The Barbie movie was recently released, and according to Forbes, its domestic box office numbers shattered the record for the biggest opening for a film with a female director.
Local Barbie collector Linda Levine feels like these popular toys are moving in the right direction.
“It’s always been diverse. Back in the 1960s, Barbie’s cousin Francie was African American, people don’t realize that,” Levine said. “The first official Black Barbie was 1980. The Hispanic Barbie was around that period as well, so she has always had different ethnicities, but with the body types and so forth that became more recent in the last 5 or 6 years.”
Levine said she’s very knowledgeable about things happening in the world of Barbie. She’s the president of a local Barbie club called The Pink Heels of the Central Carolina Fashion Doll Club.
She’s always loved Barbies, and in 1989, she bought her first collector doll. Now, she has over 4,000 boxed dolls, plus more that aren’t inside their boxes.
“I was a Barbie girl. I got my first doll at 4, back in 1976 and didn’t realize there were collector dolls and there really weren’t until the late 1980s,” Levine said. “1988 had the first doll that was called the Holiday Barbie, and that was the first collector doll. It was almost $30.”
While she collects the dolls, Levine also started attending the Barbie Convention with her mom in 2007, and said they haven’t missed one since.
According to Levine, through the years, Barbie was trying to help educate people. They have different Barbies geared toward various cultures and occupations, as well as different hair types and ones representing people with disabilities.
“The ‘Dolls of the World’ is a series that Mattel really tried hard to incorporate information learning. So you have on the back, all different information on the country, some of the language, even little books you can cut out in their money system,” Levine said.
Levine said dressing Barbie in whatever you want is part of the fun, as well as seeing new collections. She said with the Barbie movie out, it’s a time when people are growing their collections.
“I think with the movie one of the benefits has been a more positive feel about Barbie and people are more celebrating the collecting of her rather than some of the judgments in the past that some might have gotten,” Levine said.
Barbie dolls faced criticism for reasons like having negative effects on young girls’ body image and not being inclusive, but Levine said Barbie has progressed. She’s hoping that this new movie will encourage people to learn more about Barbie and understand what the doll is all about.
