Barbie(tm)

For all of the flack that Mattel gets from the progressives and feminists, much of it admittedly well deserved, it's interesting to remember that when Barbie was first introduced, it was created and designed by women (primarily Ruth Handler, wife of one of the Mattel founders), and was one of a very few dolls on the market with an adult body-- in other words, that did not automatically cast the doll's owner in the role of a mother.  It was intended to be a doll that a girl could imagine herself as, that opened up a great deal of opportunity for unchecked imagination.  It's just too bad they've had so much trouble keeping the momentum of those initial ideas of empowerment.