I ran across the following article the other day: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/
In this article, a girl who has battled with an eating disorder describes how she took a Barbie doll and “built what she believed to be a life-size version of the doll she played with as a child.” I was baffled by the picture in this article. While the proportions of the “life-size” version of Barbie aren’t quite accurate, it still gets a lot of conversation started about how girls are portrayed not only in the media, but in the toys that many kids play with.
A Mattel spokesperson is quoted in the article as saying, “Girls see female body images everywhere today and it’s critical that parents and caregivers provide prospective on what they are seeing.” While I agree that girls need parents and guardians to help them realize that all of the images of females that they see are disproportionate, I can’t help but image having this type of conversation with a three year old who just loves her Barbie. At that age, the Barbie doll herself is real, so trying to explain that not only is the Barbie not real, but it doesn’t look like a real girl, doesn’t seem like something that’s going to fly!
Spurred by curiosity, I did a Google search for real life dimensions of Barbie. BBC news graced me with an article addressing this very thing, including a very powerful image to accompany the statistics.
It all depends on how tall you make the life-size Barbie, but according to the BBC, a 5 foot 6 inch tall Barbie would have a 20-inch waist and 29-inch hips. While there are a few ladies that have these dimensions, this is an unrealistic and appalling image for little girls to think they need to look like! The idea that we aren’t ever perfect the way we are starts at a very young age!
Images from: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/ and http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7920962.stm
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