Why Is ‘Barbie’ Such a Cultural Phenomenon?

Why is Barbie causing so much hysteria?

Well, for a candy-colored kaleidoscope of reasons. What is undeniably one of the most anticipated and talked-about blockbusters of the summer, the OTT pink-ified flick is already being viewed as a much needed escape hatch from starker realities, like the war in Ukraine, inflationary woes and worldwide extreme weather patterns.

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Added to that are Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Dua Lipa, Issa Rae, Will Ferrell and the rest of the vast all-star cast and director Greta Gerwig’s diversified spin on the blond-haired, blue-eyed doll’s modern life and a $100 million budget.

How much of that was earmarked for the marketing blitz is anyone’s guess, but the global media frenzy for all things Barbie continues to whirl with CNN, Yahoo, Teen Vogue, Time magazine, NPR, The Guardian, The New Yorker and a myriad other outlets tapping into the traffic-driving cultural phenomenon. Hitting theaters July 21, “Barbie” is reportedly expected to generate more than $93 million at the box office on its opening weekend — a substantial hike compared to initial lowball estimate of $55 million.

Part of the frenzy stems from a few generations of childhood nostalgia for a toy that first appeared on the scene in a strapless black-and-white zigzag swimsuit in 1959. Plus, Barbie, a high school graduate, is no slouch — not just statuesquely but professionally, having been portrayed in 250-plus careers — pilot, president and journalist, among others. She appeared as “Miss Astronaut” in 1965 — four years before Apollo 11 landed humans on the moon for the first time.

In true brainy Barbie fashion, Robbie doesn’t just play the lead, she is coproducer and bought the film rights with Warner Bros. and Mattel. In a recent interview, Gerwig described writing the screenplay with her partner Noah Baumbach with “this sense of wanting to make something anarchic and wild and completely bananas.”

Apparently, that has happened even though millions of moviegoers have only seen the trailer. More than a catchphrase or marketing gimmick, Barbiecore has taken hold. An innumerable amount of fans, fanatics and even foes have been warmed up to the preponderance of pink that is awash in fashion and mass market products alike. Seven years after the fashion journalist Véronique Hyland coined the term “Millennial Pink,” shoppers’ interest in that sharp hue, as well as rose, bubblegum, hot pink, barely there pink and everything in between, hasn’t waned. Nor has designers’ preference for the shade. Cue the just-out Heaven by Marc Jacobs and Blumarine collaboration and pink carpet looks from Gucci, Pucci, Valentino, Prada and more for last Sunday’s world premiere in Los Angeles. Marc Bouwer made two Barbie pink body-hugging gowns — one with sequins and one in velvet — for Barbie actress Issa Rae for last weekend’s premiere. He also Barbie-fied the musician H.E.R. in a shimmery minidress for the event.

Through the decades, Christian Dior, Jeremy Scott, Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, The Blonds and a host of other designers have reimagined Barbie. From the start when Mattel’s cofounder Ruth Handler debuted the 11.5-inch “Barbara Millicent Roberts,” fashion has been nearly synonymous with the doll. A 100-person team of designers, makeup artists and other specialists are needed to create a Barbie doll and her fashion.

With distribution in 150 countries, more than 100 Barbies are sold every minute, according to Mattel. More than 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold, with the first one retailing for $3 and what is believed to have been the most expensive one going for $302,500 in a 2010 charity auction.

For more than 35 years, Carol Spencer oversaw Barbie’s style as Mattel’s designer for the doll. Spencer declined an interview request to discuss why there is such anticipation for the “Barbie” movie at a time when advertisers and the fashion industry have moved away from such stereotypical beauty images to portray more diversity. “Mattel is doing a great job with diversity,” she offered.

In fact, Barbie released one of its first Black dolls, “Christie,” in 1968 in support of equal rights. To usher Barbie into the real world in 2023, the feature film features music from heavily-followed top-notch talent Lupa, Lizzo, Aqua, Nick Minaj and Khalid. Lizzo felt so strongly about Barbiecore that her Yitty label has introduced the Summer Doll House collection, which has an eye-popping palette that nods to Barbie pink. On tour and unavailable for an interview, the four-time Grammy winner’s tie-in is on brand with the song she performs in the flick, “Pink.”

Boohoo is serving up ways to Barbie-fy wardrobes, Barbiecore also has seeped into other industries, including beverages like Swoon Barbie Pink Lemonade. (It’s on-brand message may also be that it is sugar free.) A pink bodysuit-clad Kim Kardashian debuted her Alani Nu collaboration with a Barbie-inspired workout shoot. Kendra Scott, Riley Rose, Dr. Martens, Paris Texas and Sprayground are among the myriad brands trying to cash in on Barbiecore. During this month’s Miami Swim Week, Moda Minx, Vasaro, and BCHLX presented a “Ken & Friends” fashion show.

So why are people seemingly going bananas over the upcoming release of “Barbie?” Advertising aficionado Jean Kilboune, who’s known for her groundbreaking work on women in advertising, chalked that up to childhood nostalgia, a mighty marketing campaign (that kicked off April 4) and the viral memes that have become “its own huge thing.” Millions have been using the Barbie Selfie Generator to insert themselves into the Barbie landscape.

Just as Gosling’s mannerisms as Barbie’s companion “Ken” are almost doll-like or avatar-inspired, Kilboune said the memes then encourage consumers to be their own avatars. “This is a lightweight, fun film with a star-studded cast in the midst of what is a difficult time for most of us. People worry about climate change, the wars and on and on. This seems like the perfect diversion,” she said.

Having spoken publicly about Barbie’s negative effect on girls’ body image, Kilbourne suspects Gerwig is “very hip to that” and will play up Barbie in her many career manifestations rather than as a sex symbol.

As for whether the film could have residual effects on modeling, advertising, or people’s sense of identity, Kiboune said, “So many dfferent actors of different races are playing Barbie in different roles. If anything, that might be helpful. I’m no huge fan of Barbie, and never have been. But I do know that Mattel has been trying in the last few years to make her body slightly more realistic, using different body types and professions. This film will be more in that direction than Barbie the perfect, absurd body type.”

Intrigued by how Barbie has been and remains an object of such fascination, the Museum at FIT’s executive director Valerie Steele said that probably is related to her controversial status. “She started out in Germany being sort of being the sex doll [referring to the German-made ‘Bild Lilli’ doll that inspired Barbie]. Then she came here and was the teenage fashion doll in the ’50s and early ’60s, wearing clothes that were like miniatures of high fashion with different colors and styles. It wasn’t until the ’70s that she became a very young girl’s stereotypical pink person — her smile got bigger, her hair got blonder and longer and her wardrobe got more stereotypically pink because the company was aiming toward much younger girls and some little boys.”

And pinkifying everything allowed manufacturers to sell more add-items. Steele, who orchestrated the 2018 exhibition “Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color,” noted that Barbie pink is closer to the shocking Schiaparelli pink than the original little girl pink that was sweet, candy and soft. “Except it’s sort of made more vulgar by being in plastic and in junky materials instead of glamorous silk satin. Barbie had all these layers of meaning including this is a cheap plastic toy for little kids.”

Love it or hate it, pink is the most controversial color in modern fashion. Despite a swing away from all that Instagram[-friendly] color to black, “there are still a lot of people who keep pink close to their hearts. There is an overlap with those people and Barbie people,” Steele said. (Perhaps sardonically, Robbie donned a black Schiaparelli gown for Sunday’s global premiere.)

For many decades, Barbie has been a subject of real interest not just for little girls, but for grown-ups too, according to Steele, who published a Barbie book in 1998. As for the universal appeal, Steele said, “It’s kind of the epitome of a particular stereotype of a woman. Whether you like it, view it critically or campily, it’s a very strong image.”

Noting how if you scratch the surface, there are Barbie fanatics everywhere, Steele recalled that the now-shuttered Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop had a whole section dedicated to Barbie with such titles as “Barbie’s Queer Accessories.”

Gosling’s pink-loving “Ken” style is not new, as men have been sporting pink since the ’80s. Steele noted how pink has been an important part of queer culture, as well as in the African diaspora as evidenced by Black men in the U.S., the Caribbean and Africa. That’s also the case in Latin America and India. “Men in Japan have also favored pink not just for decades, but [going] back to ideas of young masculine beauty,” she said.

As for the idea of embracing Barbie at a time when advertising and fashion have turned to a more inclusive anti-stereotype, Steele said, “Has it? Has it really? I think that was a nanosecond and just in America. You never really saw it in Europe. It’s very discouraging. There was a period after [the murder of] George Floyd, when there was more emphasis on diversity. But I don’t see that as being something the fashion world has really significantly gotten behind even today — sadly.”

While Barbie is a stereotype of a certain feminity, of white feminity in particular, Steele said non-white Barbies were introduced in the ’70s — an indicator that other people wanted that glamour image as well. Acknowledging how many gay men have latched onto Barbie, Steele said, “Barbie’s significance cannot be limited to ‘white girl with heterosexual male-attracting figure. There’s some of that in there but there’s all kinds of other coding.” Case in point: the many ways that artists have treated Barbie to critique, celebrate, to identify with, etc. (Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton and Peter Marx were among them.)

Allowing how the film industry “can create a buzz faster than you can turn around,” Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, noted how even the erroneous reports of global pink paint shortage — when in fact one paint domestic company’s supply was depleted and due partially to ongoing supply chain issues — generates more attention about the film regardless of credibility.

“The release is happening at a time when people are looking for entertainment that will be uplifting. Even though some of the themes may not be uplifting, the movie rekindles the feeling they had with their first Barbie doll, dressing her and their excitement for her. It also could resonate with their children and grandchildren. Pink is a signifier of childhood, happy times, excitement and wonderful memories. Mostly, when kids are playing dolls, there are happy times. The bottom line with the popularity is that it’s so relatable as a feel-good positive color,” Eiseman said.

That said, shocking pinks have seen a slow growth in recent years, appearing in not just spring collections but fall ones, too, including Valentino’s fall 2022-23, Eiseman said. Last year’s Schiaparelli exhibition in Paris at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs was another attention-getter. “It’s not as though pink has just jumped into everyone’s consciousness now. It’s been there and building as time has gone on. Now taking it back to the childhood Barbie color has excited everyone, whether you were or weren’t a child who had a Barbie doll,” Eiseman said.

That positivity means that many won’t tire of the film no matter how many times their children want to watch it, Eiseman said. The film’s trailers alone have impressed Eiseman. “The usage of the color pink is fantastic in every way — the graphics designers, animators need to get an award. Even how the change in the lighting was done on the dance floor so that it doesn’t become boring will be fascinating to people.”

Inevitably, the prevalence of pink will have an effect not just on consumers, but designers, too, “even if it’s tucked away in your mind and [you’re] not openly thinking about it, it pops into play. What designers love to do is what else they can use it with. How do they accessorize it? Do they use it in a print or a pattern? What else helps to justify the use of it?” Eiseman said.

Pink also packs a certain imperviousness and sense of self-protection when you wear the color, as hinted at as Robbie’s Barbie jumps from a pink house into her pink car, Eiseman said with a laugh. “Even though a Barbie doll is thought of in a childhood way, it has a sexual connotation. It runs the gamut, it’s not just a little girl color, but it has a sexy side to it because it descends from red, which is of course all about fashion,” she added.

Not everyone is sold on how “Barbie” is shaping culture. Citing a yet-to-be-published essay she penned for Spur magazine, futurist Geraldine Wharry said, “Is Barbiecore also symptomatic of a loss of personal originality and increasing insecurity…in pushing its virality down our throat, it loses its meaning and becomes a sad reflection of the pressure social media puts on people to conform to a certain trend or look a certain way, especially for young women.”

She added, “Core trends are not emblematic of thriving subcultures but rather a shopping list.”

Wharry also noted, “When examining the popularity of Barbiecore, we can’t ignore Gen Z’s nostalgia for the ’90s and 2000s and the need to create micro-cores. This shows how social media and youth culture crave the pre-internet days when we still had authentic subcultures allowed to grow naturally and not be co-opted by algorithms. There is also the cultural problem that is Hollywood’s lack of originality.”

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