Launched in March 1959, in her striped bathing suit, Ruth Handler was credited with the creation of Barbie, the doll with adult characteristics and loved by millions. Now in the year of her 50th birthday, Barbie, also known as Barbara Millicent Roberts, appears to have been popularized by a Yale-educated man who was a swinger from the 70’s. Jack Ryan was a man with a need for manic sexual gratification.

Ryan’s wives included the vivacious Zsa Zsa Gabor. Ryans’ friend, Stephen Gnass  described listening to Ryan talk about Barbie, as if he was discussing a sexual episode. Ryan is said to have patronzed high-class call girls and staged orgies at his Bel-air mansion. Ryan is reported to have suffered from gonorrhea.

Over the years Barbie was meant to have portrayed what is seen as a ‘normal’ kind of life. In 2004 Barbie split from her long time boyfriend, Ken Carson, but in February 2006 they got back together again.

Barbie has been the proud owner of over forty pets which include cats, dogs, horses, a panda, lion cub and even a zebra. Not only was she a flight attendant, she also held a pilot’s license. She has ranged from being an astronaut to a doctor. There is even an Islamic Barbie, called Fulla, along with African and Hispanic Barbies.

In the late 1990’s, the term ‘Barbie’ came to represent any woman who is considered shallow and empty headed. A flow on from the old ‘blondes have all the fun’, syndrome of the 1980’s. The greatest criticism aimed at Barbie was her unrealistic body shape, with the danger of promoting anorexia in young girls. According to the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, any girl with such a shape would lack 17 – 22% body fat required for her to menstruate. Finally in 1997 the Barbie mould was redesigned and given a wider waistline. In 1997 there also came a friend of Barbie in a pink wheelchair.

It was revealed in 2005 that some girls can go through a ‘hate Barbie’ stage, where Barbie can end up being decapitated or put into a microwave oven, in an attempt to end their ‘Barbie Days’. Yet it is also claimed that 90% of well over 100,000 avid Barbie doll collectors are women over 40 years of age. On an average they purchase more than 20 Barbie dolls a year, with 45% of them spending over $1000 annually. An original 1959 Barbie sold for $3. Fully wrapped in a mint-condition box she re-sold for $3552 on eBay in October 2004. The highest recorded price ever paid for a Barbie was nine thousand pounds sterling, at Christies in London. The doll was a Barbie in Midnight Red from 1965 and was part of a private collection of 4,000 Barbie dolls sold by two Dutch women, Ietje Raebel and her daughter Marina.

The original 1959 Barbie has been reproduced to celebrate the 50th birthday.

This ticket was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 2:39 am and is filed under women. You can follow any responses to this ticket through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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