Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
Barbie and the Bible: Addressing Christianity in the Barbie-Verse15 views
Author
Toman, Katie, Religious Studies - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia0009-0006-1414-8163
Advisors
Hedstrom, Matthew, AS-Religious Studies (RELI), University of Virginia
Tapia, Ruby, AS-American Studies (AMST), University of Virginia
Abstract
“Barbie and the Bible: Addressing Christianity in the Barbie-Verse” argues that the animated Barbie movies released by Mattel offer a valuable perspective on contemporary Christian values in America. By exploring the ethics, archetypes, presentation of gender, and theological motifs that are present, this project identifies how Mattel’s animated Barbie films organize feminine goodness through a culturally Protestant moral grammar of sacrifice, purity, redemptive suffering, transformation, and restored order. This thesis draws on scholarship that understands children’s media as a site of moral pedagogy and catechesis. Four animated Barbie movies are examined in this thesis, with each film serving to highlight specific points of interest that offer a glimpse into the way a religion is encultured. This project examines how Christian ethical and symbolic patterns become legible within ostensibly secular children’s fantasy.
Degree
MA (Master of Arts)
Keywords
Barbie; American Christianity; children's media; girlhood studies; media studies; religious studies
Toman, Katie. Barbie and the Bible: Addressing Christianity in the Barbie-Verse. University of Virginia, Religious Studies - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, MA (Master of Arts), 2026-05-01, https://doi.org/10.18130/ws02-m579.
