Cultural Impact of Barbie
The Barbie doll is a very controversial toy. Many feminists and other groups see the doll as providing an unrealistic example of how a woman should be. The doll is often blamed for causing eating disorders and teaches children that life is about shopping and dressing up (Reid-Walsh & Mitchell, 2000). However, this is not the vision that Ruth had for the Barbie Doll. Ruth thought that it was important for young girls self esteem to play with a doll that had breasts (Wikipedia, 2008). The Barbie doll shape is still unrealistic though with measurements equivalent to a humans at 39”-18”-33” (Wood, 2002), which are certainly nowhere near the sizes of the average woman.
Reid-Walsh and Mitchell wrote an article based of the experiences of women who played with Barbie’s as a child and how they felt about their experiences with the doll (2000). The article discusses the positive and negative sides of the argument over whether or not Barbie is a good toy for young girls. Barbie in fact created a world for these girls in which they could use their imaginations to build a life for Barbie that they saw fit. They chose what she would do from day-to-day play and who she would become. Many women also share accounts of an even further use of their imagination while playing with the doll. As young girls they would make their own clothes for the Barbie or a house for their Barbie’s to live in (Reid-Walsh & Mitchell, 2000).
More reasons that Barbie is said to not be of any harm to young girls is that she offers young girls the opportunity to see that a woman can be whatever she wants to be. Barbie has been manufactured representing more than eighty professions including paleontologist, rock star, teacher, and presidential candidate (Wood, 2002). These various Barbie versions can show young girls that they can grow up to be anything that they want. Barbie created a woman for them to aspire to become not a woman that they would see as “perfect” while they were not.
The opposing side of the argument is that Barbie is not a role model for young girls at all. Instead Barbie is seen as a doll that teaches young girls that that is what women should look like; tall, blonde, thin, and huge breasts—by comparison. This view of women is believed to be embedded into young girls’ minds through play and looked at later in life as exactly what they have not become. Most women do not grow up to be large-breasted, tall, and blonde and it is believed that consequently these girls grow up to be very self conscious (Reid-Walsh & Mitchell, 2000).
No matter which side of the argument one’s own beliefs fall into, it is important to remember that a woman invented the doll (Wood, 2002). And that she invented it in part for her own daughter. Had she believed it to be in any way a bad influence it is most unlikely that she would have offered it to her own child.
