Barbie is Freakishly Thin, Sure, But She's a Toy Not a Role Model

Ha!  I liked that article.  As they said, no one compares the baby dolls, with their gigantic heads.  Why compare Barbie - It's no more real!

They measured the newer Barbie.  The original Barbie had an 18" waist.  I used to have one of those, before kids.  But I'm not 5' 9", or even 5' 2" - she's just so out of proportion - but she was a hit, and that's the bottom line.

Barbie was originally copied from the Bild Lilli doll, which was built from a sexist cartoon in a German paper - if people knew that back in the day, maybe she wouldn't have been such a hit. 

Those dead, dead eyes.

Thanks for this.

It's a fascinating insight into how children perceive their Barbie dolls.

Do girls keep their Barbie dolls when they grow up? Did any of you keep yours?

Lord knows why that question occured to me, I suppose I was asking myself if girls ever stop having any kind of feelings for their Barbie dolls, and that maybe womeen keep them for reasons of nostalgia.........

Tina,

Seeing that you are writing about toys being interpreted as role models, I am sure you have encountered the recent controversy surrounding the Nickelodeon character, “Dora the Explorer.” A once spunky, shorts-wearing adventurer, this little character’s makers are now aging her into a tween. Parents are irate and have quickly conjured up petitions to end the evolution of Dora, who they claim is a positive influence for their children. I admire your blog post since you are one of the few people whose unique view collides with the ideal that toys are influential role models. In fact, your opinion may actually serve to reassure many concerned mothers and fathers, because while you worshipped Barbie at one point in time, you have managed to maintain a healthy perception of body image throughout your life. I do agree with you that “it is too simple to blame a 50 year old toy doll.” Indeed, more tangible factors (like real women) probably have a stronger impact on a girl’s idea of what she should aspire to be like. However, I do not think it is completely far-fetched to consider that Barbie may actually wield the power to engender negative thought patterns into young girl’s minds. In one study, Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5-8 Year Olds, author Suzan Ive states, “dolls provide a tangible image of the body that can be internalized as part of the child’s developing self-concept and body image.” In Ive’s study, she discovered that in other recent research, it has been found that girls’ desire for thinness emerges around age 6 and that dolls like Barbie, because of their iconic status, are likely to act as salient role models, at least for very young girls. In carrying out her study, Ive was correct. She states in the Discussion and Conclusion section of her research, “[Findings] showed that very young girls experience heightened body dissatisfaction after exposure to Barbie doll images but not after exposure to Emme doll (or control) images.” In other psychology studies in the past, it has similarly been found that children who play violent video games are later proven to be more aggressive, even though they are merely playing a “game” and not reenacting reality. Unfortunately though, not all children are able to separate fantasy play from realism as you did, and so I just hope you do not underestimate the power of social images, even if they are simply toys. With the studies presented, do you still believe people are crazy to blame a 50 year old doll?