BARBIE

 

Barbie has been one of the biggest global cultural icons for sixty years, first appearing at the New York Toy Fair in 1959. At first, it was represented as a way of telling women they could do anything they wanted, but since beauty standards have evolved Barbie has been remade multiple times in an attempt to keep it relevant. For example, one of the first remakes of Barbie was “Slumber Party Barbie” which included a bathroom scale that had a weight of 110 on it as well as “a one-page diet book with one simple rule: “DON’T EAT!” (Giang, 2016, 1).

Although in the next year, they renamed the doll and took out the scale while the diet book remained, this still shows a huge and prominent beauty standard of having to weight a certain amount. Most importantly this gave the impression, mostly to young girls, that you shouldn’t eat in order to look like Barbie. For years to come, Barbie was remade with different themes and many different beauty standards represented in them. It was not until recently that Barbie had different body shapes and other skin colors besides white. The first African American Barbie was made in 1980, over 20 years after Barbie came out. There was also a controversy when they released another African American Barbie in partnership with Oreo Cookies. Because this doll was called “Oreo Fun Barbie,” there was a recall because many people saw “Oreo” as a derogatory term. Since there are not many Barbies or dolls in general with different skin tones other than white, it shows that one of the biggest beauty standards is racial discrimination.

It wasn’t until recently that Barbie has released dolls with different body shapes. From the beginning, Barbie had been portraying an “hourglass” like figure, with a tiny, unrealistic waist size.

There has been much debate over whether Barbie affects how young children view body image. Exhibiting an exaggerated thin body and out of proportion body part such as arms and legs, few views this as an ideal body type. In “Is Barbie bad for body image,” the article discusses that “almost 40% of children are thought to be dissatisfied with the way they look, and girls as young as five report weight concerns and express a desire to be thinner” (Yager, 2018). This is surprising due to the young age these girls are expressing distaste with their own bodies, however, this age is the audience Barbie is directed to which establishes a stigma for young girls to want to look like this very popular playing doll.

The articles continues by mentioning that body image is complex, and that there are certain stereotypes, regarding body image, in the media children watch that suggests that being thinner is better. Growing into teenagers and adults, these people grow up believing that a certain body shape is more desirable because of what media and advertisements have shown them all throughout their lives.