"oh barbie was the first woman dol, it was only babies before her"
crepereia tryphaena didn't die for this kind of slander
crepereia tryphaena (2nd or 3rd century CE) did not die at the age of 20 and get buried with her clearly beloved ivory lady doll for this
(this doll had fucking JEWELRY. and G*rwig says Barbie was the first fashion doll? give me a break)
honestly, most of the Firsts or Onlys people want to attribute to Barbie aren't real.
"but she was the first fashion doll meant for play, not just showing off clothing!"
there's actually less evidence of dolls meant only for displaying new fashions in history than dolls intended for children to play with AND to incidentally show their mothers and older sisters the latest styles. even so-called "milliners' models" of the late 18th-early 19th century are now believed to have been primarily toys
"but she was the first one with a [cis] woman's body!"
see above. the ancient Roman doll has breasts. she was not the last doll with breasts before Barbie- and lots of the intervening lady dolls weren't flat due to prudishness as many suppose, but because the same bodies were often used for male dolls. saves money, work, and time to just bang out a bunch of gender-neutral stuffed or carved bodies and let the clothes and hair determine the gender. Creatable World isn't new, either
the reson for Barbie's massive success wasn't that she was the First Fashion Doll in a sea of baby dolls. it's that she filled a very specific niche that was empty when she came along: a small, relatively affordable fashion doll that gave a 3-D paper doll experience. (Everyone likes to talk about Barbie's roots with the Bild Lilli doll; nobody brings up that Ruth Handler was equally inspired by her daughter's movie star paper dolls.)
lady dolls WERE scarce when Barbie came out, and she DID face pushback for her adult, somewhat sexy look. That's true. But she was not unique in history- she was just the right idea, in the right place, at the right time
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