Barbie and Body Image; Happy Bday
First, Happy Bday to my nephew Shawn! A very talented writer & musician! Have a great one!
Also, GoDaddy is having technical difficulties again - go figure! They are not sending out notifications of new posts nor sending me notification of your comments. I will post my normal days so please check back!
creditIf any of you saw The Today Show Monday, you may have seen a story about a Hamilton College student that made a life sized version of Barbie to depict how disproportionate the doll is to every day women.
Per The Today Show story - "The Barbie stands about 6 feet tall with a 39" bust, 18" waist and 33" hips. She is made of wood, chicken wire and papier mache, and is dressed in a size 00 skirt that was a remnant from Slayen’s one-year bout with anorexia.
“I’m not blaming Barbie [for my illness] — she’s one small factor, an environmental factor,” Slayen said. “I’m blond and blue-eyed and I figured that was what I was supposed to look like. She was my idol. It impacted the way I looked at myself.”
The goal in creating Barbie’s likeness was to start conversation. “Talking about eating disorders is taboo to many people, and this made people talk about it,” Slayen said. “It’s a shocking image. A lot of people have seen it, and it’s started debates,” she said, particularly after she wrote about it for the Huffington Post. “Her proportions are not 100 percent correct, but her look is not invalid.”
Also, per a story from the local news - It's part of the "Get Real" campaign to raise awareness about eating disorders.
Slayen battled anorexia herself and says children are bombarded with body images that are unattainable.
"You think of young girls walking down a grocery store aisle and you see all these magazines about how to lose weight or lose five pounds, and so there are so many different things the media - it's your parents, it's your friends, it's just so many pressures to look a certain way and be a certain way," Slayen told Today's Natalie Morales. "There's this drive for thinness."
Mattel responded: “As a pop-cultural icon, Barbie is often used as art to express one’s own personal opinions and views,” a Mattel spokesperson said in an email. “Girls see female body images everywhere today and it’s critical that parents and caregivers provide perspective on what they are seeing. It’s important to remember that Barbie is a doll who stands 11.5 inches tall and weighs 7.25 ounces — she was never modeled on the proportions of a real person.”
I am leaving this out there for discussion. Barbie has been around for a very long time along with many other "media influences". My question is how do you feel about this story? I certainly think parents need to step up & try to do the best they can but can they combat all this?
Also, do you ever think we will get past this - meaning the media & advertising & movies & movie stars and the rest of the crap out there. I agree that it is talked about more & people like to say they are trying to change it yet I still see that thin is in & pretty is important & that young girls are bombarded from an early age. I have written about the cable shows like Toddlers & Tiaras and we have Teen Moms as well as 16 and Pregnant... and now I saw a thing on The Soup about a show called Playdates.
Your thoughts?
Categories: Children, Dieting, Life, Media Influence
Tags: Barbie acceptance body image birthdays children eating food addiction life experiences media influence media The Today Show eating disorders Get Real campaign
I had Barbie and PJ when I was little. I really wanted to look like that. Was it a bad influence? I don't know. We need to look at GI Joe then as well and boys.
Now I think there is just too much emphasis on skinny in Hollywood. It isn't even talent anymore, but looks. My 6 year old niece said something a few months ago about being fat and that disturbed me. I don't know who put that idea into her head as it was not our family.
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Lori - about your niece - it is what they see on TV. They are gearing it younger & younger - very sad!
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I think Barbie should be taken off the shelves for this one simple reason: The children to whom she is marketed do not yet have the critical thinking skills to realize that is not what a real woman is meant to look like. You and I can look at Barbie and say "That's ridiculous" but a 6-year-old girl doesn't KNOW any better. That's the same problem with all the photoshopping and airbrushing in magazines -- adults know to take it with a grain of salt, but impressionable young girls do not.
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Sable - hear you! I also think kids reflect what parents do & say & watch so we always have to be on guard cause the shows get to the younger ones more & more...
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All I can say is that I'm glad, for this reason, to only have sons! No body issues with them. No clothing drama. No feeling of societal pressure.
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Karen - yup - guys don't have it as bad for sure!
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I tend to think of many of these issues as symptoms of an eating disordered society.
My understanding is that many young girls tended to torture their Barbies and much as glorify them.
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Dr. J - I never heard that about torturing the Barbies! And yes, eating disorders from minor to bad... kids see & hear the parents...
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I'm forever grateful when I was a girl and asked my mum about why barbie was so skinny, she said "real women don't look like that - she's just a doll honey". That stuck with me.
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Geosomin - that was one smart Mom!
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I don't know if you'd be interested in this:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/19/granderson.children.dress/index.html
It takes the discussion to dressing our little girls like hookers and how clothing companies like A&F sexualize them.
I don't know if we will ever change the media and how they think we should look. One ammunition is with our dollars.
Me personally? I had a generic "Barbie." That may explain a lot. LOL
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I forgot to mention one item of clothing being geared for girls as young as 8 y.o.: push-up bras/bathing suit tops. Talk about getting a complex about body image!!
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I have to say that model made me bust out laughing! Every pun intended!
I do think that print ads that have been photo shopped, movies where the bodies have been made to look better and all of that has a huge influence on young people, male and female.
Let's make Barbie a little more realistic, come on Mattel!
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Tami - I wish we could get a lot more things to be realistic! Women see & read all this stuff & feel the pressure!
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I guess for me, as a child, we played with Barbies constantly, and I never associated how she looked with how I wanted to look physically. I never wanted to be blonde or thin because of her, so I guess I really can't relate to her article. I saw her as a doll/toy and nothing more really. I'm going on 38 this summer.. is it a generation thing that's happening to girls now?
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What a good post Jody. For me I played with dolls for most of my childhood and was overweight. Her body never made me question my body or cause me to hate my body.
I didn't start having those negative feelings until I was in high school and was comparing myself to other girls.
The reporters and advertisements are only in it for themselves no one else; I think its important to realize that or someone could go down the wrong path.
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