On Barbie’s 57th birthday, Sasha Selavie gives us a brief history of the iconic toy.
Is Barbie the pervert’s princess? Oh, maybe not intentionally, but certainly her origins should raise any queen’s fastidiously arched eyebrows. You see once – believe it or not – there was a Western world totally bereft of an as yet-undreamt of Barbie. But suddenly – in the pouting, highly sexualized middle of the 1950s, an era typified by the breathily flirtatious Marilyn Monroe – a slinkily erotic doll changed children’s toyland forever.
Her name? Bild Lilli, adapted from a wildly popular German comic-strip, featuring a heroine who killingly updated the legendary depravity of Berlin’s anything-goes Weimar Republic era. You think Lady Gaga’s striking? Then take a look at period photos of Lilli – she’s a post-modern, wet dream of an über-hooker personified! Tall, pony-tailed, with scarlet dagger fingernails, highly arched eyebrows and lashings of eyeliner, she was an instant, irresistible role model for awestruck legions of future Ru Pauls!
What were Lilli’s leering designers thinking? Were they high on a baroque, frenzied intake of schnapps and the cheap amphetamines and cocaine first synthesized by a Germany fixated on super-efficient stimulants? Possibly, but in a more innocent or simply indifferent world where paedophilia was yet to be exhaustively pathologised, all kinds of outrages – remember Jimmy Saville? – routinely happened.
So OK, maybe Lilli wasn’t intended to be an outright, Reeperbahn street tart, but unmistakably, she epitomized a text-book exhibitionist, gold-digging floozy. No wonder hordes of wide-eyed, superficially innocent German kids, sick to death of fluffy Tinkerbelles adored her – finally, they had a shockingly outrageous, morally dangerous bedroom toy!
Not surprisingly, Lilli’s instant, massive success detonated predatory, cash-cow greed in watching American toymakers across the Atlantic. Sexually sparked by blanket, media bombardment of the bosoms of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and their endless, talent-free clones, Mattel created an all-American Lilli for the USA.
Her name? Barbie, and ever since, mischievously humorous queens have preferred to believe her name’s a coded reference to barbiturates, the preferred, recreational kick for millions of strung-out, 1950s Americans!
But, it was a difficult birth – Barbie was born fully grown. Why, her designers spent months simply coaxing Barbie’s Pamela Anderson-sized bosom off the drawing board, let alone the rest of her astoundingly unfeasible physique. But, life proved lonely at the top. Though Barbie was an instant smash, gaining life-long devotion at the knock-down price of $1.99, she remained sadly unattached until 1961, the year Ken came on the scene, spectacularly suffering from hair loss. Sporting a fully-flocked hairdo that went west when wet, Ken’s crippled self-esteem didn’t recover until he was re-released as a steroid beefcake in 1969.
Shrewdly, this time around he didn’t miss a trick, complete with groovy, psychedelic couture and firmly-rooted Beatle bangs. Still, obviously a solo career was beyond his reach, but as a natural born accessory, Ken positively sparkled. He proceeded to attack 70s disco with a frenzy only equaled by Sylvester and the Village People, and his outfits were to die for. No expense was spared; both Oscar de la Renta and Warhol associate Halston were approached to maintain Ken’s cutting-edge cool.
And the living doll style legacy they inaugurated has succeeded brilliantly – these days, we’re awash with plastic-influenced perverts and people! The seven-foot, female masking icon Pandemonia’s a memorably startling scene queen, quite aside from the millions of suburban, amateur ‘maskers’ worldwide. And look at the entire cast of TOWIE – there’s more plastic in those scary faces than a Lego factory. But much more interestingly, according to Barbie’s Queer Accessories by Eric Rand, there’s an entire subculture dedicated to queerly fetishising and modifying Kens and Barbies, with some besotted, female fans even using their Barbies as dildos!
Fascinated? Then pick up Warhol muse Billy Boy’s exhaustive Barbie: Her Life and Times. Owning a staggering 11,000 Barbies and 3,000 Kens – when on earth does he find time and space to screw? – and painted as Barbie by Warhol, he’s the living Bible of Barbie-ology! So, let’s wish Barbie a fabulous 57th birthday – she’s the reigning queen of gorgeous superficiality!
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