Ever since the first doll was released in 1959, Barbie has been criticised by feminists. Mattel founder Ruth Handler based the doll’s physique on a German adult-themed Lilli doll, something that was typically gifted to men at bachelor parties.

It was one of the first children’s toys to have breasts and boasted impossible proportions with her tiny waist and long legs. A 2016 thesis suggested that Barbie’s unrealistic body proportions would also make it impossible for her to walk. Galia Slayen recreated the doll in 2007 – using measurements as if she were a real person – for the first National Eating Disorder Awareness Week and suggested that she would stand almost 6ft tall, weigh 110lbs, have a 39-inch chest and an 18-inch waist with the hips of a teenage boy.

In the early years, every new iteration went from bad to worse. In 1963, Babysitter Barbie was released with a book titled How To Lose Weight; Slumber Party Barbie followed in 1965, accompanied by the non-essential sleepover accessory of a pink set of scales that read ‘110lbs.’

How did Barbie go from a problematic toy to a feminist icon?