Mormon Barbie: A Critical Examination of the Male Gaze, Ideology, and Parallel Representations

This chapter explores the intersection of religion, gender, and popular culture through the parallel representations of Mormon women and Barbie. While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and Mattel’s Barbie may appear to have little in common, both have been subject to ideological debates regarding femininity, identity, representations, and power. Emerging during periods of cultural transformation – Mormon women in the 19th-century expansion of mass print media and Barbie in the 20th-century consumer boom – both have been shaped by and reflective of the anxieties and aspirations of their respective eras. Central to this analysis is the concept of the male gaze, which has focused discursively on both Mormon women and Barbie. In the 19th century, Mormon women were framed within the broader patriarchal narrative, either as victims needing rescue from polygamy or as undesirable figures resigned to an oppressive system. This portrayal, found in newspaper editorials, Victorian novels, and satirical illustrations, perpetuated the notion that Mormon women lacked agency and were defined primarily in relation to male dominance. Similarly, Barbie, though marketed as an aspirational figure of female empowerment, has often been critiqued for reinforcing unattainable beauty standards and traditional gender roles that privilege a heterosexual, male-defined ideal of femininity. The chapter also considers how Mormon women and Barbie have navigated evolving feminist discourses. The LDS Church’s relationship with feminism has been complex and Barbie has been at the centre of feminist debates for decades.