Barbie's Defence - Comments

I 100% agree with this article. I played with Barbie as a small child. I did not feel bad about myself because of Barbie, but because of how other kids treated me in school. I was a huge tom boy in elementary school to 7th grade. All the girls always made fun of me. For the next few years I grew out my hair, and thought I needed to have long hair to be identified as a female. I think the problem today is bullying and media.

Wonderful article.

I 100% agree with this. And also, the shape of Barbie has always changed over time - which might be where the backlash comes from, her morphing to be visually appealing and "perfect" to newer generations. Though one can argue that by changing her body shape to be more fluid, her body looks more realistic, which I also agree with. The gender role idea is absolutely darling. That would be something I'd encourage! There are thinner dolls out there, that are more disproportionate then Barbie, but no one worries about them.

Tending to read the comments, I tried not to but couldn't. The idea of the "sisters" being the kids is just way far out for me. Many children's shows delve in to the idea of the main character having other family other than parents that never are mentioned so that was just odd. There was a book set, in which Barbie was named after her creator and given parents. The sisters names were Stacie, Skipper, etc. Of course this isn't common knowledge, but alas, it is make believe.

Eventually I stopped reading the comments because I see how big of a topic this is, and I'm interested but not to the extent where I'll obsess over it. I think that whatever aspects of Barbie already exist, should not be changed to be more realistic, but that the whole brand can be added to.

Remember the "Happy Family" set with the Barbie that could have a baby and the grandparents? That included every, or nearly ever, doll from the book set. The family, the friends and their families, etc. Here is a pintrest board of it. Not mine, of course. These dolls, though essentially "perfect" do show diversity, which is a great start. I think to continue something great like that, they should create dolls that don't necessarily have the "perfect" look, but are still visually appealing: a bald doll for young children with cancer that lose their hair, maybe a doll like the one shown with "realistic proportions", dolls with detachable limbs for children that don't have all of their extremities, etc. (Of course, adding even more ethnicity variation will never hurt.) Just some ideas that will hopefully happen, but should they not, I think people need to start teaching differently. Growing up, I never once thought that Barbie was how I was supposed to look. Something has gone wrong for girls to think that way, and it isn't with the doll. They need to be taught the difference between real and fake. Body issues don't come from fake things, they come from real things; perhaps the problem is telly, print items, ads outside - yes, a young child may say "I want to be just like Barbie when I grow up" but they soon grow out of that (if they even play with Barbie's anyways!) Barbie, well she needs to stay Barbie. Yes, change is good, but she is iconic, and if she was changed, well then Barbie would be no more.

I love your article! Amazing job writing this. x

As much as we can look past some of the important problems, such as her proportions and her apparent perfections, we should be thinking about representation. Barbie's goals and accomplishments are inspiring - doctor Barbie, astronaut Barbie, that cute-as-heck pink jeep she had - but we're overlooking the main factor here. She was a strong display of the female character, but she was very, very white.

Barbie is a caucasian, thin female with blonde hair and blue eyes. I understand that back when she was first created, she was part of the vogue - she was a stand-alone figure of femininity and the 'ideal' female is/was supposedly your general blonde hair, blue eyes kind of gal. Her friends, some POC, others just the generic Barbie style with a dye-job, were side-kicks - not the heroes of Barbie's tales. And as much as they were 'included' in the advertisements and movies, they weren't the driving force behind the whole deal.

As much as I was blind to the underlying issues with Barbie's as a kid, I'm sure that there are millions of little girls around the world who could never relate to Barbie and the fact that she was the representation of girls everywhere. Heck, even I wanted to be like Barbie when I was a kid, and it killed me that I was never going to be as pretty or cool as she was. The proportions never bothered me, neither did the vapid comments about fashion and being cool - just her hair and her eyes were the issue. She was the essence of everything we wanted to be - and we'd never reach that if we were different to this shining idol in the eyes of young girls.

She was on television and backpacks and you couldn't escape a gift-giving holiday without the concept of a Barbie doll, or some kind of knock-off. The fact that younger girls were force-fed this idea that if you were blonde, blue-eyed, and very pretty, you could do anything, be anyone, have a cute boyfriend and own an awesome mansion - while her friends just hung around and didn't get the in-depth background story they deserved. It was always Barbie - perfect Barbie that was petite and proper and everything a girl should be - and it's really sad to think about.

And as ur_best_nightmare said below;
But what it's really saying is success belongs to girls who look like Barbie.

So yeah, she should get more flack for being an unattainable goal - because it's not fair on all the girls who felt like they weren't pretty when looking up at this doll. Her strange proportions may not have affected us too badly, but the representation most-likely damaged many young women and warped their perception of beauty.

(also eesh, sorry this was so long)

Personally I've never liked Barbie, and around in my neck of the woods I see young people all the time wanting to be like Barbie or even Models and when told they can't become severely affected. No it's not all their faults because people (society in general) has been telling younger people that how barbie looks is ideal and I personally do not like it.

Barbie though today, like the article said, should be aimed towards more male-dominant job areas such as the ones you listed. It would be great to see Barbies be used for teaching young girls instead of making them feel bad but that may never happen unfortunately.

First, no, Barbie was not based off of the woman's daughter. It was named after her, sure, but her iconic image was actually first based off of a German sex doll. There are links and pictures everywhere. Here's a start.

Second, to say that it's not completely Barbie's fault, and therefore none of the fault is hers is totally misguided. Barbie is a small cog in a vast propaganda machine (that sounds so hippy-ish, lol). Barbie is not the sole reason that girls starve themselves or harm themselves or kill themselves. But I don't think that's what anyone is saying. Barbie is the first step down a very harmful road. And it's not JUST Barbie. It's Disney princesses with impossibly small waists and cartoon characters and princesses in coloring books. From a ridiculously young age, girls are assaulted by this pencil thin, unimaginative image of "beauty" before they even understand how harmful it is. It's an essential conditioning technique so that when they're introduced to models and movies and Hollywood, they already have this idea in their heads of what beauty is.

They apply it to their friends and themselves, and are always, always, always found wanting. Barbie is by no means the sole reason for girls' low self esteem. She is often used as an example, simply because she is a prime one. Yes, there is astronaut Barbie and teacher Barbie and the like, which means that success belongs to girls, too, and feminism and blah blah blah. But what it's really saying is success belongs to girls who look like Barbie. I think that's the point so many people miss.

@ La Notte Dei Demoni.
Well then we shouldn't be teachingchildren that a doll is perfect :-) the doll shouldn't be changed, we need to change how we view them. As it is when I was little I was never taught that Barbie was meant to be the standard I should look up to. I just liked dressing them up.

@ The Pies Endure
We have enough negative body stereotypes enforcing that people should look a certain way. Saying Barbie is 'perfect' is damaging to little girls who don't conform to the impossible standards set by the doll.

@ La Notte Dei Demoni.
Why should barbie be made to look anatomically correct? If they're going to do that they need to give Ken a penis while they're at it. Also, unicorns aren't anatomically correct. Because they're not real. Barbie may be based off a human, but she's not real.

I used to think of Barbie as a toy too, but at the same time there's the thing of having an imagination and being realistic. I mean come on we mine as well tell them when there older it's not OK to look fat or chubby we have to look like Barbie. It's wrong, why can't there be different size barbies while kids learn the realness that there is other people shapes and sizes out there. I think they should do that with any doll and cartoon made. Be more realistic. I'm glad they've got Barbie that way.

I agree with this article. So much. I grew up playing with Barbies, my mother grew up playing with Barbies as well. To me, they were always just a toy. Something to play with, dress up, ect. I never thought of Barbie as a role model, and I think that people sometimes divulge too deeply into things. It's a toy. Toys are not meant to be role models, they're meant to be vessels to stimulate a child's imagination and let them act out their imaginary scenarios and whatnot. But that's just how I view it. I don't think that the company should be forced or pressured to change a doll that has been this way for so long. Just like with any other toy/game/ect, parents need to eventually guide their children in what is real life and what is not. Barbie is not real life. Human beings are real life. I think the problem is now, with video games being so prominent, that bridge between toys/games and real life is becoming insanely blurred which leads us to this discussion being a thing.

I know that whole paragraph sounds rant-y, but I'm tired and I don't know how else to get my point across LOL.

I agree with this article. Yes sometimes the Barbie manufacturers have not always had the best ideas (pregnant Barbie, the one with the scale set at 105 pounds, etc.) but no one is perfect. I have body issues but not because of a Barbie but because of comments my parents have made. Also, if you want to fix Barbie then why not change the way Sailor Moon is drawn or any anime girls/boys for that matter. The real reason for why people have low self esteem and body issues are comments made my peers/family, runway/magazine models, they way magazines critize actresses/actors for losing/gaining weight, or mental problems. Lastly if parents would teach their kids things then expecting famous people and magazines/books/dolls/teachers/schools to do it then the kids would be alright.

In no part of this article did you mention that Barbie's body proportions would mean that she could not menstruate, hold up her back and neck, and would crawl on all fours. Does that sound perfect to you?
Also, check out this article, there has already been a 'knocked up Barbie'; http://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/the-10-most-depressing-barbie-dolls-ever-made
We need to give kids positive role models, and thus Barbie should be made anatomically correct in order to give kids a more realistic idea of what a healthy body looks like, rather than this impossibly thin creature.

I hate to disagree with you in this one but I think I have to.

Like it or not, girls (and boys too) are bombarded by imagery of the 'perfect' woman pretty much as soon as they're able to sit up and take notice: Television, movies, magazines, our pop stars, bill boards, and more. Growing up in a society where it's almost impossible to escape popular imagery and advertising material it's not hard to understand why so many people grow up with various body dismorphia disorders. When I was a teenager, the older group that I looked up to were all stick thin because they took hard drugs and were severely malnourished. At 16, that was what I aspired to be. Pretty frightening, no?

My point is that, while children may not realise that they're being marketed to, they are impressionable. The lessons they learn as a child can be the most evocative and powerful. If the dolls that we surround our children with are tall, skinny, classically beautiful, blonde and not to mention white, what chance do they have to learn that being anything else is okay?

For me, it was because they marketed Barbie in my country as "What all girls wish to be" - THAT IS THE WORST SLOGAN I HAVE EVER HEARD. Haha. And it's completely untrue. My friend's turned on me because I looked like Barbie when I was seven. That's how badly it effected some girls, it's not the doll itself, it was the marketing and the ad's that made some girls feel ugly and unwanted. :(

I agree that the manufactioners shouldn't change Barbie's original image, but I think they should include dolls with different body types to ease the parents' minds. Ultimately, it's the parents that make them money

I agree that the manufactioners shouldn't change Barbie's original image, but I think they should include dolls with different body types to ease the parents' minds. Ultimately, it's the parents that make them money

I like this article and I completely agree. People should focus on more pressing issues than changing a toy. It's just a toy. If you take a toy personally and compare it to your own body image, then it's time for some serious self-evaluation. It's not real. It's make believe stuff to entertain children. It's not Barbie's fault if the kid turns out to have low self esteem or whatnot. I'm pretty sure when they made Barbie they weren't thinking in their heads "Oh, this is what all women should look like". I'm pretty sure they just kept the children in mind and that their goal was to create a make believe character just for the purpose of enjoyment. It would be pretty messed up if a company was sending out a negative message, which I'm pretty sure they are not.

I had Barbie growing up. One of the best dolls to have a conversation with as a kid. I have watched over the years how the 'image' of Barbie has been hit. They have gone so much farther than when it all started, but it is scary to think "what might end up coming for these children to find?" It always makes me wonder...with half the things that are bein allowed or looked upon more in society, how much of that might leak into the fantasy world of Barbie. I agree with all you have said here in your article. Image and body and all shouldn't matter as a kid; your a kid, not a model. Let them dream and pretend that she, her sisters, Ken and the rest, are all their friends and such. Let them be able to pretend she's a princess in a locked up tower and they have to swim through an alligator moat to save her. Don't show them a human-like face and they expect it to be more like a real person now, keep it as a fantasy. You only have fantasy for a short while before reality hits...let's let them have that imaginary world as long as possible.

What does a six year old girl care for her body image? I loved Barbie dolls as a kid, I had loads and I loved all the clothes and cars and I loved being able to release my imagination. Barbie has never influenced my body image. Why would you compare yourself to Barbie? She's actually kind of scary. By the time I, and most of my friends grew out of playing with dolls, none of us cared how we looked. Kids just don't care about things like this. They just like playing with dolls.

Barbie has had over 130 careers since she was created. Including President of the United States, Surgeon, Astronaut, race car driver, US Army Officer, UNICEF Ambassador, Navel Petty officer, Business executive, Computer engineer, police officer, firefighter, Olympian (several times over), MLB player, ect... A lot of things women haven't been. People will only focus on the negative of her and not the fact that she can show that girls can be anything she wants to be.

http://www.barbiemedia.com/about-barbie/careers.html