The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum’s latest exhibition is the perfect celebration of the encapsulation of girlhood itself: Barbie.
Located on the basement floor of the building, Barbie: The Exhibition (a collaboration between the Design Museum and Barbie’s creator Mattel) is the perfect encapsulation of the doll’s long and iconic history withodes to her extensive wardrobe, many careers, several pieces of real estate, and the overall influence she has had on the world as a whole. It’s the kind of exhibition where you leave feeling both thoroughly entertained and with a greater knowledge of the world around you.
While Kelvingrove itself has free entry, the exhibition costs £16 per adult, but it’s more than worth it. I spent close to four hours examining every little detail and reading all the information. I learned things that I never knew about Barbie. To give a few examples, despite her more Marilyn Monroe-like appearance, Barbie’s main fashion influence in the 1960s was First Lady Jackie Kennedy, as she was considered the better role model for young girls. Also, shockingly, Barbie hasn’t always been associated with the colour pink, and in fact she didn’t become associated with that colour until 1977. I know, hold your gasps. And that barely scratches the surface of all the things that you can learn there. There is also a very small area dedicated to the Ken dolls. Though, to quote a little girl I overheard when her gran asked if she wanted to look at them:”Why? He’s boring”. It should also be noted that if you require a break, as it is quite a large exhibition, you are free to leave and come back to the exhibition and will be told this upon entering.
I rate this exhibition five stars, and would highly recommend going before it ends on the 18th of October. Barbie has become such a cultural figure and has done a lot to teach self-worth to young girls. Barbie was created at a time when all young girls had to play with was baby dolls, because mothers were all they were expected to be. Barbie was a babysitter, and an older sister, a way to lower the raising eyebrows that worried about her being a bad influence, but she has never been a mother, and that dose of micro feminism has truly gone a long way.
