Barbie Is Beaming Up With New ‘Star Trek’ Line

Move over, Astronaut Barbie. A new trio of Barbies is about to touch down from a galaxy far, far away.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise, Mattel is joining forces with CBS to honor the crew of the Starship Enterprise by launching doll doppelgängers of three of the show’s lead characters. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Lieutenant Uhura will soon join the ranks of the Barbie Collector Series.

This sci-fi set is just the latest phase in the toy company’s ongoing campaign to transcend gender roles and identity with its iconic doll — and evolve past the outdated stereotypes, unrealistic body standards, and lack of cultural and disabled representation that once characterized Barbie.

Launched in 1959 as a blond bombshell fashion model, Barbie has made strides in recent decades toward becoming a more healthy and well-rounded role model for young girls. In fact, as early as 1968, “Christie” debuted as the first African-American Barbie doll, but it wasn’t until 2009’s “So In Style” series that Barbie dolls actually resembled black women beyond just their skin color.

In 1997, “Share a Smile Becky” became the first Barbie designed to sit in a wheelchair — reminiscent of the recent, tear-jerking viral video in a which a young girl with a prosthetic leg unwraps a gift to discover an American Girl doll that also has a removable prosthesis.

A recent study revealed that according to the doll’s measurements, if Barbie were a real woman she would be unable to walk on her pin-thin ankles or lift heavy objects with her frail wrists, nor would she be able to lift her head with a neck so narrow in comparison. Worst of all, her 16-inch waist — which is smaller than her head — would fit only half a liver and a few inches of intestines. Ouch.

In response to this, this year Mattel released three new versions of the doll: Curvy, Tall, and Petite Barbie.

Mattel has also made headlines for being more inclusive of the once male-oriented career options now performed by modern-day women, launching Architect Barbie, Presidential Candidate Barbie, Computer Engineer Barbie, and more. This is important, many experts feel, not only for the empowering message it sends to young girls, but because — according to a New York Times article — gender-specific toys can hamper a child’s development.

To this end, Walmart, Toys R Us, and Target have all recently decided to tone down the blatantly gender-based marketing of their toys. This was mostly in response to consumer criticism, but also to a study by psychologist Lisa Dinella of Monmouth University, which proved that color alone (think pink and blue) heavily influenced which toys children felt they had “permission” to play with. She stated that girls were happy to play with a toy traditionally meant for boys — say, an airplane — as long as it was pink.

So, will the introduction of Star Trek Barbies — emulating a sci-fi franchise historically marketed toward boys — encourage girls to go where few females have gone before? We’ll find out later this month when the line launches. Until then, may Barbie live long and prosper.

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