Barbie’s arrival into the world, courtesy of Ruth Handler, not only had a permanent impact on the toy industry after World War II, but it largely defined the way in which women would be represented: their bodies, aspirations and possibilities.
Since 1959, the year in which Ruth Handler introduced Barbie as part of the Mattel catalogue, several debates have been opened regarding the pros and cons of the doll’s success. On the one hand, the idealization of a normed body that would force women, most of them young, to look for an impossible silhouette.
And on the other, the existence of a woman who, in addition to looking fabulous with an infinite wardrobe, could practice any profession, even those that at certain times were denied to women like politics or science, to name a few.
Between the two is, as a basis, one of the reasons Ruth Handler created Barbie: female breasts. “When I conceived Barbie, I thought it was important to the self-esteem of a little girl who played with a doll that had breasts“, he said in an interview.
And it was these same ones, the breasts, that led her to change another part of women’s history: breast cancer patients; specifically those who, during their treatment, underwent a mastectomy and one or both of her breasts were removed.
So, taking advantage of the next premiere of the film of Barbie with Margot Robbie, here we will tell you about the Ruth Handler’s Legacy which not only includes the creation of the Barbie doll, but the breast prostheses that she used herself as a cancer survivor.
Ruth Hander y Mattel
Ruth Mosko was born on November 4, 1916. in Denver, Colorado. When he was 19 years old, after a vacation in California, he decided to move in with her boyfriend Elliot Handler and whom she married in 1938. After a few years of Elliot designing and selling furniture or home appliances, they decided to turn it into a business.
Success came soon. And by 1945, they partnered with an industrial designer named Harold “Matt” Matson to design and sell frames. The business grew and they began to manufacture furniture for dolls’ houses; and so they came to the toy industry with a company that would be founded under the name of Mattel (from the union of the names of the two founding men).
One of the first toys that Mattel developed was the Uke-A-Doodle de 1947, which became a success. Other toys arrived over the years, such as the Magic 8 Balllos Snap-Lock Beads, he Corn Popper and the Xylophone.
However, things changed for the better when they invested $500,000 to appear on the mickey mouse club kids show where they used Mattel toys. Soon, sales were skyrocketing and the company’s value was rising.
The origin of Barbie
But it wasn’t until the late 1950s that Mattel changed the game (literally and figuratively) forever. It all started when Ruth Handler watched her teenage daughter, Barbara, playing with paper dolls whose bodies were more youthful (not baby, then).
He thought about developing a doll that would more assimilate a more mature and feminine figure. The reason? That the girls who are going to pass into adolescence and adolescents have a figure with whom they could identify.
The first step was taken in 1956 when Ruth Handler went on a European vacation. walking around switzerland found a German doll known as Bild Lilliprotagonist of a comic strip that was published in the Bild-Zeitung tabloid.
Lilli had the image that Ruth Handler already had in mind. The difference is that the German doll was intended for an adult and male audience. And Ruth’s doll was aimed at girls and adolescents.
For three years she developed the idea for Barbie, and approached Jack Ryan, a Mattel engineer and designer who had previously developed a pair of missiles for the Raytheon Technologies Corporation, to create a doll that had some of Lilli’s qualities, but was intended for an American audience. HERE we tell you some curiosities about Barbie.
Ruth Handler and the diagnosis of breast cancer
The 1970s were difficult for the Handler family, especially Ruth. Her own company, Mattel, began to change course. and ended with the departure of the Handler couple from the company. Added to this was the fact that Ruth had a direct conflict with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
But the most complicated thing, perhaps, was that in 1970, Ruth Handler was diagnosed with breast cancerand that same year he underwent a mastectomy as part of your treatment. After surgery, which consists of removing the entire breast or breast tissue, Ruth looked for various prostheses, but none felt comfortable.
breast prostheses
That was how he made the decision to fundar la Ruthton Corporation focused on breast prostheses. Ruth Handler pulled the “Nearly Me” line, and one of its best-known qualities was to create left and right breast prostheses based on pre-surgery bra size.
In fact, Ruth commented in several interviews that the idea was similar to that of the shoes. There is one for the right foot and one for the left. This would help women better cope with recovery after a mastectomy.
At the beginning we quoted Ruth Handler talking about the idea of working on girls’ self-esteem when they see a doll with breasts. When she worked on breast prostheses, she Ruth said: “Now I think it is more important to restore self-esteem to women who have lost it“.
