In `Barbie Nation,’ every girl has the freedom to dream
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Every girl, big and small, has a Barbie story. And every Barbie story tells a broader story about the millions of girls who invite the ubiquitous doll into their dreams. Susan Stern, an investigative reporter-turned-filmmaker, explores a few of these stories in “Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour,” a P.O.V. feature presentation on PBS.
“I don’t collect Barbies. I collect Barbie stories, says Stern, whose camera captures the absurdities of a Barbie Festival in the South and the poignancy of Barbie playtime in the trenches of Croatia.
Among the most fascinating stories is the one about Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, who with her husband, Elliot, co-founded Mattel, Inc. In 1959, she imagined offering girls an adult doll and–in a stroke of genius–liberated them from “playing mommy,” because “the only dolls available on the market were baby dolls,” she recalls.
Thus a legend was born. The rest is history, or rather, our stories. Check them out. “Barbie Nation” airs July 14 at 11 p.m. on WTTW-Channel 11.