Is Barbie a Good Role Model? – By Kate Smith

Intro:

Barbie is the ultimate Blonde Bombshell. More famous even than Marilyn Munroe or Britney Spears, the ageless icon celebrates her 52nd birthday this year. Still perfectly toned, free from wrinkles and grey hair Barbie is the perfect lithe, sexy and independent woman who totally eclipses her ‘intersex’ companion Ken in every way. Babs is in charge, no questions asked!

Barbie has enjoyed admiration in a constant stream since her first appearance in 1959. The first ever Barbie wore a black and white swimming suit and came with blonde or black hair and a tiny waist. These days you can buy a ‘Video Girl Barbie’ which has an inbuilt video camera in her chest which records and plays back clips on a small screen on her back. There are also ‘Barbie Basics’ dolls are available for a slightly older audience who might not want glitter and sparkles everywhere! It’s not only children that have enjoyed Barbie’s charms over the years. She is popular with grandmothers, mothers and daughters alike. Barbie is close to many of our hearts. From a very young age girls look up to her. And how could they possible miss her, Barbie is everywhere – there’s Barbie dolls, games, makeup, clothes, and websites!

However, Barbie’s evolution has not always been a smooth and positive one. The Barbie Ban Bill, crafted by Democratic Delegate Jeff Eldridge, insists that Barbie influence girls to give more importance to physical beauty at the expense of their intellectual and emotional development. Whether you agree with Jeff or not, everyone knows that Barbie is a contentious role model…and then some!

Is Barbie a Good Role Model?

First of all let’s look at Barbie’s physical appearance to determine her worth as a role model. The modern Barbie is extremely slim, and she has always been that way since her release all those years ago. She also has large breasts which many say are unrealistic when compared to the size of her waist and thighs. If Barbie was a real life-sized woman she would be 35 pounds underweight for her height. So her exaggerated breasts, impossibly long legs, non-existent hips, and her tiny waist represent proportions that are utterly unrealistic and unattainable in the real world – unless you resort to huge amounts of painful and expensive surgery as a small number of women have. There are many groups out there (usually consisting of middle-aged American women) who say that Barbie is guilty of promoting an unrealistic vision of the perfect woman. Perhaps ironically, Barbie’s creator Ruth Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1970s and went on to develop ‘Nearly Me’; a prosthetic breast for use following a mastectomy. Her product was created to look and feel as natural as possible.

Secondly we need to look at the ‘theme’ of some of the Barbie’s currently available on the market. One of the most contentious dolls has got to be the ‘Totally Stylin Tattoos’ doll which comes supplied with tattoo stickers for herself and 40 temporary tattoos for her owner to wear. Is this really something we want to be encouraging our children to do? There is also a ‘Barbie Loves Glitter Nails’ doll which comes with press on nails for her owner. Hmmm… introducing false nails to little girls, I’m not sure about this either. By far the most contentious Barbie ever produced as got to be the ‘Happy Families’ doll which depicted Barbie’s friend Midge pregnant with her second child. The pregnant Midge doll was banned and removed from store shelves in early 2000 after parents complained that Midge appeared to be too young to be pregnant.

Aside from the dolls mentioned above, the ‘I Can Be…’ range of dolls show Barbie in the guise of a doctor, dentist, news anchor, vet, architect and computer engineer which no can argue are all noble pursuits for a bombshell! Barbie is more than just bleached blonde hair and big boobs, she is a strong woman who knows what she wants from life and works hard to achieve it. That can’t be a bad thing for little girls to aspire to. There is a ‘I Can Be…Bride’, but we can forgive her for that!

It is clear that Barbie is still important to girls as they grow into women. In 2007 the MAC makeup brand launched a range of official Barbie makeup products. Women could buy lipstick, eye shadow, mascara, blusher and nail polish all in shades inspired by Barbie and her entourage proving that we are never too old for Barbie.

Conclusion:

For many of us Barbie is associated with one of the best times of our lives; our early childhood. Thinking of her brings on a warm and safe feeling, a feeling that we had when we were little playing on the floor in our bedrooms with our pastel coloured toys. So are parents worrying too much (as usual) about what their children are being exposed to? Will a little girl really look at a Barbie doll and think ‘when I am older I want to look like this?’ I don’t think so. After all, most modern mother’s will have played with a Barbie when they were children, and I bet 99.9% of them would say that Barbie had no detrimental effect on their life as a women.

This being said young girls should be encouraged by their parents to view Barbie in the correct way – as a fantasy figure who does not exist in the real world – like a sparkly unicorn or a fairy. Not as something to aspire to or emulate physically.

After all, she’s just a toy….right?

I would love to hear your opinions on my first post!

Kate Smith.