Barbies shocking, scandalous past revealed in new book

Barbie is not who we think she is.For nearly seven decades, Mattel has sold Barbie as a true original: a revolutionary and empowering alternative to the baby dolls before her.In her new book, “Barbieland: The Unauthorized History” (Atria/One Signal Publishers), Tarpley Hitt provides a surprising counternarrative.Barbie, per Hitt’s lens, was not a groundbreaking novelty.

Rather, she is a cheap “knockoff” elevated by strategic marketing, exploitation, bullying, backstabbing and espionage.“Mattel had spent years obscuring Barbie’s backstory,” the author writes. (A Mattel spokesperson told The Post that the company is “aware of the book.”)The prevailing Barbie myth has long been that, in 1959, a businesswoman named Ruth Handler (who founded toy company Mattel with her husband, Elliot) introduced an 11.5-inch plastic doll to the market — and changed girlhood, the toy industry and pop culture forever. This doll boasted big breasts, long legs and a killer wardrobe.

She wasn’t a baby like the playthings that came before her; she was a fashion model with clothes that mimicked the latest couture collections.Ruth called her Barbie after her own daughter, Barbara. In reality, Barbie was not the first adult doll.

There were others, Hitt notes.And one, the German dolly Bild Lilli, had a much bigger influence on Barbie’s creation than Ruth would ever admit. Lilli started life as a ribald comic strip in the German tabloid Bild — a blonde bimbo whose adventures in gold-digging often ended in wardrobe malfunctions.

She became a doll in 1955, sold in tobacco stands and toy stores throughout Europe.In 1958, she starred in her own live-action movie — 65 years before actress/producer Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig brought “Barbie” to the silver screen.Decades after her Barbie’s debut, Ruth admitted she saw Lilli in Switzerland in 1956, but insisted she had the idea for a grown-up doll years before.

When Mattel engineer Jack Rya...