What is the significance of Barbies journey from toy aisles to screens? Barbie in the Media offers a groundbreaking exploration of Barbie as a transmedia phenomenon. In examining the brands multifaceted media presence, this volumes chapters consider both Mattels corporate storytelling about and fans reinterpretations of the iconic doll. Collectively, they reveal that these mediated negotiations of Barbie reflect and contribute to broader discourses about gender and identity in evolving sociopolitical contextsinscribing the doll with ever-changing (and often conflicting) anxieties and dreams. These render the brands media presence a fascinating site of contested meaning, worthy of the sustained critique that Barbie in the Media offers readers.
1. Transcending the Toy Aisle: Understanding Barbie as a Transmedia
Phenomenon.- Animating Plastic Girlhood: The Aesthetics of Barbie in Life in
the Dreamhouse and Vlogs.-
3. Disrupting the Canon: Animated Barbie and the
Adapted Nineteenth Century Novel.-
4. Dolls Best Friends: Barbie in
Communion with Animals in Direct-to-DVD Animated Films.- 5. Building Barbie
Media: A Model for Doll Based Media Franchises.- 6. Demystification of a
Living Doll: Semiotics in Greta Gerwigs Barbie.- 7. An Unintentional and
Playful Allegory: Barbie and the Rockers and the Gender Identity Crisis of
Reagans America.-
8. Hey There, Barbie Girl!: The Subversion of Mattels
Commodified Femininity in a 1990s Riot Grrrl.- 9. Barbies Evolution from
Aryan Ideal to Diversity Advocate: A Study of How Eurocentric Bias Remain
Challenges in Branding and Transmedia Marketing.-
10. The Veiled Barbie, the
Disfigured Barbie, the Miniskirt Barbie: Reflections on Negotiating
Conservative Muslims Fatwas on Mattels Doll Fatima Alharthi.-
11. Images
from the West: Barbie as a Cultural Ambassador in Early 1990s Romania.-
12.
Frida Kahlo and Cultural Inclusivity: Comparing US and International Media
Coverage of Mattels Inspiring Women Doll.-
13. Music and Photo-adventures,
Romance, and Friendship in Barbie, tu revista [ Barbie Magazine]:
Transnational Cultural Consumption in the Emergence of Female Preteen
Readers.-
14. Muse Magic Ken: How Barbies Boyfriend Inspires Queer
Filmmaking.-
15. Barbie Takes Control: The Irony of Manipulation in Todd
Haynes Superstar.-
16. Barbie the Girl-maker: Transgender Girls, their
Mothers, and the Whole Barbie Thing.-
17. Barbie Girls in a Barbie World:
Making a Transgressive Icon in Contemporary Art.
Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez is a professor of English (Youth Literatures & Cultures) at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, USA. She has authored and co-edited numerous books and articles, including An American Icon in Puerto Rico: Barbie, Girlhood, and Colonialism at Play (2022); Islas Lectoras: Bibliografķa infantil puertorriqueńa (2023); and The Cultural Legacy of Disney: A Century of Magic (2024).
Rebecca C. Hains is a professor of Media & Communication at Salem State University, USA. She is an author and co-editor of numerous books and articles on childrens media culture, including Growing Up With Girl Power: Girlhood on Screen and in Everyday Life (2012); The Princess Problem (2014); Cultural Studies of LEGO: More than Just Bricks (2019); and Supernatural Youth in Media (2025).
