Architect Barbie. [Image courtesy of Mattel]Eleven-and-a-half inches tall, made of polyvinyl chloride and synthetic fibers, Barbie made her debut on March 9, 1959, at the big toy fair in New York City.
With her zebra-striped swimsuit and top-knotted ponytail (blonde or brunette, your choice), Barbie looked ready-made for fun. But like her creator
Ruth Handler, president of Mattel, she's a career girl.
Back at the beginning Barbie was a "teenage fashion model." But she quickly moved on and up, and the resumé is mind-boggling. In the '60s Barbie was an astronaut, a ballerina, a business executive and a babysitter. In the '70s, '80s and '90s she was surgeon and doctor, gymnast and aerobics instructor, ambassador for world peace and (yes) McDonald's cashier. Also a paleontologist, a firefighter, and the guest editor of a fashion magazine.
An impressive (and actually only partial) list; and it got longer when Mattel introduced the
"I Can Be ..." series in 2001, allowing the public to vote for Barbie's new careers. So lately Barbie's been a veterinarian, gym coach, swim teacher, racecar driver and rock star. Last year she did a stint as a computer engineer.
But — you've probably guessed this by now — in more than 50 years Barbie's never been an architect.
Until now. Earlier this month at the same big toy fair in NYC where Barbie began, Mattel unveiled Architect Barbie.
Like so many milestones in women's history, Architect Barbie happened not by chance but by campaign. And the driving force behind the campaign is architectural historian Despina Stratigakos. A professor in the architecture department at SUNY/Buffalo, Stratigakos got interested in Barbie's curriculum vitae during a fellowship at the University of Michigan, where in 2007 she staged the exhibition
Architect Barbie. The author of an
award-winning book on women architects in prewar Germany, Stratigakos made the clear connections to a field where, as she wrote in a statement for the Michigan exhibition, "We cannot comfortably claim that the profession's history of exclusion lies behind us. Although the number of female students averages about 40 percent in Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture programs, these women have not found their way into licensed practice, which remains about 87 percent male ..."
But even then Stratigakos had the big prize in view: "As a scholar and educator deeply concerned with making architecture not only relevant to little girls, but also women relevant to architecture, I hope to persuade Mattel to reconsider the viability of Architect Barbie."
So in the spring of 2010, when Mattel announced that the public would be able to vote on Barbie's next career — her 125th! — Stratigakos teamed up with Kelly Hayes McAlonie, president-elect of AIA New York State and a biographer of architect
Louise Bethune, who practiced in Buffalo at the turn of the 20th century, and was perhaps the first licensed woman architect in the world. Stratigakos and Hayes McAlonie campaigned long and hard, and though Architect Barbie didn't win, she got so many votes, and from all around the globe, that Mattel asked the two women, both AIA members, to collaborate with them.
And now, according to a post at
toyXplosion.com, "There's a new doll coming to the Barbie I Can Be... line this Fall 2011. ... Ready to tackle the daily responsibilities of a real architect in or out of the office, Barbie I Can Be... Architect includes a hard hat and a set of blue prints. ..." Mattel describes her outfit — pink and blue dress, black jacket and boots — as "symmetrically stylish with bold colors and clean lines."
Welcome to architecture, Barbie.
Comments [39]
02.18.11
01:38
02.18.11
02:53
Architect Barbie couldn't wear such a skimpy outfit to the office which is inevitably full of old men or to the construction site which is full of construction workers. She would wear faded black pants and a shirt that is wrinkled from sleeping under her desk. Her teeth would be bad because she won't have dental insurance and her stomach would be pouchy from a bad diet hurriedly scarfed down at her desk. Her accessories should include a paycheck that is 30% less than the men's, anti-depressants, and IBS medication.
02.18.11
04:04
02.18.11
04:18
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/04/garden/currents-aspirations-a-2001-role-model-far-beyond-barbie.html
02.18.11
06:25
02.18.11
09:38
02.19.11
02:09
What most impresses me is that Web 2.0 style gradient shading on her skirt. Architect Barbie must be way into parametrics. And given that she actually IS an injection-molded plastic blob -- yeah, we all know the market's tough, but at least she's out-there.
02.19.11
10:55
02.19.11
01:31
02.19.11
02:47
02.19.11
07:33
02.20.11
12:53
then - she looks too pinky - she has to be pale and stressed...
and the last - architects wear trousers and BLACK sweaters or shirts...
RE-DO her :))))
02.20.11
01:06
02.20.11
10:22
Can we campaign for other Barbie professions? I'd like to see what Graphic Designer for Social Change Barbie would look like.
02.20.11
10:30
02.20.11
10:52
Perhaps she intends to do her own demolition.
02.21.11
08:58
02.21.11
09:29
02.21.11
02:57
And unfortunately, instead of filling Barbie’s closet with the garb of her professions, hobbies, and grand adventures, it has been lined floor to ceiling in Christian Louboutin’s pink peep toe runway-height heels. Here's the article on it: http://bit.ly/fvvOvQ
I have to wonder what this communicates to kids about life, fame, priorities, AND design.
02.21.11
03:01
- Integraphix, a Chicago Marketing Company
http://www.chicagomarketingcompany.co
02.21.11
03:12
Even though the design of her pink model house isn't much, I quite like the philosophical implications of a model-sized figure with her own (scaled-down) model house. Is there a tiny architect Barbie to fit in that little pink model house, a figure who has her *own* scaled-down model house? In which an even smaller Barbie can be found, who has her own...
I suppose you could package it as an infinite nesting series, called "Homonculus Barbie."
02.21.11
03:32
02.21.11
08:20
02.23.11
01:16
02.23.11
08:12
Lets try to campaign for a black architect barbie...see how many more years that would take to happen.
02.24.11
02:02
02.25.11
07:12
I also see black cardigan with pants; a dead silence would fall over the entire construction crew if Barbie showed up in that get up....
02.25.11
09:14
02.25.11
05:03
I'd say the her boots aren't so far off...
02.26.11
01:51
I’ve been following the latest comments on this blog about Architect Barbie. As a woman designer of blocks/construction sets I am interested in the role of gender and block play. I wonder if more girls would want to be architects if they played with blocks and construction sets. Check my blog for further comments on this provocative subject.
http://learningmaterialswork.com/blog/2011/02/does-architect-barbie-play-with-blocks/
03.02.11
03:08
... maybe if you all took a leaf out of Ellie and Barbie's book you would still be in work too, designing houses as stylish as they are.
03.03.11
06:51
I don't think most Women Architects, young or old, dress like Barbie, nor Ken for that matter. It would be unfortunate for young girls to be discouraged from a career of creating buildings & places by thinking that's what an architect looks like.
Hopefully Mattel has planned to have many types of outfits for Architect Barbie, so little girls can make their own choices. If not, I hope these budding architects will continue to just create & build things instead.
03.03.11
07:54
Most architects spend probably 5% of their time on a construction site. I somehow doubt Barbie will show up at the office wearing construction boots. She probably has it in the boot of her car.
03.14.11
05:37
03.14.11
10:54
05.09.11
08:53
06.08.11
02:33
08.08.11
03:44
10.29.11
09:32