This fall, a new Barbie entered the Barbieverse.
She’s got a very long name -- “Barbie Signature Diwali Doll By Anita Dongre Wearing Festival Of Lights Look.” (Dongre is a noted Indian fashion designer who collaborated with Mattel on the doll.)
And a kinda long – and controversial -- back story, too.
Previous India Barbies – and a ‘monkey friend’
You see, Diwali Barbie is not the first Indian Barbie.
The first was launched in 1996 and known simply as Indian Barbie.’ Dressed in a gaudy pink saree, she came packaged with a lot of misinformation. An inauthentic description of Indian culture was written onto her box — from the description of a saree as a ‘two piece outfit with a shawl’ (sarees don’t have shawls) to the declaration that Indians “never ate with forks or knives” because they enjoyed eating with their hands
In 2012, another version of Barbie in india appeared, dressed in what appeared to be a yellow saree; she was packaged with her own “playful monkey friend.”
Over the years, doll after doll was launched during the festive season of Diwali in India (which starts in late October or early November). They wore traditional Indian clothing but little else about these Indian Barbies indicated that they were … well, Indian.
Critics said that the skin tone of these earlier Barbies was too pale compared to the brown skin tones in India and that her features were a cookie cutter of the American Barbie: rounded face, blue eyes, upturned button nose.
And she wasn’t very popular with Indian kids.
Priti Nemani, an Indian-American attorney living in Chicago, analyzed why Barbie failed so spectacularly in her research paper “A case study on the failure of the Barbie doll in the Indian Market,” published in the Asia Pacific Law and Policy Journal in 2011. She says that Mattel “repackages Barbie in a variety of ethnicities” making “superficial ethnic and racial modifications to the doll,” which in the case of Indian consumers, just didn’t work.
And there was another factor. "Indian kids gravitated toward the white-skinned Barbie because light-skinned women were considered more beautiful in India," says ElsaMarie DSilva, a social entrepreneur from India and an Aspen fellow — referring to the colorism that has characterized Indian society.
The latest Diwali Barbie
Flash forward to October 4, 2024 — the day Diwali Barbie went on sale.
“Barbie used to be a more singular reflection of beauty and more one-dimensional,” Mattel’s executive vice president and chief brand officer, Lisa McKnight, told Reuters. “Today, there are many Barbies, and we’ve got multiple views of the brand.”
So does this Barbie reflect a different view of beauty — an Indian view?
For starters, the doll’s skin is darker than earlier India Barbies — although not as dark as the skin tones of many Indians. Her eyes and hair are dark as well.
Doll co-designer Dongre wrote that her Barbie represents the “fashion forward modern woman who wears India on her sleeve with pride” -- sporting kohl-rimmed eyes, the traditional dangling bell-shaped earrings called jhumkas and a bunch of gold bangles. She’s abandoned the more traditional saree for a fashionable lehenga or an ankle length skirt, cropped blouse and vest in deep blue and gold with floral motifs from the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.
This new Indian Barbie is a big hit. The $40 doll sold out on Mattel’s website in 24 hours.
Early reviews from Indians
Sales figures in India have not been released. But there are lots of opinions.
Barbie’s self-proclaimed superfan is happy. Vichitra Rajasingh of Madurai , who once amassed a collection of 80 Barbies, says she loves the Diwali doll: “The launch of the new Barbie in India is a refreshing departure from the cliched versions we've seen before. I've never owned an Indian Barbie before because the earlier versions with their fair skin and gaudy, stereotypical Indian attire never appealed to me. But I'd definitely buy this one! Everything, from the skin tone to the fashion is on point."
Atlanta-based cookbook author Nandita Godbole, 53, who spent her early years in Mumbai, says that a doll like Diwali Barbie would have been very helpful when her daughter was growing up. She remembers taking her to dance classes and arguing with the teachers about how their routine make-up palette just wasn’t suited for darker skin tones. “Darker skinned girls were often sent to the back row,” she says.
Jeniffer Grace is another admirer of the new doll. She’s a professor of humanities and science at the Aarupadai Veedu Institute of Technology and lives in the southern Indian city of Kalpakkam.
"I love the bindi, the traditional jewelry and the festive look,” she says. “It's beautiful. But the best part is having a doll that actually looks like my kids and that they can relate to."
But she is a realist and says that one doll isn’t likely to make a dent in colorism, which has deep roots in Indian society.
Grace teaches and talks to a lot of young girls. The yearning for fair skin, she says, is widespread. And she’s seen how the colorism in India deeply affects their self-esteem. “Every time they miss an opportunity, some wonder if it’s because of their darker skin tone,” she says. “It’s a deep insecurity, especially for girls. They become very self-critical and in the long run, they end up thinking that talent doesn’t really matter. And this isn’t their fault -- it’s because Indian society doesn’t allow them to forget that white skin is most prized.”
“We live in a world where we must deal with a lot of unconscious bias so every sincere attempt at inclusivity should be embraced,” Grace sums up. The mother of an 11-year-old and 14-year-old, she adds: “I only hope that in the future, my daughter’s generation wouldn’t have to be so surprised by a truly Indian Diwali Barbie.”
Kamala Thiagarajan is a freelance journalist based in Madurai, Southern India. She reports on global health, science and development and has been published in The New York Times, The British Medical Journal, the BBC, The Guardian and other outlets. You can find her on X @kamal_t
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