Dissecting Barbie
I read the most interesting article today about the Barbie Image Myth.
When I was a girl, I played with barbies. Every birthday and christmas I recieved one or two barbies. This was a good thing because as the number of siblings increased, the lifespan of my barbies decreased. My favorite barbie I ever recieved was my Marie Osmond barbie I had when I was five.
When I was around four I threw a fit because my grandmother crocheted underwear on my barbies, which made their ability to wear store bought clothes impossible. So I was stuck with the crocheted clothes my grandmother made. I treasure what few items I still have left but at the time I threw a HUGE fit about it. So one morning I woke up and my barbies were all gone. I cried to my mother and she said that my barbies had run away because they didn’t want to be owned by such a selfish little girl. I was crushed. For three days my barbies were gone. Then after apologizing to my grandmother my barbies decided to come home again.
My barbies had a lot of adventures. My brothers even got in on the act and insisted on having their own Ken dolls so they could play with their sisters. We girls also insisted on our own Tonka trucks for the same reason. My barbies also had a rather healthy or overly healthy sex life with Ken, G.I. Joe and Heman. No matter how many times we moved, I could always count on finding some little girl who wanted to play barbies. Even the neighborhood boys got in on the action.
Yes, boys played with dolls, Girls played with trucks. Get over it. 
In this article I read today, the author talks about whether girls really are influenced by Barbie’s looks. I remember liking barbie’s clothes. I was never all that thrilled by her looks though. Her body was too difficult to put the clothes on. I had long blond hair and my hair was just as hard to brush as hers. It was a toy. And none of the countless little girls I played with ever voiced how they wanted to look like barbie. We liked her clothes…but we didn’t envy that body that was too hard to dress.
My own self image was influenced by the number of kids I went to school with who thought my clothes, hair, face, shoes and even the way I walked were fair game for teasing fodder. Nothing I ever wore or did to myself was ever good enough to stop the teasing. And since I had no real fashion sense, I didn’t improve things. All it did lead to was huge fights with my mom over shopping at thrift stores because I couldn’t piece together outfits and I”d get teased anyway. I often longed for an expensive store outfit that was put together for you so you didn’t have to guess how it went together.
So, Did Barbie influence my self image? No. Nor do I know many girls who ever wanted to be like Barbie. I’ve seen talk shows of girls who have spend thousands to look like barbie. And I feel nothing but pathetic sympathy for those screwed up souls.
What I have noticed however, is that a lot of the men I know want a woman who looks like barbie. I think Barbie had more affect on the boys then it ever did on us girls. But since how we view ourselves is dependant on how Boys see us, If they are paying more attention to the blond waifs that make up the very small portion of our community, then girls are going to be more likely to want to be like them to attract the boys attention.
What’s your take on this?
February 21st, 2006 at 6:37 pm
I didn’t like Barbies, so I didn’t have any, but I had dozens of paper dolls. It was easier to make clothes for them, all I needed was paper & crayons! I think people (especially women) who use Barbie as an excuse for their own low self-esteem are hugely over-simplifying things, and maybe even using it as a cop-out. It’s our parents (and later our friends) who begin to shape our self-image, along with the qualities that we exhibit as individuals. If some girl models herself after Barbie or sees Barbie as some sort of Ideal, then she probably had parents who valued looks over brains & personality, and friends who did also. But I don’t believe her problems came from liking to play with Barbies.
May 9th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
Snce we will never in person meet nor will I ask for your personal address or phone number, I can honestly speak. All toys are inferior to the real thing. As a male, I could always differentiate between fantasy and reality. Barbie is only fantasy. Real females are not mass produced with the same physical characteristics. We are all different. Guys who want females to be barbie are not realistic nor have common sense. Barbie is only plastic and without flesh and blood. It would seem to me that comparing a living female to her is done ignorantly.
May 10th, 2006 at 7:43 am
Freddie, I would agree that there is an immaturity to the men who look for the Barbie stereo-type. My own experiences in dealing with males who are into that type of body are that they have “macho” issues.