barbie

Airbnb is giving you a chance to stay in an actual, real-life Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse located in Malibu, California.

For at least a generation, Barbie has been a controversial figure. Mattel wants to emphasize her independence and her range of careers, but most people who look at her just see a body. Traditionally, a body with huge breasts, a very narrow waist, and feet that can only wear high heels. A body that is available in a brown version, but that everyone knows is meant to be white. Mattel is now trying something bigger and newer with Barbie. The company has introducing three new body types; in addition to Original Barbie, she now comes in Curvy, Petite, and Tall. Mattel had already been working on being more inclusive of skin colors and hair types, so those factors combine with these new bodies to create a far wider variety of Barbie possibilities.

Reese Witherspoon has begun development on a biopic of Ruth Handler, best known as the creator behind the Barbie doll.

Who needs friends when you can have a new Barbie right? That seems to be case to make soon. Mattel is working on an internet connected Barbie doll that will be able to talk with your kids. Not just some pre-recorded phrases either but actually understand and interact with what your child is saying.

Not to be outdone by 'Jem and the Holograms,' Barbie will also be getting her own live-action movie -- but of course homegirl has to one-up the competition, so she's getting a franchise because dream homes and matching pink cars aren't cheap, you know.

We've all heard the talk that Barbie is not representative of real women. But what if she was?

Barbie can't help but looking perfect. She's manufactured that way. But what if the doll that has been setting unrealistically high beauty standards for girls since 1959 was a real person? (Yes, this is has been tried before by human Barbie impersonators, but that's not where we're going here.)

Recently, Mattel released Tokidoki Barbie, a hipster version of their iconic doll which comes complete with pink hair, an ironic half-shirt and visible tattoos on her chest, neck and shoulder. Finally, a Barbie who thinks you’re lame for playing with dolls.

Barbie has cold blood running through her coarse plastic veins. Greenpeace has accused the iconic American doll of being a murderer in a new video aimed at bringing awareness to the way Mattel packages the blonde bombshell.

As a 16-year-old, Galia Slayen made a life-size Barbie out of wood, chicken wire, paper-mache and -- of course -- two big balloons as way to deal with her anorexia. Now, four years later, Slayen is a sophomore at Hamilton College and is using the massive (but freakishly slim) doll she built to start a conversation about eating disorders and body image issues.