After how much the Barbie movie blew up, I was curious to read about the history of the doll. I believe this was originally published in 1994 but is now being re-released with some changes. It seems to be a pretty comprehensive look at the history of Barbie and the way she has both influenced, and been influenced by, society over the years. Naturally not every aspect of that history is going to appeal to everyone-- I found the financial history of Matel particularly dull, and the talk of collectors and conventions wasn't interesting either. But I think there are some interesting insights into Barbie's intersection with feminism, for example the idea that mothers' reactions to Barbie have affected young girls' body images more than just Barbie herself. One thing I need to comment on though is that the actual Barbie movie was mentioned maybe one time in the introduction. It seems there's been a whole resurgence in Barbie's popularity that can be attributed to that movie, hence the re-release of even this book, so not including a discussion of that felt a bit like taking the easy way out of not wanting to comment on something current. I'm not quite sure what the point of this re-release is, if not to add commentary over a huge development.
**Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced audio copy!**