Once upon a time, Barbie was a favorite topic of mine to bash. I have since let go of this issue. If you want to perpetuate false ideals of beauty and create self-esteem issues for your child, let her play with as many Barbies as she wants.
Fortunately, there are many artists that have taken on the issue of Barbie and her disproportionate body size.
First there was Chris Jordan’s Barbie Dolls, 2008 that “Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006.”
The recent addition to representing Barbie’s actual figure, or the figure she would have if she was an average 19-year-0ld, was created by Artist Nickolay Lamm.
When I showed these images to my almost 12-year-old daughter, she thought the original Barbie doll looked better. Epic fail! We have been so ingrained with airbrushed images and super models that our ideal of beauty is quite skewed in America. It is an unattainable beauty for most, and unfortunately, many people suffer from trying. The old adage “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” may be true; however, the eye of the beholder is heavily influenced from a young age with unrealistic, morbid ideals.
I grew up in a suburb where I always felt inferior. My parents weren’t rich enough, I was not beautiful enough…there was always something wrong. I don’t want that for my child or yours, but I see it already in my friends’ kids.
Well, I never really though about barbie and her body type. My sister would used to play with them and she never though about Barbies body image. She would just play with them and I never saw anything wrong.