Since Barbie was introduced in 1959, it’s been a favorite among girls around the world. What little girl could resist changing Barbie’s outfits, brushing her hair, and taking careful care of her fabulous high-heeled shoes?
Of course, most little girls who play with Barbies don’t know the heated controversy behind the doll. Over the past twenty years, Barbie has had some heavy criticism levied against her, or rather, at her maker, Mattel.
The criticism of Mattel’s Barbie is twofold. First, Barbie is one of America’s most popular dolls, and yet, it represents only a fraction of the population — and the white fraction, at that.
Second, Barbie sets unrealistic standards of beauty. According to the “Get Real Barbie Fact Sheet,” produced by Chapman University, if Barbie was a real person she would be 5’9” tall with a 39” bust, 18” waist, 33” hips, and a size 3 shoe. In fact, she would walk on all four because she wouldn’t be able to hold herself upright! She would also be so thin that she wouldn’t menstruate.
In the early 2000s, when eating disorders and poor body image started becoming rampant among young girls and women, Mattel, the makers of Barbie, came under sharp criticism for promoting a doll with such unrealistic standards.
What’s the Big Deal – Isn’t Barbie Just a Doll?
When it comes to the two main points of criticism — that Barbie is only white and that her body isn’t realistic — defenders of the doll say, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a doll.” Even Mattel defended Barbie’s unrealistic proportions until quite recently. In 2014, Barbie design VP Kim Culmone gave an interview in which she said, “Barbie’s body was never designed to be realistic. She was designed for girls to easily dress and undress.” In other words, even the higher-ups at Mattel still didn’t understand that Barbie was facing some real issues.
The issues, unfortunately, are real, and here’s why
Ethnicity – Currently, only 62% of the American population is white, which means nearly 40% has not been represented by Barbie in the past. This 40% do not get to play with dolls that look like them and grow up feeling inferior and not as beautiful as their white counterparts.
Body image – Studies have shown that dolls with unrealistic proportions promote feelings of low self-esteem and poor body image among young girls. Moreover, these feelings can lead to eating disorders, which are much more prevalent in women than in men.
Money Talks
While the protests of mothers, feminists, and healthy body image proponents fell on deaf ears, when Barbie’s sales started to fall, Mattel took note. Finally, the company understood what people were saying.
In 2016, Mattel rolled out its Fashionista line, which includes Barbies with different eye shapes, skin tones, body types, and hair colors. In 2019, Mattel began producing Barbies in wheelchairs. The same year, the company announced that it had reached a 5-year sales high. This was also the year that the top-selling doll was a curvy Afro-American Barbie with an afro.
Most recently, Mattel released some new additions to the Fashionista line: A bald doll, a doll with a prosthetic limb, a doll with alopecia, and a doll with the skin condition vitiligo.
These dolls are being hailed as potentially life-changing for those who suffer from these conditions. For example, girls who have vitiligo, a condition in which patches of skin lose their pigment, can suddenly point to a doll that looks like them. Suddenly, they are not the odd one out, they can feel that they are part of a group instead of feeling like outsiders.
Barbies Are Not Only to Blame for Poor Body Image
Today, approximately 50% of 13-year-old American girls are unhappy with their bodies. By the age of 17, that number reaches nearly 80%. Additionally, 80% of women say that looking at images of other women in the media makes them feel insecure.
While it’s easy to blame Barbies for the problems facing young girls and women, there are so many other media outlets through which we are exposed to unrealistic beauty standards. Television and movies are filled with these images — Disney princesses, anyone? — and while they may be more realistic than Barbie, they still cause plenty of harm in terms of body image. Mattel has heard the criticism and responded in a way that’s palatable to many — imagine what would happen to today’s girls if media outlets would do the same.
Realistic Dolls
At the same time that Mattel is being commended for expanding from its narrow vision to be more inclusive, there are naysayers who argue that even with the new and diverse collection, the Barbies are still unrealistic. Their faces are perfectly symmetrical and their proportions still don’t match those of the average American woman.
What do you think? Do you think dolls need to be totally realistic or is it okay if they reflect a vague idea of current society?
