My Brief Journey Back to the World of Barbie

 

Like most women of my age, I saw the new Barbie Movie this week with intrigue. I grew up in the 60's as one of the first-generation Barbie owners.  I had the basic Barbie, a pink plastic wardrobe and many interchangeable outfits to fill it.  

The fun of Barbie was dressing and underdressing her in many chic outfits. Often, I would crochet miniskirts with my grandmother to expand her wardrobe.  This was a wonderful bonding activity I shared with her as a little girl.

By the time I was a close to preteen years I added a Ken to my collection.  My younger brother Max had a G.I. Joe but I thought Ken would be a more suitable soul mate.  I also had Skipper, Midge, and a dog. 

My Barbies mirrored the social norms of the late 60s with pretend dinners and dress up.  The role of Barbie didn’t go beyond that and was soon outgrown once I entered the real world of boy-girl parties and teen fun. 

As a teen I was exposed to the feminist movement and increased fights for women’s equality. We had real role models who fought and created the vision for our generation of equal status to men.  It is hard to believe that the Ivy league schools did not begin admitting women to their campuses until the late 60s and early 70s. Careers were starting to be defined by skills not stereotyped by gender.

My Barbies were stored in the attic for many years until I became a mom and had two daughters.  The generation of Barbie dolls became much more complex by the time I pulled them out in the late 1990s-2000s. By then there was a different Barbie for each activity and possible career. I often likened it to seeing a general practitioner doctor as a child vs. a specialist for each health care genre.

We would walk into Toys R Us or Kay Bee Toys overwhelmed by the selection and with limited budgets and buy the one that resonated most with activities my girls enjoyed. I wasn’t a big believer in buying a different doll for each activity although these were often received as birthday gifts. The doll did not take a major role in their childhood.   

While being raised in Dover my daughters ended up with the Equestrian Barbie, although they never wanted the Ken dolls or other major accessories.  Barbies appeared in their lives for a miniscule window of time.

My daughters were raised with the understanding that women had equal status in the workforce.  STEM programs were emerging and college admissions to top schools were a close tie for both genders. It wasn’t beyond imagination that women could become professionals and leaders in the workforce.  The women’s role was not defined by her body or domestic family roles. 

Fast forward to 2023 with the release of the new Barbie movie. Women’s rights have been turned back.  The right to choose is not legal in many states. The Supreme Court recently ended Affirmative Action. Many of the freedoms we celebrated at the birth of Barbie are being taken away from us with each Supreme Court session.  

Before seeing the movie, I saw an interesting interview with the Director, Andrea Blaugrund Nevins of a documentary Tiny Shoulders, Rethinking Barbie about the evolution of Barbie and Mattel. She suggested watching her documentary before seeing the movie.  Ruth Handler, Barbies inventor created Barbie to empower young girls to visualize identities beyond being just nurturers to others.  

I went to the movie last night with a group of friends.  We each wore pink to relive a “Barbie” moment.  Many of the women are part of an amazing group called Cape Cod Females over 50.  A year ago there were under 600 members and now there are close to 7000. Members come from across Massachusetts as well as the rest of the states.

When I saw the scene in the movie with Barbies everywhere I thought about the importance of female friendships. We are able to meet for coffee and social activities where we learn from each other and gain a wider appreciation for different perspectives due to the variety of our backgrounds.  Uniquely we embrace each opportunity to meet as an expansion of ourselves by sharing life experiences and commonality without judgement or predefined images.  We joke that we have our Cape Cod Barbie World.  

I enjoyed seeing Barbie and don’t want to give any spoiler alerts as it was both nostalgic and timely. Perhaps the biggest takeaway I got is the importance of the empowerment of women. Each of us provides a unique value to the world and by combining forces we gain from each others strengths. Perhaps now more than ever our voice is important to ensure the original vision created with the introduction of Barbie over 60 years ago.

Wendy is a Realtor and freelance writer residing on Cape Cod. She recently published her first book, Coffee Connections: Finding Common Ground Through My Daily Brew.  Wendy enjoys networking and writing to connect her ideas and curiosities with people she meets.   She welcomes your comments. 

Happy Mothers Day and a Tribute to My Matriarchal Role Models

Recently I was going through some old family photos and was inspired to reflect on the matriarchal side of my family in honor of Mother's Day.  I thought I would write a bit about memories I have of these special women who have influenced my life.  As of today I can say as far as I am aware I am the oldest living female on this family tree branch.   (disclaimer-I am only referring to relatives with direct bloodlines to me).  

             from left to right,  my Mom Audrey, Al, Elaine, Sara Ring, Great grandparents Peter and Rachel Piltch 

My great grandmother Rachel came to this country with my grandmother Sara, who was her only child in the early 1920's to escape the pogroms in Kiev.  Sara was born in 1912.  Rachel's husband, Peter Piltch came several years ahead to set up life in the states and be able to sponsor them.  Legend has it that my grandmother and great-grandmother had to hide in the forest with aid of a non-Jewish family until they could escape to the U.S. once they received money to travel. They both entered the country through Ellis Island and to commemorate this we have a plaque dedicated to Rachel.  Rachel lived to be over 100 years old and received a letter from President Gerald Ford when she reached this milestone.

Sara was an only child and married my Grandfather, Al Ring also known as Abraham, who was born in 1911.  Al fell in love with Sara after seeing her photo and they were married at a young age.  They had two daughters, my Aunt Elaine Ring(Wolpe) and my Mom, Audrey Ring (Stearns).  My grandparents were very forward thinking and my Mom said they were always the role model family influencing choices their friends would make.  For example, my grandparents were one of the first to buy a television set but once they did my Mom's friends family's followed. Sara was pretty liberal, unusual for her generation, and allowed her daughters as first generation Americans to live assimilated and modern American lifestyles.   They were encouraged to go to college and have careers.  They both became independent thinkers and amazing women in their own rights while building beautiful families.  

As a child I was extremely close with my Grandmother and Great-grandmother.  I would spend weekends at their house in Cambridge where Rachel lived with Al and Sarah until she was close to her late 90s and then had to move to the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale.   Rachel was very sharp and warned me about boys before I left for college.  She told me to watch out for the ones who said they wanted to come back to my room to study.  She said they may really want to do more than study.  She was in her 90s at the time of this advise but knew what was going on. 


My grandmother Sara was very involved in B'nai B'rith and other civic organizations. I always remember seeing T'zdakah boxes around her house to raise money for charity.  In fact I have kept and still use one of her boxes today to donate. Both she and Rachel were very progressive for their ages and adapted well to American life.  

Sara was a great cook and baker.  Although she brought many  recipes from her homeland she mastered the all American dessert and made the BEST apple pie I ever tasted.  To this day I am  in search of one that is comparable but so far have not had much luck.    (I have even tried to recreate it using her rolling pin and recipe).  

My Aunt had four boys and my Mom, a girl (me) and a son.  Since my Aunt never had a girl, she treated me as her surrogate daughter whenever she came to visit our family from Philadelphia.  She  taught me many of the finer things in life including a love of reading, cooking, travel, jewelry,  bargain hunting for designer clothing,  and enjoying casino visits.  She was also very involved in local civic organizations and had a voice to be listened too. In many ways she was a large role model and influence on many of the things I enjoy today.

My Mom was an amazing person and role model.  She lived a less exotic lifestyle than her sister, was very civic minded and enjoyed the basics of life.  She was always happy and  instilled in me the love of volunteering and helping people.  As such, she was very involved in Humanitarian and Educational organizations throughout my young life and continued this with when she moved to Florida in the early 2000's. She worked as an educator when we were young, was an entrepreneur with my Dad starting a few different business ventures and was always involved in local Jewish life.  My Dad also described her as "the eternal optimist" and a "woman of valor".  Towards the end of my Dad's life she became his primary caretaker and did everything to make his last years comfortable. At the end of her life she did her best to be independent and take care of herself as well.  As her health succumbed to Pancreatic Cancer she was stellar and became a role model of how to be positive and in full control.  She taught me a lot as I became her primary care taker in her final days.  

We are now onto the next generation and my three kids have grown up and fled the nest.   As we celebrate Mother's Day it is a joy to remember the achievements and roles those who came before me played in my life and to see the influence they have played in raising my own family.  I am very proud of the persons each of my kids have become.   Perhaps sometime in the future, they will become parents and then I would be able to share more on this common journey we all share of Motherhood.  Wishing all my readers a Happy Mother's Day.  

Wendy is a realtor with Coldwell Banker Needham.  She loves to read, blog, walk her dog Delilah, cook and travel.  She looks forward to spending vacation time with her family, who are all dispersed from her nest as the summer approaches and will share some special photos on Instagram.