Session 5: “Barbie: An American Icon,” taught by Dr. Sandra Watts
June 29 and July 1; July 6 and 8
10am – 12pm

For six and a half decades, Barbie has served as a powerful cultural symbol reflecting changing ideas about social roles, beauty, work, and consumer identity in the United States. She’s also served as an ambassador of American culture worldwide. How can a plastic doll remain relevant across generations and borders for so many years? This course examines Barbie as a historical and cultural phenomenon who connects and reflects differing decades and generations of American experiences while somehow also remaining the same “person.” Situating Barbie within postwar American consumer culture, American social history, and film, we’ll explore how she has both reinforced and challenged social norms.

Through lectures, discussions, hands-on activities, and a make your own Barbie session, we’ll both analyze and play with ideas about Barbie. We’ll use video, film, print, and music to investigates major debates surrounding Barbie, including body image and beauty standards, women’s labor and ambition, globalization, and the role of play in American childhood. Whether you love her, hate her, or anywhere in between you’ll have space in this course to explore the context and concepts that keep Barbie in the public imagination as well as in museums, private collections, and children’s playrooms around the world.

Meet your instructor: Dr. Sandra Watts is Teaching Professor in Languages, Cultures, and Translation and Interdisciplinary Studies and the Academic Director of the B.S. in Professional Studies at UNC Charlotte. She holds an AB cum laude in Comparative Literature from Cornell University and Masters and PhD degrees in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan. As part of her dedication to lifelong learners she’s become deeply involved in online, professional, and continuing education programs that allow people to pursue career goals and personal enrichment at any age. And yes, she’s had a complex relationship with Barbie!