handler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Handler

I found it interesting she picked up on this German doll in the 1950’s as her prototype for Barbie being that was a time most Jewish Americans would not step foot or spend money on anything German. I don’t know if she was traveling in Germany or traveling in another country where the doll was sold. Handler was American born to Polish parents.

Her hair was horrible in the early years.

I think she was originally both busty and skinny in other places. And not representative of the average woman.

I think she was supposed to resemble the “model” woman of the day. Curvy with a small waist. I always thought that if you brought Barbie to a human size she would be something like 38–16-34. Just a guess.

Barbie’s physical appearance was modeled on the German Bild Lilli doll, a risqué gag gift for men based upon a cartoon character featured in the West German newspaper Bild Zeitung.
I can’t speak about the evolution.

Ms Barbie’s original birthday was March 9, 1959 so she is now 64 y/o. I received my 1st Barbie for Christmas that same year. As well as I can remember, she was ALWAYS top heavy with a tiny little waist. As a child, that meant absolutely NOTHING to me. Adults have a much bigger problem with this than young girls do!!! I don’t remember her changing that much over the years. Then again, I was NOT hung up on the size of her body, so it may have changed & I failed to notice.

I’ve heard that if the original Barbie could be transformed into a real woman that she wouldn’t be able to stand up. In looking at the pics, I noticed that her figure has always been impossibly unrealistic. Only her color and hair styles were truly updated. That’s sad. Millions of little girls trying to live up to her ‘standard’ and failing miserably because you’d have to have surgery to have a figure like hers.

@smudges I heard the same thing, and if you look at the size of Barbie’s feet, they’re tiny compared to her head.

Typo: waist.

There are bad body messages all around us from real live people. I never compared myself to Barbie, she was a doll.

I know there are women who change their looks to look like Barbie, but that is a bizarre extreme.

As far as feet, I hated how big my feet were, but that was because they were bigger than most of my friends and because the display shoes are 6 and 7 and I am a 9. Because designers bring in trends like pointy shoes, which make your feet look even bigger.

Woman all around are squeezing into girdles and getting surgery to make their waist smaller and boobs bigger. You could get rid of Barbie altogether and I think that would still exist.

When Barbie first came into stores, she wasn’t a doctor, lawyer, astronaut, or anything other than a fashion model.

I guess fashion model made sense so they could sell fashion outfits for the doll.

I never was into playing with a doll to act out a scenario, but a close friend of mine is a successful author, and when her mom asked her where did she get all of the story ideas she writes about she replied, “playing with Barbies as a kid.”

There’s no doubt Barbie was a mix of good and bad messaging; in the end she was a business. Young girls worry about being pretty even without Barbie, and want to be thought of as pretty.

I don’t think that we should expect a toy doll to conform to realistic human proportions. I think it was shaped in such a way that it was pleasing as a toy to look at and play with. Had it been “realistic” I’m not sure if it would have caught on.

@Blackwater_Park like kids’ Transformer toys, right?

yes, or GI Joe, Cabbage patch kids etc.

@Blackwater_Park Or Bratz, in the notable back and forth lawsuit

Facebook has been sending me photos of movie stars from the 50’s and 60’s and Barbie was not that far off. Elizabeth Taylor, Georgia Holt, Barbara Eden, Ann Margaret, Lauren Bacall, just to name a few.