Barbie Doll

The past one hundred years have witnessed the feminist movement in the late nineteenth century, the feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, and the contemporary postfeminism. Since feminism was taken into the academic field, females'social status has always been a hot issue. Scholars rely on various social texts to explain their theories, and Barbie doll is a typical one. Some feminists think the independent and confident Barbie who breaks the stereotypical image of women is a resistance to the patriarchal society. However, the writer believes Barbie stands for more things than that.This thesis mainly focuses on the cultural representations on Barbie doll with the improvement and achievement of feminism after 1959 when Barbie was born. At first, it, starting from Bild Lilli who is the prototype of Barbie, illustrates women's social status and situation around the beginning of the second-wave feminism. At that time, women had already owned somewhat self-determinant rights, but still suffered much discrimination. Then from the theoretical perspective of feminism, the writer analyzes feminine characteristics reflected on Barbie and discusses her contributions to equality between man and woman; at the same time, the writher also points out the possible dilemma resulted from over-proclamation of female's superiority. Finally, the thesis researches on Barbie's subversive potential to male/female dualism based on the theories of Professor Judith Butler.To sum up, the solution of the relationship between man and woman should not be mutually excluded, but with more tolerance to each other in order to get a dynamic balance.