IStock Photo 1055241 Dan Brandenburg

Barbie’s back in the news.

Just when it seemed like Barbie had both her incredibly diminutive feet firmly planted in the 21st century, she’s done a 180. Barbie’s back in the secretarial pool.

Just a few weeks ago we got the news that Barbie had two new jobs, part of her “I Can Be…” series. In recent years Barbie has exemplified the positive-thinking ideal that you can do anything in life—and the ancillary idea that you can have lots of careers. She’s tried out glamorous occupations like rock star and ballerina; people-centric jobs like pre-school teacher and flight attendant; and professional careers like veterinarian and astronaut.

She’s held hazardous jobs, such as race car driver (long restricted to men); she’s even been a SeaWorld trainer. She’s had physical jobs like gymnastics coach and soccer player. And she’s worn both white and blue collars: Barbie the surgeon has the same pretty face and impossible figure as Barbie who works at McDonald’s.

Word came this February that Barbie was going to be a hardworking but glamorous news anchor—a career selected through a survey conducted by Mattel. Even more impressively, it was also announced that she would be (marking her 146th career) a bespectacled computer engineer—chosen by an online poll, heavily swayed by a viral campaign among female computer engineers.

Those two careers exemplify Barbie’s dual nature: a modern woman who can do anything she puts her mind to, even be a nerd; and a glamorous yet also highly professional TV icon. With their computer engineer choice, Barbie fans may indeed be on to something; the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently named 28-year-old female PhD student Sanna Gaspard its “New Face of Engineering” for 2010. The odds an employed person 16 or older is a computer software engineer of systems software are 1 in 354.

But now we have been given some really shocking news. Barbie is returning to the Cold War, back to her origins on the eve of the sixties. Coming right on the heels of her gigs as a computer engineer and television anchorwoman, Barbie is taking on two new identities: office bombshell (smarter than the boys but never lets on, also doubles as a mistress) and thwarted housewife (gorgeous but seething with pent-up anger and desire).

Mattel’s latest versions are limited-edition Mad Men-themed Barbie dolls. Based on the Betty Draper and Joan Holloway characters from the show, these perfectly coiffed Barbies don't reflect "dream job" hopes, unless we want to inspire little girls to become trophy wives or underpaid office talent. They dolls are slated to be sold for $74.95 each.

Barbie has a track record of controversy, inspiring sociology theses and children’s books; spoofs like Saturday Night Live’s fake “Gangsta Bitch Barbie” commercial; and songs, like Aqua’s “I’m a Barbie Girl” and John Hiatt’s “The Wreck of the Barbie Ferrari.” More seriously, she’s been blamed for eating disorders and body image problems; researchers found that girls as young as five exposed to Barbie dolls showed “an increase in…body dissatisfaction, and that this negative effect is specific to thin dolls.” (The odds a woman has ever been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa are 1 in 111.1.)

The new incarnations of Barbie will only fuel the debate. Meanwhile, Barbie’s adventures (and troubles) continue, and they go well beyond career indecision. She’s been matched up with, though never officially married to, her boyfriend Ken, and supplied with family members and pets. She’s been satirized by The Simpsons as “Malibu Stacy,” and Mattel itself has inked her up as “Totally Stylin’ Tattoos Barbie.” She is regularly maimed and tortured by older girls outgrowing their initial doll-play phase, and she is auctioned, collected, and celebrated by adults who remember their Barbie days fondly.

Whatever her career, it seems the Barbie doll springs eternal. But there’s at least one place—besides a lot of boys’ rooms—where she is not welcome.

In 2003, Barbie was banned in Saudi Arabia.