Barbie’s body was inspired by erotic comics; understand the controversy of how the doll was born

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Barbie’s distant cousin, the character Lilli was successful in Germany in the 1950s as a kind of luxury escort who got into trouble with rich men. In an interview, Lilli’s creator said he was ‘outraged’ when he found out about the doll and that he considered suing Mattel. Barbie’s body was inspired by erotic comics; understand The movie ‘Barbie’ hit theaters this Thursday (20) raising discussions about the influence of the most famous doll in the world on pop culture. Blonde, tall and voluptuously proportioned, Barbie hit the market in 1959 as a sort of “big sister who could guide girls into adolescence,” in the words of Ruth Handler, the doll’s creator and co-founder of Mattel. According to Handler, the idea of ​​creating the most famous doll in the world came about when he observed that his daughter Barbara was playing dress-up with paper dolls – dating back to the 18th century in France, they were used by women who ordered dresses to test how clothes would look on their bodies. The inspiration for Barbie’s body came years later, in 1956. During a trip to Switzerland, Ruth Handler met the Lilli doll, a model created for adults that reproduced a comic character published in the German newspaper Bild. Lilli, the ‘callgirl’ Illustration of the character Bild Lilli Reproduction In the illustration, Lilli was a woman who related to several rich men, won luxurious gifts and got into funny situations with them. The comics made puns with the character’s profession, implying that she would be a kind of luxury escort. The comics showed Lilli in an office answering the phone, but she was comically described as a “call girl”. In English and German, the term is slang for “call girl”, which gives a dubious connotation to the character’s profession. In an interview with a fashion foundation in Switzerland, Lilli creator Rolf Hausser described the character as “a symbol of her time”. “She was sexy, young, innocent, fresh,” Hausser said in an interview with the journalist. Rolf Hausser also said that he had no idea that a version of Lilli was popular with children in the United States. “I was outraged when I saw this doll. This was my Lilli with a different name. What did these people do? They stole my doll? I didn’t know what happened.” the first Barbie, created in 1959. Reproduction Even before the release of the film, Barbie becomes a craze, spreads pink on social networks and gains exposure; see details G1 ALREADY SEEN: ‘Barbie’ makes fun and humanizes doll in creative feminist satire Barbie: more than 200 professions In 1977, Ruth Handler commented to the New York Times about Barbie’s adult inspiration: “Every girl needed a doll to project her future. 16 or 17 years old, it would be kind of stupid to play with a doll that was a board. So I gave her beautiful breasts.” With the slogan “you can be whatever you want”, the doll dominated the imagination of girls at a time when North American women were entering the job market and began to imagine an existence beyond domestic life and motherhood: baby dolls left the scene and the multifaceted “big sister” arrived. From astronaut to president, Barbie has had more than 200 professions – none similar to Lilli, a kind of “distant cousin” who was successful in Germany in the 1950s.

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