Ruth’s and Jack’s relationship eventually becomes “openly hostile” after Jack appears on What’s My Line?. Who do you think is to blame for its deterioration? Could anything have been done, in your opinion, to salvage it?

Book Clubs Let's Call Her Barbie by Renée Rosen Discussion
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Ruth’s and Jack’s relationship eventually becomes “openly hostile” after Jack appears on What’s My Line?. Who do you think is to blame for its deterioration? Could anything have been done, in your opinion, to salvage it?

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Jack and Ruth’s relationship might have been saved if either of them had been willing to admit their egos got in the way of their work. Jack should not have taken all the credit for the development of Barbie and Ruth should have figured out a way to make it easy for him to apologize.

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I think Jack was the instigator of the deterioration. Had he apologized and not taken total credit, again, Ruth might have forgiven him. He lost perspective of who Ruth was as a person and as a boss.

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I wish Jack had been able to accept that his life was falling apart sooner. He had no right to take full credit for the creation of Barbie, but his drinking and womanizing took over his life so that there was little chance he could save himself. Even when he tried psychological help, he was incapable of accepting the doctor’s help or sustaining an apology to Ruth or anyone else. I found it very sad that he had such a difficult life.

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I don’t think the relationship could have been saved. Both were strong personalities with big egos and a need to be right and to prove others are not as smart as they are, Both of them had been damaged from their childhoods and Jack was hiding his word blindness and bipolar condition. I don’t think either was able to apologize, so that that they could not forgive the other.

It really was a shame, as I do think they did care for each other and valued each other and they were better as a team than as enemies.

It was a good reminder, take a breath, try to see the situation from the other person and apologize. Realize the relationship is more important than feeling that you are right,

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I think Jack was more to blame since he repeatedly took credit for creating Barbie, even though he knew Ruth would be angry. It would have been easy for him to share credit with Ruth and Elliott and Mattel. He really did have a huge ego and his success went to his head - all his partying, his affairs, etc. I’m surprised that Ruth and Elliott didn’t fire him, but he was a brilliant engineer, and they kept thinking that they could contain his excesses.

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I basically think Jack was an ass. He had this shiny Mr. Nice Guy veneer but he was really just all about himself. I think Ruth had to project strength and confidence all her life, and really had no choice but to plow forward. Jack, though, had options about how he approached the doll’s fame.

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Totally agree with you about Jack. He was brilliant but not a team player. In today’s business world I think he would be replaced

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I think the blow up was brewing for a long time. Ruth and Jack both had big egos and didn’t discuss their roles in Mattel. I’m not sure it could have been avoided.

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I worked long enough to realize that things get done the best if there was a team working on it. Jack didn’t want to be a team player and wanted all of the glory for himself. I don’t think that the relationship between Jack and Ruth could have been fixed based on Jack’s attitude.