Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “The Life of Barbie,” on a plastic icon and her cultural legacy, with Emily Aguiló-Pérez, an associate professor of English at West Chester University of Pennsylvania who has extensively researched Barbie as a scholar of childhood, media, and popular culture.
Few toys have shaped culture quite like Barbie has. From her debut in 1959 to the billion-dollar success of the 2023 film bearing her name, Barbie has been a mirror of society, a lightning rod for controversy, and a symbol of transformation. She often has found herself at the center of society’s evolving conversations about gender, race, consumerism, and identity.
Get to know Barbie like you never did before with the help of Emily Aguiló-Pérez, the author of An American Icon in Puerto Rico: Barbie, Girlhood, and Colonialism at Play and the forthcoming books Barbie in the Media and Barbie and Social Media.
Drawing from more than a decade of scholarly research on Barbie’s significance in global contexts, Professor Aguiló-Pérez will discuss Barbie’s evolution from fashion model to feminist (and anti-feminist) flashpoint. While Barbie wasn’t originally designed as a feminist toy, she would emerge as an emblem of female empowerment, with the first astronaut Barbie, produced in 1965, exploring space before Neil Armstrong visited the Moon. At the same time, she would continue to face criticism for reinforcing restrictive beauty norms, with her measurements remaining unrealistic even in the "body diverse" versions of the doll—curvy, petite and tall.
We'll explore Barbie’s shifting cultural impact—her role in shaping beauty standards, gender expectations, and consumer culture. You’ll learn about Barbie’s global influence and how she continues to spark conversations about identity, inclusivity, and play.
Whether you loved Barbie, loathed her, or rediscovered her through Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster Barbie movie, you’ll find this talk to be a fascinating journey through the life of the world’s most famous doll, and you’ll learn a lot about what she reveals about us. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Guests are welcome to arrive any time after 5:30. Talk starts at 6:30.)
Image: A Barbie doll as photographed by Tracheotomy Bob / Creative Commons.