Girls can be anything – and Barbie just proved it on the PWHL rink

It has been a truly awesome few months for women’s sports. Summer McIntosh has been a freight train in the pool, winning medal after medal and demolishing records along the way. Victoria Mboko served up a victory at the National Bank Open that gave Canadians a reason to rejoice. The Northern Super League launched last Spring bringing world-class women’s soccer to jam-packed arena’s right across the country. And women’s hockey, once relegated so far to the sidelines that it was almost invisible, is now taking North America by storm with Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) teams delivering fast, aggressive, exceptional games to fans who are totally dialed in to the experience.

At a time when if feels like there’s a lot of volatility in the world surrounding women’s rights, the achievements of these strong, determined, remarkable women is a beacon of light, an inspiration, and a challenge to anyone who might suggest that women still have something to prove.

What I love the most is that these women are completely re-writing the rules across the board – including the social rules that many of us grew up with as kids. For instance, I was twelve before I got my first Barbie because I had a mother who believed that the Barbie franchise represented a ridiculous, confining, sexist definition of femininity. 

As a kid, I thought this was crazy. I just wanted a Barbie. As a mother now myself, I 100 per cent understand where she was coming from, and approve of her approach. Just as I have tried for my kids, she wanted to create an environment where I knew that anything was possible, that any dream could become a reality with hard work and guts, and that conventional ideals could be respected, but they could also be broken.

That’s why the news that Mattel has just released two PWHL Barbies honouring players Marie-Philip Poulin and Sarah Nurse hit close to home. Obviously, Barbie has come a long way since I was a kid – she’s realized she can be anything she wants to be (except, apparently, over 150 pounds). She no longer only reflects a traditional, idealized version of femininity to little girls, but the reality of what those girls can become, including professional hockey players.

And there’s another moral to the story here. Mattel, like thousands of other companies, has realized that women and girls represent a powerful and growing source of purchasing power. In Canada alone, BDC says women are responsible for 75-80 per cent of consumer spending. That’s over a trillion dollars a year. There’s a reason why these companies are tapping in so heavily to the female market – because it makes sound financial sense and it’s essential to their bottom line.

So even when a cursory read of the news can make us feel a bit uneasy, remember this: the future is bright for women – in the pool, on the tennis court, on the soccer pitch, in the hockey arena, and everywhere else where we show up. Because, in the immortal words of Beyoncé: “Who run the world? Girls.”

by Catherine Clark

Catherine Clark is a nationally respected broadcaster, emcee, and co-founder of The Honest Talk.

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