{"id":386,"date":"2016-03-24T21:43:29","date_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/?p=386"},"modified":"2016-03-24T21:43:29","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T01:43:29","slug":"body-image-barbie-doing-more-harm-than-good-by-keira-c-wingert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/2016\/03\/24\/body-image-barbie-doing-more-harm-than-good-by-keira-c-wingert\/","title":{"rendered":"Body Image Barbie: Doing More Harm than Good? by Keira C. Wingert"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems like the only times I hear about Barbie anymore are in conversations about her body.<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ve all heard the statistics that claim that Barbie, if she were a real person, would be six feet tall, weigh 100 pounds, and have the hips of a prepubescent boy (Olson, par. 1). Often, people will use these statistics against the Barbie brand as a way of blaming the doll for the prevalence of unhealthy body consciousness among girls and young women. In fact, competitors have been introduced to the market to address this issue, such as the Lammily doll, a Barbie rival proportionate to the body of an average 19-year-old woman. When the concept for the doll was introduced in 2014, it garnered the attention of many adult women, who loved the idea of an average-looking doll whose accessories include acne, scars, and cellulite (yes, really!).\"barbieombre\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In January of this year, perhaps as a response to the Lammily doll\u2019s release and the subsequent backlash against the Barbie brand, Mattel released a new line of Barbies that made headlines and sparked a huge conversation among the doll\u2019s fans amd critics alike. This new line of Barbies features dolls with petite, curvy, and tall bodies\u2014a revolutionary move for a brand that has featured only one (inhuman) body type since its conception in 1959 (Pearson & Mullins, 230).<\/p>\n

One might think that the introduction of this line of dolls would be the be-all and end-all of conversations over Barbie\u2019s body, but in reality, it may do more harm than good. The new curvy Barbie doll doesn\u2019t fit into the clothes of the petite, tall, and classic Barbie dolls, which begs the question:\u00a0 when two little girls are playing with their dolls together, what will bring more awareness to the doll\u2019s body type than the realization that a curvy Barbie doll cannot wear the same clothes as a petite one?<\/p>\n

\"barbiecurvy_original\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps by giving Barbie three new looks, we could be diminishing children\u2019s self-confidence rather than boosting it. In constantly turning the conversation to Barbie\u2019s body rather than the wealth of careers, friends, and achievements her character seems to have, we are, in turn, sending the message to young girls that a woman\u2019s body is more important than her personality or accomplishments. According to unofficial Barbie \u201cbiographer\u201d M.G. Lord, Barbie is a toy \u201cdesigned by women for women to teach women what\u2014for better or worse\u2014is expected of them by society\u201d (Lord, 8). (Interestingly enough, artist Nickolay Lamm, a man, created the Lammily doll). Barbie can be a doctor, an artist, a surfer, a teacher, a babysitter, and more, and yet all anyone seems to care about is how she looks. In only focusing on her body, we are making it clear to little girls what is expected of them by society.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that representing body diversity is unimportant or harmful, but why should we needlessly make children more frustratingly aware of the differences between women\u2019s bodies when they themselves are hardly aware of their own bodies? Barbie isn\u2019t the one telling girls to focus on their bodies from a young age; we are. If we want that to change, we have to stop turning the conversation toward Barbie\u2019s measurements and instead focus on how Barbie can inspire girls to strive for something other than aesthetic beauty.<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Lord, M.G. Forever Barbie:\u00a0 The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll.<\/i> New York:\u00a0 Morrow, 1994. Print.<\/p>\n

Olsen, Samantha. \u201cWhy Are Barbie\u2019s Body Measurements So Unrealistic? Little Girls Aren\u2019t Buying It.\u201d Medical Daily<\/i>. IBT Media Inc., 31 Dec. 2014. 23 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n

Pearson, Marlys, and Paul R. Mullins. \u201cDomesticating Barbie:\u00a0 An Archaeology of Barbie Material Culture and Domestic Ideology.\u201d International Journal of Historical Archaeology<\/i> 3.4 (1999): p. 225-259. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n

Shriver, Lionel. \u201cSorry Lammily, Your Dumpy Looks Won\u2019t Fool Many Little Girls.\u201d The Guardian<\/i>. Guardian News and Media, 21 Nov. 2014. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems like the only times I hear about Barbie anymore are in conversations about her body. We\u2019ve all heard the statistics that claim that Barbie, if she were a real person, would be six feet tall, weigh 100 pounds, and have the hips of a prepubescent boy (Olson, par. 1). Often, people will use …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1329,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,246,104,233],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-barbie","tag-curvy-barbie","tag-lammily","tag-the-new-barbie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/americanicons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}