Are you Anti-Barbie?
- abbywinfield
- Oct 17, 2017
- 3 min read
Fashion dolls can be really fun. For little girls it can be exciting to receive a new doll to add to your on going collection of pink, sparkling galore. However the most popular fashion doll Barbie has always been twisted into being a poor choice for little girls. Clearly the appearance of the Barbie doll is an on going problem, the body issues is what everyone is talking about but it has never been a recent issue. Even though it's a little girl's love and favourite, there is hardly a good reason now to buy this most loved toy. As long as children are having an imaginative play life why does this matter?
So why is everyone Anti-Barbie?
Simply because it teachers young girls to have unrealistic expectations of their bodies when they're growing up. Barbie dolls set a poor example of the body. They are unrealistic, unhealthy examples of women. Barbie sets a crucial message to young girls and it's this: "You can do anything, be anything as long as you look like this."You must be very tall, very thin and very beautiful. The way we see it though, Barbie's beauty is completely damaging and we question how is this perfectly ideal when her beauty doesn't exist? The doll's appearance shows off it's completely cleared skin covered by bold eyes, blushed cheeks, full lips - the full works. Promoting an unhealthy to image to young girls as when they develop they have in their mind that it is perfectly better to manipulate your natural appearance for you to "become anything, do anything." Studies show that this of course is harmful for girls and has been projected to be a completely inappropriate and utterly dangerous representation of the human form.
Barbie has been blamed for causing body image issues and eating disorders. Children five years of age have even expressed desires to be thinner. All we know is that children learn in a way by observing, absorbing and imitating the things that are around them so early ideas about weight loss and 'the perfect image' are already fixed into their minds. It may seem that overall body image and the connection with early childhood play a role together into creating the unrealistic image.
So now in the present day, designers & manufacturers have been influenced into the creation of new fashion dolls supposedly designed with a girl's body image in mind. "Lottie Dolls"creator Lucie Follett was inspired to create Lottie when reading a newspaper article of the developmental psychology study on girl's body dissatisfaction after playing with Barbie. It was ensured that Lottie would have a childlike, age appropriate body specifically based on the scientific dimensions of a nine year old girl. It is a working progress and hopefully this can change the idea of the right body image and stereotype for the better.
Lottie Doll created by Lucie Follett. Ideal dimensions and appearance of a young girl.
Personally my childhood consist of playing with Barbie dolls and having my own (and huge) collection of this most adored doll. I would play daily sitting on my Barbie bed sheets in my Barbie wallpapered bedroom surrounded by literally every shade of pink I could imagine. But that was because I was a young girl like most other little girls back then who liked the colour pink and played with fashion dolls. That's how it was when I was growing up and there was completely no harm for it. Even though I couldn't imagine of trying to pursue the same body image, I know a lot of young girls take different actions and dream differently to fit into a society where you may have to seem 'perfect' to grab what you desire. This is not the case. To me Barbie was just a toy and when you're an adult, it doesn't matter about how you look or what you desire. You'll start to realise that the perfect body image is a complete lie.