Tiny Shoulders, Rethinking Barbie

Barbie is a way of the past. No one needs this "brand" to show young women what they should be today. Tiny Shoulders is a lesson in bed marketing. Get it right.

If you think Barbie is anti-feminist or teaches some antiquated way for girls to be, you are missing the point. Check out this documentary about Mattel's process of relaunching Barbie. What a complex problem to be faced with. Interviews include Roxane Gay and Gloria Steinem who do not love Barbie. There's also an interesting history of the doll including biographical info on Ruth Handler, her creator.

Whether you love Barbie, are ambivalent towards her, or think she's a bad role model for your daughter, this movie will probably not change your mind.

Interesting primarily from a marketing perspective. A story about good timing, a tenacious founder, and a chance encounter in Germany with a doll named Lil (sold in service stations and marketed to men!) gives way to a drearily self-important discourse in sociology. Yes, fine, Barbie was culturally relevant and yes this is a great big advertisement for woke mattel products. Guaranteed to give any survivors of corporate america (particularly in marketing & PR) severe agita. Trigger alert: Mattel employees with severe upspeak, vocal trill, and tragic buzz word addiction. 90 minutes seems like 4 hours.

I cannot believe that people actually thought Barbie was FORCING people to be skinny. FORCING people into thinking that beauty is white, blonde and skinny.

The very first words from this documentary comes from a woman who says "I'm glad I didn't grow up with Barbie".

I wonder if Barbie has also told people to go rob a bank. People need to take responsibility for themselves. If a toy can dictate your child's future, there is something wrong with the parents.

People need to look around at other things that were influencing children. Maybe famous people like Farrah and Jackie Kennedy. To blame this all on a doll is ridiculous.

I am glad I grew up with Barbie. The toy doll did not tell me to be skinny, blonde or anything else. The Barbie doll did encourage my imagination to play and dream as a little girl..

Stupid movie! it's a doll! I don't think that playing with a pretty doll makes you feel bad or better about yourself. Barbie, if anything shows little girls they can be anything when they grow up. Like a doctor, flight attendant, bee keeper, veterinarian, dentist, astronaut. The movie was basically about people who don't like the way they look blame it on a doll.