I grew up with Barbies scattered throughout my basement, buckets of Barbie’s clothing, shoes and accessories were everywhere. Between my collection of Barbies, Bratz and Polly Pockets, I had more “dress-up” centered toys than any little girl needed. I would spend more time picking out what each doll would wear than even playing with them. It wasn’t even about what they did or said, but rather how they looked.
For a project in my Academic Writing class we had to write a research proposal and an annotated bibliography. I chose to write mine on the effects that body-dysmorphic toys have on kids and teens in modern America. I learned from the study and article titled Evolving Ideals of Male Body Image as Seen through Action Toys that in the same way Barbie has changed over time, so has G.I. Joe, and while more girls face body dissatisfaction issues, men are affected by this as well. G.I. Joe while seemingly more realistic, the body shape is still ridiculous. From the article, The Influence of Fashion Magazines on the Body Image Satisfaction of College Women: An Exploratory Analysis, I learned that women are likely to feel a greater sense of body dissatisfaction immediately following flipping through fashion magazines.
I looked up some research about Barbie’s new doll collection of the tall, petite, and curvy dolls, and while many people were angry with Mattel, they were still trying to accommodate the harassment over the impossible standards of the classic Barbie’s body. While scrolling through Facebook the other day, I came across a new Barbie commercial.
I think the message is great, I think their execution is great, however they still aren’t promoting their company in the right way (in my opinion). I think they need to talk about how it’s okay to look any way you want to look. Not be anything I want to be. Barbie has shoved the idea that you can “be who you wanna be” for years down our throats. I want to hear that I can be comfortable in my own skin because it shouldn’t matter what anyone looks like.
I wanted to see how Barbie promoted their dolls when I was a Barbie fanatic. These are commercials for multiple Barbies that I owned:
Of course, I owned the two dolls named Tori. But after watching commercial after commercial, I realized so many of them ended with the phrase, “it’s a great time to be a girl.” I guess it worked, but it sounds so silly to me. Was it really a great time to be a girl? Gender specific toys were all I really played with, and I don’t think I minded. I loved playing with dolls and dressing them up. I will admit that I think the “be who you wanna be” is a much better campaign than “it’s a great time to be a girl,” but what’s next for Barbie?
What will Mattel do so that the girls begging their moms in Target for the Barbie up on the shelf, because she needs another red dress, because she spilled her mac ‘n’ cheese on the one she already had last week and Barbie simply can’t wear a dirty red dress, knows that Barbie can look any way (except in a dirty red dress). Because studies do show that body dissatisfaction may not start as a young girl, but the idea to be stick thin is ingrained at that time. I want girls to know that they will grow up having different body types than their friends and that’s okay.
