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Brianna Ballew
AP Language and Composition
Mr. Fricke
13 April 2012
Barbie:
A cultural sensation shines through an unattainable misconception
It is interesting to note how far an individual will go to emulate their role-models. Cindy
Jackson, originating from the American Midwest, has had $100,000 in cosmetic surgery
procedures, including 14 full-scale operations, botox, face-lifts and liposuction. Setting the
world record for 52 cosmetic procedures, Jackson’s reply when asked “Why?”, was simply, “For
me, it was just to look better” (Watt). However, the goal was more than to merely enhance her
looks; her mission was to look like a real-life Barbie doll. When she first noticed Barbie, she
saw the possibility. “‘It was powerful,’ she said.” (Stone 60), and she set out to replicate her
features. If Barbie can have such a strong impact and influential role on an adult female such as
Cindy Jackson, then parents should probably re-think what to buy for their daughter’s next
birthday gift. Young girls are exceedingly more inexperienced and vulnerable toward their
imaginative play with Barbie, and will therefore, strive to live vicariously through her. Although
some may think that this is a positive influence on young girls, Barbie is only destructing the
innocence of childhood by creating an unattainable misconception in juvenile minds. Barbie is
an inappropriate role-model for young children and parents should reject to buying this doll due
to the negative body-esteem image it creates for young girls.
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Barbie, one of the world’s most accustomed and valued toy brands, was produced more
than 50 years ago and has since become a prosperous world product and a 3D cultural icon.
Ruth Handler, the production designer for Barbie, began her life as nothing but the proclamation
of a tomboy and did not represent, nor aspire to look like a Barbie doll. Handler showed no
interest in this sort of play as a child, and stated “I didn’t like dolls and never played with
them” (Stone 11). However, ironic as it may be, Handler went on to create one of the most
famous and popular dolls of her time-the Barbie doll. Handler’s successful creation began after
she married Elliot Handler. They had just moved in together and Elliot saw their unfurnished
apartment as an aspiration for entrepreneurialism. Ruth saw his sketches and proclaimed that if
he designed beautiful products, she would sell them, and thus, the Mattel Company named after
Matt Matson and Elliot Handler, commenced. Ruth’s thought was that “The three of them
should start a new business together…He would design beautiful things, Matson would produce
the products, and Ruth would sell them” (Stone 17). Mattel was a company that produced toys
directly appealing to children, and Ruth Handler came up with one of the most popular and
prized collectibles ever presented to young girls.
Barbie was first inspired by a pin-up doll named Lilli, intended for German men in World
War II as an object of amusement. According to M.G. Lord, author of Forever Barbie, “Barbie
and Lilli symbolize the link between the Old World and the New” (Lord 9). However, Handler’s
main influence for success was through the observation of her daughter Barbara playing with
paper dolls. As she was regarding her daughter, she noticed that pretend play was a very
important part of the maturation of young females. Handler was determined to make the twodimensional paper doll a three-dimensional fashion sensation. Handler wrote in her
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autobiography, ‘“One of my strengths is that I do have the courage of my convictions and the
guts to take a position, stand up for it, push for it, and make it happen”’ (Holder 23). Handler’s
proposition of herself was justifiable, and as soon as Barbie made it to the marketplace shelves,
she was a sensational hit and Mattell sold more than a quarter of a million first-produced Barbie
dolls.
When picking out a Barbie doll, young girls take into account the hairstyle of the Barbie,
what kind of clothing she is wearing, and ultimately, her features. The thing they fail to
recognize at such a young age, is the anthropometry of Barbie herself. Women all around the
world view themselves, or more specifically their bodies, in a negative way. Barbie, and her
anthropometry, does not help this epidemic. According to Joan Spade and Catherine Valentine,
authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender, “Studies show that the obsession with body size and the
sense of inadequacy start frighteningly early” (Spade, Valentine 231). Instead of catering to their
body insufficiency with Barbie’s long legs, tiny waist and large breasts, parents must steer their
children away from her measurements of statistical fabrication. Jill, age twelve, asserts how she
felt about Barbie at a young age by stating, “When I was little, I wanted to be perfect, like all of
my Barbies. I realize now that it was a mistake” (Stone 47). Being at such a juvenile age,
perfection is not something that children will perceive as an illusion. Instead, they ask
themselves, “If Barbie is perfect, why can I not be?”, and even though plastic will never make
perfect, their perception of themselves as deficient commences.
With one Barbie doll being sold every two minutes, “Mattel estimates that in the United
States over 95 percent of girls between the ages of three and eleven own at least one Barbie, and
that the average number of dolls per owner is seven” (Spade, Valentine 231). Of these young
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girls, almost all of them fail to recognize the true proportions of Barbie, and without realizing the
fantasy that Barbie represents, girls will continue to strive for her flawless features. It is known
that the more time we spend with something, the greater impact it will have on us. When
children play for hours with Barbie dolls, it is inevitable that they will have some sort of
influence on them. During a social biology course taught by Jacqueline Urla and Alan
Swedlund, the students were asked to take Barbie’s measurements in order to compare her
features to that of a typical American woman. The students were most interested in height and
chest, weight, and hip circumference, and they made sure to add variation to the measurements
by having more than one Barbie body type. What they first came to realize, is that Barbie’s
measurements are less than that of a normal female at all parts of the body. If Barbie was a reallife female, she would not even have the body fat percentage to have a menstrual cycle, and she
would not be able to stand with her size 3 feet. To dramatize their findings, they scaled Barbie to
a height of 5’4”, and found her chest, weight and hip measurements would have been
32”-17”-28”, in other words, critically anorectic.
Another study was performed by a college-aged student, hoping to fight back against the
body-image ideal portrayed by the Barbie doll. Galia Slayen made a life-size Barbie doll that
ended up having a 39 inch bust, 18 inch waist and 33 inch hips, exceedingly different from a
typical and healthy female. Ashley Fahey proclaims that, “When these measurements are
applied to a life-sized figure, the results are unnerving and freakish. Even the thinnest of women
can't compete with the proportions of Barbie in her real life form” (Fahey). If the thinnest of
women are unable to compete with Barbie’s outrageous proportions, how are young girls
supposed to? They continually wonder, “Why can’t my body look like Barbie’s?”, yet they are
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too young to understand that being of equal size with a Barbie doll, would not only be considered
the epitome of an unhealthy lifestyle, but also a far-fetched fantasy. Barbie has been a role
model for millions of young girls around the world. These adolescents not only play with their
Barbie dolls, but they also look to idolize her because they want to be attractive, successful and
glamorized. However, if Barbie’s proportions are unattainable and out of balance for any female,
what effect will this have on young girls looking for a way to perfect themselves? Slayen reports
that even though young girls under the age of 10 typically do not have problems with their body
image, “the seeds are already planted” (Fahley), and once these young seeds sprout, low selfesteem issues and negative self-talk will come about. Thus, it is imperative that society re-thinks
their consumerism for Barbie dolls, because once young girls are no longer exposed to
misrepresented toys, negative body-esteem will only decrease.
Barbie has a myriad of clothing, accessories and shoes. Holder describes Barbie’s first
fashion statement by exclaiming, “Even though the first barbie doll was introduced to buyers in a
now-famous black-and-white swimsuit, it was obvious from that moment that Barbie was
destined to become a fashion plate” (Holder 129). Barbie represents herself through her trends
that exemplify glamour, sophistication, boldness, and grace. Throughout the time since Barbie
was first produced, her fashion has imitated the modified trends of society from the buttoned up
and fancy style of the 1960s, to the audacious looks of the 21st century. Barbie not only had the
ability to change into a dress for a special occasion, or pajamas for bedtime, but she also had the
ability to re-invent herself with a simple costume change. M.G. Lord declares that “She was
Grace Slick, and Sally Ride, Marie Osmond and Marie Curie. She was all that we could
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be” (Lord 9). However, in the same instance, she was also a representation of an unattainable
personal image that we unfortunately, could never become.
Handler’s hope for Barbie’s fashion statement was to develop a fabulous wardrobe where
each female child could choose an outfit and thus produce a personality for her own Barbie. The
Mattell company decided Barbie’s clothing had to be “meticulous and eye-catching” in order to
coordinate with societal expectations. However, this usually meant producing clothing that was
form-fitting and quite revealing at times. Due to the fact that young females try to emulate their
Barbie dolls, Barbie’s skimpy clothing will be transferred to her young and juvenile owner.
According to Sexologist Francine Duquet, societal influences such as Barbie make young
females strive for popularity, and “Now to be popular, you have to be hot and give off sexual
energy…So they start imitating, dressing the same way, doing the same movements” (Sexy Inc.).
Instead of being a representation for young girls, Barbie’s wardrobe is produced to that of an
adult, geared more toward words such as “sexy” and “erotic”. Stated by a housewife in Forever
Barbie, “I know little girls want dolls with high heels but I object to that sexy costume. I
wouldn’t walk around the house like that. I don’t like that influence on my little girl” (Lord 39).
If young girls are unable to imitate their Barbie’s, they will learn at a young age that goals and
aspirations are unattainable, instead of learning to never give up on completing ambitions. Thus,
Barbie is an unsuitable role-model for young girls, and in order to get this generation of females
back on track, we must adjust them to new toys that will have a positive influence on their
femininity.
When asking a young female what views they have on Barbie, most of them, under the
age of ten would admit to their admiration for the doll. When asking a young male how they
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view Barbie, basic assumptions toward their responses would be somewhat of contempt or
disregard. Developmental psychologists hold children’s play to a high regard and see it as a very
important aspect of growth. Toys have the capability of centralizing on young children’s
identities, and there has been a considerable amount of debate over the influence that Barbie
dolls have on girls’ self-image and body esteem as it relates to their development. Tara L. Kuther
and Erin McDonald, both a part of the Western Connecticut State University Student-Faculty,
conducted a study to collect information about early adolescents’ experiences with and views of
this contentious toy.
The study focuses on twenty 6th grade girls, and it reported having both positive and
negative feelings toward Barbie, along with varied viewpoints on the influence it has on girls’
development. In the study, all of the girls admitted to having at least two or more Barbie dolls
and reported to playing imaginatively with their Barbie dolls during childhood. According to
Kuther and McDonald, “During play, children begin to internalize societal values and construct a
personal identity, or view of the self” (44), and most of the young girls declared to have played
out scripts involving feminized and sexualized roles. Particularly shocking was the fact that
these young girls also reported excessive torture-related play with their Barbies at young ages.
Kuther and McDonald explain this play by stating, “Given the feminine stereotype that the doll
embodies, torture-related play may reflect girls‘ ambivalence about their female status and the
societal notions of femininity and beauty” (44). These girls feel pressured to fit in with the
societal ideals of beauty, and this particular group emphasizes their ideas of Barbie as she relates
to perfection. They strive for, yet dislike perfection, and they take their hostility out on the dolls
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with torture-related play. A young girl stated, “They are all perfect. They never do anything real
in all the books [about Barbie dolls]. I think she does too much. Yeah, they are all perfect [and]
it’s just too much” (Kuther and McDonald 43). Simply stated, perfection is an illusion, and at a
young age, children are vulnerable toward the unachievable aspects of life. Thus, this study was
a quality indicator of the negative impact that Barbie has on the development of young girls.
Although the Barbie doll is mainly thought to solely affect young girls, boys are also
influenced by this plastic piece of perfection. During the time Barbie struck the markets, a
woman would not have been sufficient without a male partner, and therefore, consumers pushed
for a boyfriend doll that was finally released in 1961, known as Ken. However, according to
M.G. Lord, “The whole idea of women as temptress, or women as subordinate to man, is absent
from the Barbie cosmology. Ken is a gnat, a fly, a slave, an accessory of Barbie” (77). Barbie’s
image was a way to transform the way individuals viewed women, and the roles they played in
society. However, young boys will frequently show distaste and revulsion toward the Barbie doll
in order to exhibit and uphold their masculine attributes. Also, if boys are exposed to Barbie
dolls at young ages, they will have a pre-notion about what an “ideal” female should look like.
In fact, these boys could potentially segregate girls if they did not fit Barbie doll attributes, such
as being “blonde and beautiful”. Kuther and McDonald performed another study and this time,
interviewed young boys as well. One boy stated that, “Barbie dolls provide a false stereotype for
people, as it is physically impossible to attain the same body size as a Barbie doll. There
wouldn’t be enough room for organs and other necessary things” (48). This demonstrates the
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idea that although some boys can realize the unattainable perfection that Barbie represents,
others will merge with the deceitful customs that she portrays.
Although the Barbie doll is mainly assumed to have white skin, blonde hair and blue
eyes, the Mattel company held society’s desire for diversity to a high standard, and thus, decided
to create dolls of color. For instance, the doll “Christie” is a black doll that was introduced in
1966 and “Teresa” was Hispanic, introduced in 1988. There are also African, Indian, Japanese,
Chinese and other national Barbies. Culture to culture, Barbie is perceived and considered in
dissimilar ways. Chinyere Okafor presented how the Nigerian culture views Barbie in her
journal of African cultural studies. She displays that American women are not the only female
individuals that have feelings of envy and disapproval toward the Barbie doll. She states that in
short, “a Barbie-like super-model image is a huge presence that affects many women who do not
reflect the doll’s dimensions” (Okafor 45). In fact, the American Barbie image impacts western
beauty standards on non-western women, and has even been blamed for the death of the Nigerian
first lady, Stella Obasanjo who was undergoing cosmetic surgery in Spain. Okafor portrays the
fact that the installation of “Barbie-image as the global icon is problematic because of its false
universal stance” (Okafor 42), which shows that the controversial doll does not only affect young
girls, but also adult females from various societal cultures.
Jeff Eldridge, a Democratic state legislator, went as far as to be only one of two
politicians in the history of the world to propose banning Barbie. Malcom Andrew states in his
article written about Eldridge, “Finally, an American politician with the courage to take on a
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Barbie doll” (Andrew). Although many individuals viewed this politician’s proposal in a strange
yet satirical way, Eldridge had legitimate reasoning behind his beliefs. Eldridge feels that Barbie
and other dolls “ ‘promote or influence girls to place an undue importance on physical beauty to
the detriment of their intellectual and emotional development’ ” (Andrew). However accurate
Eldridge was in his presentation on the negative aspects of Barbie, his ideas were merely laughed
at, and West Virginia’s governor conveyed the fact that it is not state government’s job to ban
toys, it is the parents responsibility. However, parents must first become more informed about
the negative attributes that Barbie presents in order to believe the significance that this life of
plastic has on the development of young girls.
Unfortunately, another risk that young girls have while playing with Barbies is that her
falsely proportioned body can be directly correlated to the development of eating disorders later
on in life. According to M.G. Lord, “Her narrow hips and concave stomach would lack the 17 to
22 percent body fat required for a woman to have regular periods” (Lord 226), and lack of
menstruation is a symptom of anorexia nervosa, a self-starvation condition. In 1991, a doll
called “Happy To Be Me” was developed whose body measurements were much more realistic
than Barbie’s. Cathy Meredig, the new proportionally stable doll’s developer noted that about
two percent of girls in the United States become anorexic at some point in their lives, fifteen
percent become bulimic, and seventy percent see themselves as fat. She told The Washington
Post, “I honestly believe if we have enough children playing with a responsibly proportioned
doll that we can raise a generation of girls that feels comfortable with the way they look” (Lord
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227). Barbie’s accessories even encouraged weight obsession. Barbie’s “Slumber Party” outfit,
marketed in 1965 presented a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 pounds, and a bedtime story
book called How To Lose Weight which offered the advice of, “Don’t Eat”. If this doesn’t
persuade parents to re-think the toys they are buying for their children, it is compelling to
wonder what will.
Although Barbie is corrupting the body and self-esteem of young girls, it is also
acceptable to note the positive effects that Barbie presents. The first positive aspect of Barbie is
the fact that she teaches children the importance of futuristic jobs, and the idea that it is possible
to be anything an individual wants to be. Having characterized over 80 different occupations,
being everything from an Olympic skater to a presidential candidate, Barbie emphasizes the
value of choice. However, “with her nonfunctional body, boasting a nipple-free bosom more
than twice the circumference of her minute waist, legs twice as long as her torso, and feet so tiny
that she cannot stand on them” (Stone 52), Barbie must have had a hard time fulfilling her
occupational roles.
Represented in her essay in philosophy, Lenore Wright also points out the importance of
a child’s imagination and conveys that “Barbie encourages a creative interpretation of identity
and image construction” (Wright). She also conveys in her essay that some feminists believe she
is the “symbol of female emancipation” (Wright), because she works for her wealth instead of
having to depend on a man. Imaginative acts with Barbie dolls also is shown to allow children to
broaden their perspectives on real-life situations and thus explore their own identity vicariously
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through the doll itself. However, even though Barbie can be a constructive role-model in some
ways, the negativity that she brings onto females largely outweighs the positives, and the reality
of the situation is that Barbie is fictitious and exaggerated.
Giving young females the idea that being tall, thin, having a big chest and owning a
multiplicity of clothing and accessories is the only thing that is important in life, Barbie is simply
an inadequate role-model for children. Barbie’s unrealistic body shape has a damaging effect on
young girls and stated by writer and feminist Anna Quindlen, “To get rid of Barbie you’d have to
drive a silver stake through her plastic heart” (Stone 50). Viewed as a false notion of perfection,
parents must become more aware of the harmful effects Barbie dolls present on the juvenile
minds of their children. Barbie is openly sexual and materialistic, and therefore represents a
false standard of beauty. It is appropriate to say that although the song “I’m a Barbie girl, in a
Barbie world” can be an ideal for some, it is inherently false and demeaning for others, and
although some may disagree, “life in plastic”, is simply, not fantastic.
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