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M.G. Lord Quotes

When Ella King Torrey, a friend of mine and consultant on this book, began researching Barbie at Yale University in 1979, her work was considered cutting-edge and controversial.

M.G. Lord

When Ella King Torrey, a friend of mine and consultant on this book, began researching Barbie at Yale University in 1979, her work was considered cutting-edge and controversial.

On a recent HBO special, Roseanne Arnold, who, incidentally, collects Barbies, excoriated what she considered to be Barbie's middle-class-ness. Why didn't Mattel make, say, trailer-park Barbie? But to...

M.G. Lord

On a recent HBO special, Roseanne Arnold, who, incidentally, collects Barbies, excoriated what she considered to be Barbie's middle-class-ness. Why didn't Mattel make, say, trailer-park Barbie? But to...

About Author
M.G. Lord (born November 18, 1955) is an American author, cultural critic, and investigative journalist. She was a political cartoonist and columnist for Newsday. She is an associate professor of the practice of English at the University of Southern California.She produces the podcast, LA Made: The Barbie Tapes with Antonia Cereijido.

Gilles Brougere, a French sociologist, has conducted an exhaustive study of French women and children to determine how different age groups perceive the doll.

M.G. Lord

Gilles Brougere, a French sociologist, has conducted an exhaustive study of French women and children to determine how different age groups perceive the doll.

Fans of conspiracy theories will be disappointed to learn that Barbie's proportions were not the result of some misogynistic plot. They were dictated by the mechanics of clothing construction. The dol...

M.G. Lord

Fans of conspiracy theories will be disappointed to learn that Barbie's proportions were not the result of some misogynistic plot. They were dictated by the mechanics of clothing construction. The dol...

Swicord is not a New Age nut; she's a writer. And even after mega-wrangles with Mattel's management—the musical was sketched out but never produced—she is still a fan of the doll. Barbie, she said, is...

M.G. Lord

Swicord is not a New Age nut; she's a writer. And even after mega-wrangles with Mattel's management—the musical was sketched out but never produced—she is still a fan of the doll. Barbie, she said, is...

Celebrities who in the sixties had led Barbie-esque lives now forswore them. Jane Fonda no longer vamped through the galaxy as Barbarella, she flew to Hanoi. Gloria Steinem no longer wrote The Passion...

M.G. Lord

Celebrities who in the sixties had led Barbie-esque lives now forswore them. Jane Fonda no longer vamped through the galaxy as Barbarella, she flew to Hanoi. Gloria Steinem no longer wrote The Passion...

The magazine has always existed to promote Barbie as a commercial product; but kids look to her as an oracle— a vivid, godlike presence in the landscape of childhood. And sometimes, with aching candor...

M.G. Lord

The magazine has always existed to promote Barbie as a commercial product; but kids look to her as an oracle— a vivid, godlike presence in the landscape of childhood. And sometimes, with aching candor...

But even with her record sales, the Barbie of the late eighties was not the vibrant virago of the early eighties. We Girls Can Do Anything gave way to We're into Barbie, a slogan that suggests turning...

M.G. Lord

But even with her record sales, the Barbie of the late eighties was not the vibrant virago of the early eighties. We Girls Can Do Anything gave way to We're into Barbie, a slogan that suggests turning...

In An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Neal Gabler tells how the studio moguls—all immigrants and outsiders—created an America that was more American than the country ever could b...

M.G. Lord

In An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood, Neal Gabler tells how the studio moguls—all immigrants and outsiders—created an America that was more American than the country ever could b...

Not surprisingly, when Barbie achieved superstar status, her houses became more ostentatious. Yet even Barbie's three-story town house, with its Tara-like pillars and ersatz wrought-iron birdcage elev...

M.G. Lord

Not surprisingly, when Barbie achieved superstar status, her houses became more ostentatious. Yet even Barbie's three-story town house, with its Tara-like pillars and ersatz wrought-iron birdcage elev...

The second time, Michael Milken galloped to the rescue. I believed in Barbie, Milken told Barbara Walters in 1993. I called up the head of Mattel and I told him that I personally would be willing to i...

M.G. Lord

The second time, Michael Milken galloped to the rescue. I believed in Barbie, Milken told Barbara Walters in 1993. I called up the head of Mattel and I told him that I personally would be willing to i...

My Barbie stuff was a mirror of her values. She never told me that marriage could be a trap, but she refused to buy my Barbie doll a wedding dress. She didn't say I loathe housework, but she refused...

M.G. Lord

My Barbie stuff was a mirror of her values. She never told me that marriage could be a trap, but she refused to buy my Barbie doll a wedding dress. She didn't say I loathe housework, but she refused...

To be sure, Barbie is a toy, and in market research sessions, as Barbie's first advertising copywriter Cy Schneider has pointed out, children, presented with choices that can be characterized as taste...

M.G. Lord

To be sure, Barbie is a toy, and in market research sessions, as Barbie's first advertising copywriter Cy Schneider has pointed out, children, presented with choices that can be characterized as taste...

Toys have always said a lot about the culture that produced them, and especially about how that culture viewed its children.

M.G. Lord

Toys have always said a lot about the culture that produced them, and especially about how that culture viewed its children.

Traditionally, the needs of ethnically diverse consumers had been met by smaller companies—the equivalent, in movie terms, of independent filmmakers. In the seventies, Shindana introduced two Barbie-l...

M.G. Lord

Traditionally, the needs of ethnically diverse consumers had been met by smaller companies—the equivalent, in movie terms, of independent filmmakers. In the seventies, Shindana introduced two Barbie-l...

Began. A chief element in positioning the new Barbie was her promotion. In 1984, after a campaign that featured Hey There, Barbie Girl sung to the tune of Georgy Girl, Mattel launched a startling seri...

M.G. Lord

Began. A chief element in positioning the new Barbie was her promotion. In 1984, after a campaign that featured Hey There, Barbie Girl sung to the tune of Georgy Girl, Mattel launched a startling seri...

Barbie as a class role model, far more than Barbie as a gender role model, may, in fact, be the linchpin of many mothers' continued misgivings about her.

M.G. Lord

Barbie as a class role model, far more than Barbie as a gender role model, may, in fact, be the linchpin of many mothers' continued misgivings about her.

Barbie Bazaar,

M.G. Lord

Barbie Bazaar,

Barbie Baby-Sits appeared in 1963, a year after the publication of Helen Gurley Brown's best-selling Sex and the Single Girl. And whether it was Brown's influence or an effect of synchronicity, Barbie...

M.G. Lord

Barbie Baby-Sits appeared in 1963, a year after the publication of Helen Gurley Brown's best-selling Sex and the Single Girl. And whether it was Brown's influence or an effect of synchronicity, Barbie...

Instead of reworking the doll, Shackelford implemented a market segmentation strategy, which she thinks helped Barbie achieve record sales. She did this by segmenting the market, introducing dolls wit...

M.G. Lord

Instead of reworking the doll, Shackelford implemented a market segmentation strategy, which she thinks helped Barbie achieve record sales. She did this by segmenting the market, introducing dolls wit...