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Opinion

Barbie and the bimbo-fication of American Jewish women

Jewish women can't be reduced to stereotypes

July 19, 2023 10:57
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3 min read

Though Barbies were to be found strewn across the floors of most of my compadres’ bedrooms back in 1980s Massachusetts, she was not welcome in the Strimpel household. Even if I had been a Barbie fan, which I was not, it’s unlikely my taste would have been indulged: the doll seemed like an emblem of an America that felt alien and hostile. My parents, who emigrated from London to the Boston area in 1983, had a more naturalistic, European take on gender.

Perhaps if we’d known Barbie was Jewish, it’d have taken some of the sheen off her platinum hair, absurd curves and legs up to her ears. But Barbie’s Jewish roots mostly remained obscure. Until now, and the release this week of the new movie directed by Greta Gerwig and co-written by her husband Noah Baumbach.

Gerwig and Baumbach have given a smart edge to the narrative of a doll that was first brought to market by two Jewish immigrants. Ruth Handler, nee Moskowicz, was the daughter of a poor Colorado blacksmith from Poland, who, with her husband Elliot Handler, went on to found toy giant Mattel. The Barbie story began with a trip to Switzerland in 1956, when Handler clapped eyes on Lili, a German sex doll, and decided to recreate her for the American market. Only this time it would be for girls, not grown men. Ernst Ditcher, an Austrian psychologist, deployed Freudian concepts of gender to sell this hyper-feminine, totally unrealistic image of womanhood to girls the world over.

So Barbie’s blank smile and archetypal all-American look masks a history of Jewish striving and ingenuity. Baumbach and Gerwig have also made her into a more interesting and, yes, feminist, figure in the film than she’s ever been: it’s Barbie, not dithering, airhead Ken, who thinks and acts courageously here.

Topics:

Barbie

Film