UnDisciplined: The economic evolution of an icon

By Matthew LaPlante

Published September 14, 2023 at 3:10 PM MDT

<em>Barbie</em>, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is the top grossing movie of 2023, generating more than $1.3 billion at the international box office so far. — *Barbie*, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is the top grossing movie of 2023, generating more than $1.3 billion at the international box office so far.

Ticket sales are not always an indicator of a good film. But it's nonetheless worth noting that the top-grossing movie of 2023 is a movie about a toy — a doll that has both been blamed for creating toxic expectations about girls' bodies and also paving the way for girls to dream about a world in which they can be anything they want.

Donna Roberts is the associate dean for faculty and a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Embry Riddle University, and the author of "Economics of Barbie: Marketing the Evolution of an Icon through the Generations."

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Matthew LaPlante

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something donned on him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be brutally depressing all the time. Today, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects by writing books about the intersection of science, human health and society, including the New York Times best-selling Lifespan with geneticist David Sinclair and the Nautilus Award-winning Longevity Plan with cardiologist John Day. His first solo book, Superlative, looks at what scientists are learning by studying organisms that have evolved in record-setting ways, and his is currently at work on another book about embracing the inevitability of human-caused climate change with an optimistic outlook on the future.

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