Blame Barbie

I’ve decided that anything Alice is lacking in the feminism department, especially that is offset by thoughts about her looks is because of Barbie. As in Barbie doll. Just kidding. Not really.

She got her first Barbie at 2 against her father’s and my plans (a neighbor’s gift). We figured she’d get one at some point but thought she’d be immune to Barbie’s evil ways by the time she got her first.

Barbie? Evil? In the way that she promotes a body that is the representation of someone’s idea of a woman’s figure – big bust, wasplike waist, legs up to here, sultry heavily made up eyes, never appearing without her make up – a figure that someone calculated to be physically impossible and an overall look that screams high maintenance. Evil in her uber -popularity and dominance of the toy market aimed directly at girls, with the same intentions that spawned the likes of Libby Lu (barf).

Sure I had Barbies growing up – a couple Barbies, Skipper, Midge, Alan, Ken, plus a Barbie Dream House, and tons of clothes. Barbie was ‘born’ when I was four years old (she’s celebrating her 50th birthday if you need a reason to party). But in adulthood, in parenthood, my sensitivities for what my daughter would learn about women was much broader than what Barbie represented. If she was going to play with dolls I wanted her to play with those that were softer to the touch, that stimulated her imagination, and that encouraged her thinking and feeling about a range of possibilities about people.

Truth be told, Alice wasn’t much of a doll kid. She enjoyed building and drawing and dressing up more than spending hours ‘playing Barbies.’ But she had them, continued to receive them as gifts, and saw them at pretty much every other kids’ house she went to (even if their parents made fun of Barbie like we did). Whole aisles of Toys R Us were filled with bubble gum pink packaging. As a parent you realize the marketing power of Barbie and her/their influence that surrounds your daughter’s life and is hard to keep her away from, a bit like fast food. Then she gets one, then two, some clothes, plays with other kids who have Barbies and its all over. You monitor and hope that it’s not that big of a deal.

I suppose it isn’t really. I mean, consider the millions of women (and men?) who played with Barbie and her network of plastic friends and became feminists and/or not obsessed with looking like, well, Barbie, and pursued important things with their lives. Yet because of her popularity and reach and countless clones from Neiman-Marcus to the dollar store, Barbie definitely has a presence in shaping what kids believe women look like and aspire to. It’s ironic that on Barbie’s 50th birthday – a mark of her staying power and her continuing influence-  a question came into a professional listserv I belong to today seeking good books for mothers and their daughters about body image. The poster was concerned because the 7 year old complained to her mother that she was ‘fat.’

And as I watch the slim, tall blonde teenager who stares at herself in the bathroom mirror, puts make up at the top of her Christmas list and thinks the Mall of America is the 8th Wonder of the World I blame Barbie as one influence among many that has shaped her preoccupations.

~ by modelmom on January 6, 2009.