Revisiting Midge, Barbie’s (Controversial) Bestie
While every Barbie fan worth their salt knows who Midge is, the character’s position in the franchise is worth revisiting, especially with Greta Gerwig’s long-awaited Barbie (2023) taking over theaters. Midge was first released as Barbie’s best friend, supposedly to combat the complaints from parents that Barbie was too sexualized. The doll came in blonde, brunette, and ginger, but she has since been most often seen as a redhead. While Barbie had slim eyes with prominent blue eye makeup and red lips, Midge had rounder eyes, nude lips, and freckles. The face molds of the dolls were different, with Midge having fuller cheeks. The difference between the two dolls is highlighted in the 1963 set referred to as Fashion Queen and Her Friends, with Barbie’s makeup contrasting with Midge’s natural look. Midge had fashion packs of her own, also sharing a body mold with Barbie, meaning the two could share clothes. The character disappeared after the 1960’s, to be reintroduced in the 80’s with a different head mold. After the 60’s, all Midge dolls featured more prominent makeup.
Barbie had Ken, and Midge had Alan (originally spelled “Allan”). The pair got married, with Midge’s wedding line releasing in 1991. In 2003, Midge was reintroduced yet again, this time with children. Midge was pregnant, and the doll featured a magnetic stomach with a tiny removable baby. Alan wasn’t originally featured in the pack, a major cause for controversy as Midge hadn’t been seen with a ring. Some parents thought the doll was promoting teen pregnancy, while others found the stomach gimmick inappropriate for children. Walmart pulled the pack from their stores and Mattel re-released the set, sans magnetic stomach and including a wedding ring and an Alan cutout in the packaging.
The Happy Family storyline has been essentially retconned in Barbie canon as of today, as Midge was yet again reintroduced in the animated series Life in the Dreamhouse in the 2013 episode “A Smidge of Midge”, where the character is Barbie’s old best friend from a small town stuck in the past. At the beginning of the episode, Midge is a greyscale doll with straight, unarticulated limbs, and the gang gives her a makeover to modernize her, with her final appearance looking nothing like 1963 Midge: strawberry-blonde straight hair with bumped ends and bangs, full lashes, and bubblegum pink lipstick. This is the last iteration of Midge to be released as a doll.
This is one of the most famous Barbie controversies, and Gerwig’s movie acknowledges it humorously. Actress Emerald Fennell portrays a pregnant Midge, something many fans were excited to see in the early Barbie (2023) trailers. Some even speculate that we’ll see yet another reintroduction of Midge into the Barbie canon, perhaps with a new doll, while others think Mattel may drop a reproduction of the controversial Happy Family doll (which I’m personally not holding my breath for). It’s a bit ironic that the character introduced to combat claims of sexualization faced her own controversies surrounding her appropriateness, but many fans hope Midge can be reunited in plastic with her happy family some day soon.
