Barbie Is The Classic Material Girl — For Better Or Worse
Barbie is — and has always been — a material girl.
That’s one message from scholars as the first live-action “Barbie” film opens Friday amid a fresh wave of merch, product collabs and advertising that highlights her characteristic consumerism.
That consumption also isn’t all Barbie represents, they say, pointing to controversies over her problematic proportions, her potential to empower as a single woman without children and her evolution to reflect American culture’s changing tastes.
Barbie’s Corvette convertible, tricked-out Dreamhouse and revolving door of pink outfits in the film say as much about the titular character as any dialogue in a movie that features three recent Oscar nominees — director Greta Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Ryan Gosling (Ken). One tween in the...










