Part of Barbie’s power is the kind of projection she invites. “I designed Barbie with a blank face so that the child could project her own dreams of the future onto Barbie,” Handler said in her book, “Dream Doll.” “I never wanted to play up the glamorous life of Barbie. I wanted the owner to create a personality for the doll.” Even the talking Barbies that appeared on the market never enjoyed the ascendancy that the mute, yet eloquent dolls did.
Barbie was both a child of her time and completely cutting edge. As the historian and author Stephanie Coontz has written, “the marketability...
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