Was Barbie a rich kid toy? Twitter users weigh in

As the July 23 release of Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Blockbuster Barbie movie gets closer, there’s been an increase in the discourse surrounding all things tied to the Mattel brand dolls. One conversation that’s generated a lot of opinions is about just how accessible Barbies have been for children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

On May 26, in a now-deleted series of tweets, Avery Edison (@aedison) argued against the notion that the iconic doll brand was available to all children. Simply put, Edison believes that Barbies are a rich kid toy.

“don’t know if this is entirely fair but when someone says ‘I grew up loving Barbie’ I hear ‘my family was not poor,'” Edison wrote. “my problem is not people simping for a brand — that’s all movies now — my problem is visceral flashbacks to all the kids in schools who had savings accounts and went on vacations.”

According to Value My Stuff, Barbies were priced at $2.99 when they debuted in 1959, which today equates to approximately $31. Back then, additional accessories ranged from $1 to $5.

Many Twitter users have argued that Barbies, contrary to Edison’s belief, were pretty reasonably priced and accessible to poorer kids.

“Are we really going to rewrite history and pretend that Barbie dolls were rare exclusives reserved solely for the elites,” writer Zoë Rose Bryant (@ZoeRoseBryant) tweeted that same day along with screenshots of Edison’s deleted tweets. As of reporting, Bryant’s tweet has garnered 4,932 retweets, 125,300 likes and 4,848 quotes.

Responses to Bryant’s screenshots of Edison’s claims seem to be split, however. Other Twitter users are defending Edison’s point of view, arguing that the coveted doll was seen as an unattainable luxury in some lower-income households, both within America and internationally.

In an effort to defend herself, Edison also weighed in on the discourse surrounding her tweets.

Edison’s explanation of the unfair ways she’s been treated on Twitter since sharing her thoughts about the affordability of Barbies was also met with both support and criticism.

While some users empathize with how difficult it must’ve been for Edison to share her negative association with Barbies and to then receive such negative feedback, others still take offense to her claims that growing up with Barbies makes you elite.

Barbies aren’t the only popular toy that’s been discussed in terms of widespread accessibility. Beanie Babies, for instance, debuted in 1993 and were thought to have been “accessibly priced” at the time, according to Emily Stewart of Vox. Bratz dolls, which were created by ex-Mattel employee Carter Bryant in 2001 and, with the exception of one, were primarily dolls of color, sparked a similar classism debate on Reddit.

Twitter user Erin McPherson (@mcpherserin) offers a succinct takeaway from the Barbie classism discourse, which is that a product can be inaccessible or hard to acquire for some without being inherently reserved for the elite.

In The Know by Yahoo is now available on Apple News — follow us here!

The post Was Barbie a rich kid toy? Twitter users weigh in appeared first on In The Know.

More from In The Know:

Architecture student analyzes the history of Barbie dollhouses from ‘a design perspective’: ‘Barbie became the elite’

Woman shares 'controversial' opinion about 'Barbie' actor Simu Liu being 'the face of the Asian diaspora,' and he responds

College student transforms kids' play kitchen into adorable mini bar cart, and TikTok is obsessed

The 17 best jelly sandals that will heal your inner child this summer