Is Barbie Really Harming Your Daughter?

Barbie is a plastic doll with perfect long blonde hair, a small flat stomach, and any career of her choosing. This doll, who is designed for 5–8 year olds, seems like she is innocent and harmless enough, but because of Barbie’s exaggerated proportions, critics have started to claim that the doll is instilling young girls to develop dissatisfaction with their bodies’. Despite recent attempts to connect the rise in eating disorders to the proliferation of Barbie dolls, it is clear that Barbie is more of a scapegoat that distracts from the more pressing issue, which is the hypersexualization of women.

Barbie was first debuted March 9, 1959. At first people seemed to enjoy Barbie, young children took to playing with her and her imaginary perfect life. Although she brought enjoyment, her luscious blonde hair, perfect “dream” house, and seemingly endless career options may not have inspired young girls in the way parents had first anticipated.

Her luscious blonde hair, perfect “dream” house, and seemingly endless career options may not have inspired young girls in the way parents had first anticipated.

Parents eventually argued that Barbie’s small waist and big breasts might be causing harm to the self-esteem of young girls’. But are Barbie Dolls really affecting the mental image we create for ourselves? Many contend that Barbie holds young girls to a certain expectation of beauty, puts white, blonde, and blue-eyed girls on a pedestal, and places a gender stereotype for girls. Furthermore, some people think that Barbie encourages the sexualization of women. However, Barbie is able to showcase plenty examples of diversity within their collection of dolls, and she has had many careers thus breaking through the gender barrier.

Critics of Barbie dolls frequently point to excessive plastic surgery among women as one manifestation of the Barbie complex. In a dissertation, Alexandra Gaudio discusses the impacts that real life turning into “plastic” can do to the most impressionable people, children. When people start to change themselves to resemble a doll then there is an issue and the first place to look at is what these people are attempting to turn themselves into. Heidi Montag, who received 10 surgeries in one day, started to resemble something very familiar to everyone, a doll. The attention awarded, although not necessarily good attention, put her in the spotlight for many children to see and to watch her become more like something that they idolize. Likwise, Mean Girls is a movie that had the popular group named “The Plastics.” This group was idolized and looked like perfection. Every girl wanted to be apart of the “The Plastics,” further proving that unattainable figures are now being glorified. This highlights that the more perfect the person, how doll like they are, the more popular and well liked a person will be.

When the idea of transforming and becoming a doll is projected onto young children they are going to believe they have to resemble Barbie in order to be popular, like those that are portrayed. The pressure that this will place on young girls will have no other impact than to lower the self-esteem on young children because this expectation is impossible to achieve. If girls as young 5–8 are already reporting dissatisfaction with their bodies it may be too late to convince them that they are as beautiful as they are, especially when there are socialites changing themselves to look more like a doll as well.

Barbie clearly has a disproportionate body. No psychologist, designer, toy maker, parent, or any other person will argue that. When people are changed human body sizes to be proportionate to Barbie and Ken, it shows how unrealistic Barbie’s measurements are. It is not feasible for people to resemble Barbie and Ken, the male doll and Barbies “boyfriend.” But, Barbie is not to blame for the rise of eating disorders that have been occurring. If she was the main issue then this problem would have been unleashed many years go, not just recently.

Barbie is created the way she is, not to be copied, but to be able to wear a certain type of clothes, human clothes. An interview with Kim Culmone, the Vice President of design for Barbie, states that Barbie was never designed to be realistic. Culmone believes that grown-ups view the world differently than young children and are more likely to see an issue with things than these young girls are. The unpopular opinion, a conversation thread on reddit.com, defends Culmone’s statements. Reddit contributors believe that Barbie was created the way she was out of necessity not out of realism. Sommiel, a user that participated throughout the conversation on Reddit, says that Barbie was created with the measurements that she has because she is a fashion doll. She is a piece of plastic that wears human material and clothes. Her body shape allows her to be changed easily and look realistic with the clothes on her body as well.

Critics of Barbie also believe that the doll causes young girls to think that they are not as capable of doing certain careers. An experiment conducted discusses the impacts of playing with Barbie versus Mrs. Potato Head. After playing with the specific doll the girls were asked to decide if certain careers were specific for boys, girls, or both. The girls who played with Barbie were more inclined to say specific jobs were meant for boys and not girls. The girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head said there was less of a difference between what gender can do what career. These findings try to show the negative impact that Barbie can have on the way girls’ view themselves. Barbie is thought to be bad for mental health and that she brings down the self-esteem of girls and therefore holding them back too.

Barbie has over 150 careers.

However, this experiment only studied the short-term effects. It does not address how many of those girls continued on to successful careers. This study also does not show if the impacts of Barbie and self-esteem are long-lasting. Another problem with the study is that sometimes results depend on circumstances. It depends on the child’s parents, how the child feeling that day, if he/she scored well on the last test or not, and many other circumstances. There are so many different situations that can impact the way individuals see themselves, that putting the blame on Barbie is unreasonable.

Although Barbie may seem like she diminishes the self-esteem of young girls the conversation on Reddit proves why this study may be faulty. Barbie has many successful careers. She has over 150 careers including astronaut, doctor, and many others. She also has her “Dream House” including cars, a mansion, and many other nice items that many girls dream of attaining. This emphasizes that Barbie is a strong, an independent, and an attractive female. Further breaking through the stigma that attractive females cannot be smart and successful. This should be empowering for young girls. No one is disagreeing with the fact that Barbie is not an attainable figure, people are disputing if this figure is healthy, and if this unattainable figure impacts young girls.

Barbie is being used as scapegoat to take away from the fact that the problem is the over-sexualization of the female body.

Barbie is being used as scapegoat to take away from the fact that the problem is the over-sexualization of the female body. According to a recent study, girls who were participating were asked to pick which girl was more “popular” and they picked the sexual looking picture. This is very troubling because young children who do not even understand the concept of being sexual are inclined to think that the sexual picture is more liked. Christine Starr and Gail Ferguson, the experimenters, believe that there is a positive correlation between socioeconomic status and not sexualizing yourself or others. If the family is better off it is easier to discuss the effects of sexualizing and how not to do it. Likewise, if the family is struggling parents are more likely to be absent, for many reasons, and therefore unable to support their impressionable children in ways that they need it at that age. Media has a large impact of exposing girls to sexualization, and it is up to parents to make sure their child is not impacted by it.

Although Barbie’s figure may not be causing girls to dislike themselves, she is currently being over-sexualized which is exposing girls to sexualizing different items earlier and earlier in their lifetime. Barbie was recently in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. This sparked controversy because this takes out the innocent aspect of a children’s doll, she is now a “sex doll.”

This sparked controversy because this takes out the innocent aspect of a children’s doll, she is now a “sex doll.”

The article about Barbie’s Sports Illustrated Edition emphasizes how inappropriate it is for adults to find a doll sexy, and how children should not be exposed to sexualizing at that young of an age. It is highlighting the importance of what sexualizing a child’s toy can and will do to children, and even adults once exposed. It will cause adults to think sexually of an inanimate item, and one that is in their home for their children. It also makes girls believe that Barbie is in a category with who else is in that magazine. Girls are then exposed to women in small clothes and in sexual positions. Exposing young girls to the images will allow them to think that is how they should act and look, holding them to another near impossible standard.

It is impossible to shield a child from everything that may be sexual in this world. When the girls have mothers who exemplify loving your own body and encouraging positive self-esteem the girls are less likely to associate sexuality to popularity. A constant question asked is, can Barbie really cause body dissatisfaction? Moms have an extremely large role encouraging their young impressionable children. Even when a mom says, “I need to diet” it is negatively impacting the way the their daughters view themselves. Barbie may have an influence, but according to Dr. Lesile Slim, clinical director of Mayo clinic’s eating disorder program, moms should ensure their daughters have positive images by making sure they instill confidence on their children.

However, if parents forbid their child to watch anything that may be sexual it causes the forbidden fruit theory, when the child will do it anyway, but it will be more damaging and more pleasurable because it is not allowed. This shows that the job of parents is very risky. The parent needs to introduce the concept of sexuality, the principle of loving one’s body, and how to respect the bodies’ of others.

Barbie is a piece of plastic

Barbie is being used as a scapegoat for the other more serious problems. Things that impact young children could be societal pressures and over-sexualizing women. At the end of the day Barbie is a piece of plastic, how many negative long-lasting effects can she really have? Barbie is not the problem for the increased dissatisfaction that young girls are currently having in themselves. Barbie may have some impact, but it is easy to prevent the effects that she has on girls. Barbie, though may have a slight impact is not the problem. The true issue at hand, and the one that needs to be fixed, is the hypersexualization of females, real or plastic.