Report
It has been more that fifty years since Barbie was created and over that time she has become one of the most top selling toys worldwide (Griffin). And nobody could have predicted the success a simple plastic doll has achieved. At this point you can hardly find a person who has never heard of Barbie. The doll is known and sold worldwide and that makes her probably one of the most popular trends of all time. It was the first doll with an adult body. And it is her body image that has been causing a great number of contradictions and debates. People all over the world are discussing the actual influence Barbie has on little girls. And mostly the outcomes seem to be negative.
The main reason of most debates is definitely Barbie’s body. “If Barbie were an actual woman she would be 5’9” tall and weigh just 110 pounds; her Body Mass Index would be 16.24, which fits the weight criteria for anorexia; she’d wear a size 3 shoes and she would have to walk on all fours due to her proportions” (Sole-Smith). That does not seem quite normal for a random woman. However the image of a tall blonde girl with a tiny waist, long legs and big breast makes young girls think that this is exactly how beautiful women have to look like. Children tend to generalize things and it is not surprising that the idea of Barbie’s perfection harms the young psychic when girls start realizing how different they are from the ideal image. They believe that being skinny is beautiful and it significantly lowers the self-esteem of those who do not correspond. Thus girls who want to look like Barbie develop eating disorders most of the time.
The generally accepted stereotypes can be extremely damaging in this respect. Nowadays we can see a lot of women that even at an older age still have the desire to look like plastic girls. They dye their hair, get plastic surgeries, use weight-loss products just to come closer to the image that is believed to be perfect in every aspect. Even being adults a lot of them do not realize the fakeness of the presented ideal. And that has developed into one of the most critical problems of modern society. Women are exposed to so much pressure from the television and fashion world that the idea of being inappropriate gets deep into their mind. It starts generating in the really young age and does not fade away with time. A lot of people believe that the foremost reason for such tendency was the introduction of Barbie. “Psychologists found that girls between 5 and 7½ years old who were exposed to pictures of Barbie were more likely to have lower body esteem and a greater desire for a thin body than girls viewing photos of a more “realistic” Emme doll, known for her size-16 figure.” (Griffin). It initially placed the center of attention on physical beauty which supposedly makes young girls think that intellectual development is less important. “Barbie's freakishly tiny waist and history of self-abasement influences girls to have impossible standards for ideal beauty and underestimate their own intelligence” (E.Martin). They may think that if you are beautiful you do not have to be smart and that is definitely not a good way to bring up the next generations.
However there is another group of people who think that there is no need to blame Barbie for such global problems. The average age of girls who play with Barbies ranges from 3 to 10 years (Griffin) and at that point they are not concerned about analyzing their doll’s body type. “Yet studies have shown that the young girls playing with Barbie are completely unaware of the sexual aspects of her appearance.” (Nillario). A lot of parents believe that Barbie is just a simple toy that is fun to play with. Besides playing with it has a positive impact on girls’ creative thinking as it gives them freedom to make up different adult-life situations and try to live in them. Additionally Barbie can be a good empowering role model in bringing up independent women. Over the years Barbie has been a doctor, an astronaut, a biker, a pop star, an athlete and much more. That gives young girls the idea that they can achieve everything they want to and makes them aspire to professional careers even at that age. “With a Barbie doll, little girls can live any dream and learn to be strong, powerful women who will one day help shape the world.” (Martin).
The controversy around Barbie has been raging for many years now. While a lot of people consider it to have a completely negative influence on young girls’ reception of their own bodies it still remains one of the strongest images of an independent woman that were brought to our society. It is important that Barbie is offering little girls ideas for new imaginative plays where they can see themselves in a lot of different roles. Taking into consideration all this we can say that now it is very important to find a suitable compromise. One of the possible solutions in this situation could be the introduction of plastic dolls that have more realistic measurements. They will still be very interesting and fun to play with but will not do any harm to girls’ safe-esteem as they will embody the average woman. However it is hard to say whether any other doll can ever be as popular as Barbie has become.
REFERENCES
Griffin, Julia, 2009. Academics Like to Play With Barbies, Too. [online] Miller-McCune. Available at:
Martin, Courtney E., 2009. Barbie’s No Threat to Little Girls. [online] The Christian Science Monitor. Available at:
Martin,Lucas, n.d. How the Barbie Doll Has Influences the Modern Woman. [online] Ezine Articles. Available at: < http://ezinearticles.com/?How-the-Barbie-Doll-Has-Influenced-the-Modern-Woman&id=3138604>. [Accessed 2 November 2011].
Nillario, Veronica, 2009. The History and Influence of Barbie Dolls. [online] Artipot. Available at: < http://www.artipot.com/articles/457737/the-history-and-influence-of-barbie-dolls.htm>. [Accessed 2 November 2011].
Sole-Smith, Virginia, 2011. How Barbie Bends Our Body Image. [online] iVillage. Available at: < http://www.ivillage.com/how-barbie-bends-our-body-image/4-a-325273>. [Accessed 2 November 2011].
