It looks like Barbie is having another makeover: last week toy maker Mattel announced that they were launching a range of dolls to honour women in STEM, making miniature models of pioneers such as US healthcare workers Amy O’Sullivan and Dr Audrey Cruz, Canadian doctor and campaigner Dr Chika Stacy Oriuwa, and – of course – Oxford vaccine designer Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert.
Of all the accolades Gilbert has received this year – a damehood, the Albert Medal from the Royal Society of the Arts, a standing ovation at Wimbledon – I’m sure she is most thrilled by being immortalised as a pant-suited plaything.
Whilst I am all for greater representation and diversity in toys designed for girls, I’m not convinced by Barbie’s feminist rebrand. It’s easy to see this as yet another example of a business trying to make a quick buck through virtue signalling; Barbie’s sales had been nose-diving but the launch of various ‘special release’ additions (ranging from David
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