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Barbie mania on Instagram 💕

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A gimmick in toys that feels particularly 90s to me, even though I have no evidence to suggest whether it actually was more popular in the 90s, is being scented. Especially artificial fruit scents that smell more like colours than fruit.

I'll be honest - this post was partly inspired by a Reddit post I read a while ago and kind of can't stop thinking about, where someone found a 1993 Paint n Dazzle Barbie that was mysteriously grape-scented and they weren't sure if this was intentional.

(There's also a whole other post in Paint n Dazzle Barbie and other customizable dolls of that ilk - but right now I'm thinking about scents.)

When I think of scented Barbies, my mind goes immediately to my buddy Blaine and the rest of the Cali Girls line, who were sunscreen scented.

But naturally, this wasn't the only one. Back in the 1980s, when Barbie still hung around with PJ, there was a rose-scented PJ.

Remarkable to me specifically because you don't get a lot of rose-scented children's toys.

Mixing the two conceptually was Tropical Splash Barbie from 1994 - like the 2000s Cali Girl line she is a beachy fun Barbie, but like Sweet Roses PJ she is floral scented.

Sweet N Pretty were a series of fashion packs from 1994 featuring a variety of different outfits in either peppermint or tutti fruitti scents.

(It took me three tries to spell tutti fruitti, and I was looking at a picture of the product in question.)

The 1998 Fruit Fantasy Barbies lean more into what I think of as the classic fruity flavours.

But I think Fruit Style Barbie and her friends from 2002 really round up the gang. I can practically smell the fruity scents and I don't own one.

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Review of Brooklyn 65-th Anniversary, Blue Sapphire by Mattel, 2024 💎

Today we are reviewing one of the two dolls of the Barbie 65-th Anniversary series - cute and positive Brooklyn. The packaging of the doll has a very stylish and bright look, the colors used fully correspond to the concept of the Barbie holiday. The box is shaped, on the back of which there is a small excursion into the history of the creation of the series. The doll belongs to Black Label, the package includes a certificate and a model stand for the doll with a black base and mother-of-pearl stand.

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Talking Barbie prototype with a clear torso, used during the initial development stages in order to highlight how her internal talking mechanism looked/worked.

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Barbie Flowers in Fashion The Calla Lily (2002) » Moschino spring/summer 2018 rtw

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Hi! I've been thinking about your issue with the indigenous dolls, and unfortunately I don't think there is a right answer. (An aside - Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and the Arctic dolls have these same issues) The problem is cultural appropriation and colonialism. NONE of these dolls should have been made, but they were. There's no changing that - no matter how horrifically bad most of them are. Since Mattel lumped them into broad categories, I would leave them as they are and just add a disclaimer, about offensive language and doll/clothing designs (Amazonia and Ancient Mexico are two of the worst).

You know what — that’s a good point. I was able to identify a lot of problems with the Arctic dolls, and I knew that many of the others felt uncomfortable, but I did not stop to consider the full extent of how much appropriation and flattening of different cultural groups within a country into one umbrella was occurring.

I could do better about providing disclaimers across all the dolls about how they may depict culturally appropriative designs and/or offensive depictions of other cultures, and making it clear that these depictions are representative of what Mattel did over the years even though this was not appropriate and I’m not sure even if Mattel would stand by it in 2024.

Thank you for sending this, I do really appreciate it.

(And apologies if I have said anything inappropriate in my response!)

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Thus far I have created polls to break down all the dolls in the Dolls of the World line that represent the same country or cultural group with, as far as I can tell (and it is very possible I've missed one), two exceptions.

These two exceptions being Native American and Pacific Islander.

I have just made a post talking about my problems with how to discuss the Native American dolls, so I'd like now to talk about the Pacific Islander dolls.

Polynesian Barbie was the first doll in the Dolls of the World line representing the Pacific Islands. Specifically, the back of her box says she is from the Polynesian Triangle, a region which includes Hawaii, Tahiti and New Zealand. Her box then goes on to talk about Hawaiian culture before signing off with a Tahitian goodbye.

She was followed by Princess of the Pacific Islands, who is described on the box as being from the "tropical paradise of Hawaii".

And then finally by Hawaii, USA Barbie, who is of course from Hawaii.

As a result, I am not sure whether it would be appropriate to combine these three dolls as "Hawaii" or as "Pacific Islands", whether "Hawaii" and "Princess of the Pacific Islands" are the same but "Polynesian" is not, or whether all three are separate.

I am genuinely at a loss.

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Thus far I have created polls to break down all the dolls in the Dolls of the World line that represent the same country or cultural group with, as far as I can tell (and it is very possible I've missed one), two exceptions.

These two exceptions being Native American and Pacific Islander.

If I can break down the trouble I am having with these two.

To my knowledge, there are 5 different dolls in the Dolls of the World line named "Native American Barbie", one named "Northwest Coast Native American Barbie" and one named "Princess of the Navajo". The majority of these dolls do not provide any further context on the doll packaging to indicate if they are specifically referring to a particular culture under the Native American umbrella. Their costumes may indicate specific tribes, but if so, I am not informed enough to know.

Pictured above are 1993 and 1994, both presented as Native American but with nothing more specific listed.

1995, whose box text indicates she is from the Southern Plains.

1996 and 1998 which are again unspecified - 1998 mentions Navajo and Hupa on her box text, but uses these as examples of Native American tribes without claiming identification with either.

And then Northwest Coast Native American Barbie and Princess of the Navajo.

I do not know enough about Native American culture to know whether it would be appropriate to combine these into one group and create a poll asking to pick which one is the best, but it does not feel respectful. It also does not feel appropriate to exclude them from the bracket. So I am at an impasse.

(Pacific Islander Barbies discussed in a separate post.)

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Winner: Spain Barbie (2007)!

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Winner: Princess of India!

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Winner: Scotland Barbie!

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In honour of Lesbian Visibility Day (April 26th) I wanted to touch on a few of the Barbies over the years who represent lesbian women.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Abby Wambach (@abbywambach)

The first lesbian Barbie released - at least to my knowledge, and according to a couple of articles on the subject - was the 2016 Shero Barbie modeled after gold medalist soccer player Abby Wambach.

Technically, of course, this isn't really the case, as there was a Rosie O'Donnell Barbie released in 1999.

O'Donnell didn't come out of the closet as a lesbian until 2002 though, so it may be true that Wambach was the first Barbie modeled after someone known to Mattel as being a lesbian.

In 2019, Barbie included Sally Ride in the Inspiring Women range, and then in 2020, added Billie Jean King. Unlike the Wambach doll, these dolls were actually released as dolls that could be purchased by the general population.

No doubt there are many missing from this post, as of course many, many of the women being honoured by the Sheroes and Inspiring Women lines are honoured for reasons besides their sexual orientation - so although many of them may be queer, it's not always the first thing that pops up on a search.

Mattel has been on and off over the years over whether and how much queer representation they can include in the Barbie brand, but at least they're trying?

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I know I do a lot of posts themed around "today is international x day" but you guys are lucky I have any restraint at all because I could be doing six times as many of these

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