Behind-the-Episode: Barbie x Petro-Capitalism
Learn more about the latest Material Girls episode from Marcelle!
A Brief Introduction
Hi folks! Witch, Please Productions is trying something new based on demand for more behind-the-scenes content! Below you’ll find a brief note from Marcelle who wrote the script for our Barbie x Petro-Capitalism episode that was released last week. Let us know what you think and if you want more behind-the-episode content moving forward!
Behind-the-Episode: Barbie x Petro-Capitalism
from Marcelle
I mention this in the episode, but it’s worth repeating here: the ad campaigns for Gretta Gerwig’s Barbie had me feeling really nostalgic for the dolls I played with in my childhood. If you listened to the episode you’ll have heard me hypothesizing why Barbie was such a commonplace toy, even in overtly feminist households. And the research journey I went on to make those hypotheses? It changed me!
You know why I love research? Because I often feel like I don’t “know enough” to talk about something in public. I know, impostor syndrome is WILD. Generally my research process entails collecting as much content as I can, and reading bits along the way to get a sense of what I still don’t know. A professor of mine kindly described this method of always feeling like I need more data as “paranoid archive,” and she was right! I often joke that as an historical materialist, my research looks a bit lot like this:
My Barbie research was no exception. Red yarn zigzagged across my living room as I tumbled from one rabbit hole into the next.
I started with academic journals using keywords like “Barbie” and “investment” and “popularity,” and although I found some interesting stuff it wasn’t quite as… trashy? as what I had in mind. So, unabashedly, I turned to google and typed “was Barbie popular in the 90s.” Jackpot.
A truism about academics is that we are not (historically) very good at publishing consistent, thoughtful work about mass culture. Having researched pulp magazines for nearly a decade, I can testify to the incalculable value of fan-curated web content. You know who meticulously documents the publishing history of obscure science fiction magazines? Fans. It was the same with my Barbie research. Sure, I found helpful data from the LA Times archive, but 90stoys.com was fundamental to my understanding of Barbie’s cultural prominence in my childhood.
Barbie’s popularity got me thinking, naturally, about another extremely weird and utterly fruitless 90s phenomenon: treating toys as an investment—you know, instead of treating them as toys. Medium writer Freya S. has a stellar piece about why trying to profit today from the Barbies you bought and saved in the 90s is a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Side Hustle” (it’s actually the title of the piece!). In an effort to understand the toys-as-investment delusion, I started reading about the 90s recession, which in turn had me reading about the “oil price shock” of 1990 and, of course, the ensuing (first) Gulf War.
So what connects the recession, the first Gulf War, and Barbie, you ask? Why, it’s plastics manufacturing, my friends, and that is the heart of our episode.
There was just so much fascinating stuff that we weren’t able to include in the episode. We couldn’t even talk about consumerism in our episode because I needed to show Hannah data from Statistics Canada. Fortunately, we can share all that research with you here! Maybe you, too, want to learn more about the Big Lie that Big Plastics told us for DECADES about the recyclability of petroleum products? Links below!
Ultimately, my experience researching for the Barbie episode really, and I think helpfully, depleted my nostalgia about Barbie as a toy, and this certainly shaped my thoughts about Gerwig’s film, which I did see and I did love. In fact, my perspective on the movie was so changed by all that reading that Hannah and I had to record an hour and half-long follow-up conversation about it. Part One will be released on our main feed as a bonus on Tuesday, August 15th! Part Two is a tasty treat for our dedicated Patreon supporters 😋. Until then, bye Barbie!
Reading List
Here is the composite list of research I did for the episode:
“1990 oil price shock.” Wikipedia. 23 June, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_oil_price_shock.
“Dial up the 1990s: Your guide to Episode 6.” Back in Time for Dinner. CBC. 2 May, 2018. https://www.cbc.ca/life/backintimefordinner/dial-up-the-1990s-your-guide-to-episode-6-1.4645797.
“Early 1990s recession.” Wikipedia. 20 July, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_1990s_recession.
“Gulf War, 1990-1991.” Veterans Affairs. Government of Canada. 23 February, 2023. https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/wars-and-conflicts/caf-operations/gulf- war.
“Most Popular 90s Barbie Dolls Ever.” 90s Toys. 11 June, 2023.https://www.90stoys.com/dolls-and-soft-toys/most-popular-90s-barbie-dolls.
Alcorn, Gay. “Remembering the recession: ‘The 1990s experience changed my view of the world.’” The Guardian. 16 November, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/nov/17/remembering-the-recession-the-1990s-experience-changed-my-view-of-the-world.
Barasch, Alex. “After ‘Barbie,’ Mattel is Raiding Its Entire Toybox.” The New Yorker. 2 July 2023. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/after-barbie-mattel-is-raiding-its-entire-toybox.
Charron, Nicole. “Plastic Products Industries.” Statistics Canada. Government of Canada. 17 April, 2001. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/33-250-x/1998/b/4148300-eng.htm.
Riddick, Kristin. “Barbie in the Nineties.” Barbie: The Image of Us All. n.d. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/barbie/barb5.html.
Squire, Charlie. “Mattel, Malibu Stacy, and the Dialectics of the Barbie Polemic.” Evil Female, 26 June, 2023.
Stiglitz, Joseph. “The Roaring Nineties.” The Atlantic. October 2002. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/10/the-roaring-nineties/302604/?utm_source=pocket_list.
Sullivan, Laura. “How Big Oil Misled the Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled.” NPR. 11 September, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled.
White, George. “Record Sales Send Mattel’s Profits Up 26%.” Los Angeles Times, 19 October, 1990. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-19-fi-2841-story.html.
Thanks for this! I’m also learning how Substack works and you’re my faves!
Ooo citations and references. Tasty!