Barbie doll turns 50

ATLANTA, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Barbie is about to celebrate 50 years of inspiring young girls and controversy across the United States, experts say.

Author Miriam Forman-Brunell said the hour glass-figured doll, which turns 50 next month, helped revolutionize how women were viewed in society when the first one hit U.S. stores in March 1959, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.

"During the 1950s and before, there was this dominant prevailing idea that women should be homemakers and mothers," said Forman-Brunell, author of "Made to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of American Girlhood." "Barbie challenged the postwar ideal about motherhood and sent the message that it was also OK to be a working woman."

But University of West Florida sociologist Mary Rogers opposes that claim, saying Barbie teaches young girls the importance of blending in.

"Barbie represents a tragic thread in American culture -- that assimilation is important if you want to be accepted as American," Rogers told the Tribune regarding the popular Mattel toy.