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What is the significance of Barbie s journey from toy aisles to screens? Barbie in the Media offers a groundbreaking exploration of Barbie as a transmedia phenomenon. In examining the brand s multifaceted media presence, this volume s chapters consider both Mattel s corporate storytelling about and fans reinterpretations of the iconic doll. Collectively, they reveal that these mediated negotiations of Barbie reflect and contribute to broader discourses about gender and identity in evolving sociopolitical contexts inscribing the doll with ever-changing (and often conflicting) anxieties and dreams. These render the brand s media presence a fascinating site of contested meaning, worthy of the sustained critique that Barbie in the Media offers readers.
List of contents
1. Transcending the Toy Aisle: Understanding Barbie as a Transmedia Phenomenon.- Animating Plastic Girlhood: The Aesthetics of Barbie in Life in the Dreamhouse and Vlogs.- 3. Disrupting the Canon: Animated Barbie and the Adapted Nineteenth Century Novel.- 4. Dolls Best Friends: Barbie in Communion with Animals in Direct-to-DVD Animated Films.- 5. Building Barbie Media: A Model for Doll Based Media Franchises.- 6. Demystification of a Living Doll: Semiotics in Greta Gerwig s Barbie.- 7. An Unintentional and Playful Allegory: Barbie and the Rockers and the Gender Identity Crisis of Reagan s America.- 8. Hey There, Barbie Girl!: The Subversion of Mattel s Commodified Femininity in a 1990s Riot Grrrl.- 9. Barbie s Evolution from Aryan Ideal to Diversity Advocate: A Study of How Eurocentric Bias Remain Challenges in Branding and Transmedia Marketing.- 10. The Veiled Barbie, the Disfigured Barbie, the Miniskirt Barbie: Reflections on Negotiating Conservative Muslims Fatwas on Mattel s Doll Fatima Alharthi.- 11. Images from the West: Barbie as a Cultural Ambassador in Early 1990s Romania.- 12. Frida Kahlo and Cultural Inclusivity: Comparing US and International Media Coverage of Mattel s Inspiring Women Doll.- 13. Music and Photo-adventures, Romance, and Friendship in Barbie, tu revista [Barbie Magazine]: Transnational Cultural Consumption in the Emergence of Female Preteen Readers.- 14. Muse Magic Ken: How Barbie s Boyfriend Inspires Queer Filmmaking.- 15. Barbie Takes Control: The Irony of Manipulation in Todd Haynes Superstar.- 16. Barbie the Girl-maker: Transgender Girls, their Mothers, and the Whole Barbie Thing.- 17. Barbie Girls in a Barbie World: Making a Transgressive Icon in Contemporary Art.
About the author
Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez is a professor of English (Youth Literatures & Cultures) at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, USA. She has authored and co-edited numerous books and articles, including An American Icon in Puerto Rico: Barbie, Girlhood, and Colonialism at Play (2022); Islas Lectoras: Bibliografía infantil puertorriqueña (2023); and The Cultural Legacy of Disney: A Century of Magic (2024).
Rebecca C. Hains is a professor of Media & Communication at Salem State University, USA. She is an author and co-editor of numerous books and articles on children’s media culture, including Growing Up With Girl Power: Girlhood on Screen and in Everyday Life (2012); The Princess Problem (2014); Cultural Studies of LEGO: More than Just Bricks (2019); and Supernatural Youth in Media (2025).
Summary
What is the significance of Barbie’s journey from toy aisles to screens? Barbie in the Mediaoffers a groundbreaking exploration of Barbie as a transmedia phenomenon. In examining the brand’s multifaceted media presence, this volume’s chapters consider both Mattel’s corporate storytelling about and fans’ reinterpretations of the iconic doll. Collectively, they reveal that these mediated negotiations of Barbie reflect and contribute to broader discourses about gender and identity in evolving sociopolitical contexts—inscribing the doll with ever-changing (and often conflicting) anxieties and dreams. These render the brand’s media presence a fascinating site of contested meaning, worthy of the sustained critique that Barbie in the Media offers readers.
