Even Barbie's birth, such as it was, sprung as a fully formed plastic woman, was a knock against traditional expectations: ...

The inspiration for Barbie came from an observation Ruth Handler made while watching her daughter, Barbara, play with paper ...

Visitors can walk through a huge, human-scaled Barbie dream house that’s a re-creation of the 1979 plastic version. The ...

She observed that Barbara and her friends were playing with paper dolls and pretending ... as a sexual gag gift for men. Ruth saw her as a blueprint for Barbie. An adult female doll for children ...

would want to play with a doll with breasts. Still, Barbie’s sales took off, but by 1963 women were protesting the same body men had ridiculed. That year, a teen Barbie was sold with a diet book ...