Barbie: The World’s (Role) Model
“We girls can do anything.” Upon hearing this motto, one likely would not expect this inspirational phrase to come from the foot-tall, iconic playtoy which has influenced the childhoods of the past six generations. The name Barbie is known around the world and conjures up vivid images of movies, dolls, clothing, and an intense feeling of nostalgia. And while nostalgia generally pertains to things from our childhood that were trendy - think short time, big impact - Barbie has never lost its relevance through more than 60 years of its existence. It is therefore undeniable that Barbie has not only played a prominent role in the childhoods of the last few generations but also shaped the entire attitude of the society these children grew up in. It’s time we delve into Barbie’s influences: the pioneering, the restricting, and the psychologically damaging.
While Barbie’s main audience is children, her effects can most prominently be seen in teens. Initially, after her creation in 1959, Barbie empowered and liberated teens in the 60s. Barbara Millicent Roberts, nicknamed Barbie, was created as a model of the average teenage girl doing typical teenage activities. She had accessories like school spirit merch to attend a football game or shopping bags. Shopping at the time was one of the only activities women and teenage girls could do without male chaperones. Thus, a rise in Barbie’s popularity brought with it a rise in female independence veiled under the facade of a simple encouragement of all teenage activities.
Though a Dream House is a little bit out of reach for most teens nowadays, many manage to live the Barbie lifestyle to some extent. But that’s not enough; these teens also want to look the part. The exposure to Barbie starts young, and many girls idolize her. She’s the perfect storm: a lifestyle which is ideal but still seems in-reach for young kids with limited perspective and realistic roles. Lifestyle fuses with appearance and soon it’s not just the lavish lifestyle, but the classic Barbie’s physique too - blonde hair, hourglass figure, and clear skin - that kids want. A study conducted in 2006 had three groups of girls ages 5 to 8 each shown different images. One group was shown images of Barbies, one group was shown no doll images at all, and one group was shown Emme dolls, a more realistic representation of teenagers at a size US16. The study found that girls who were shown images of Barbie had the lowest self-esteem of the three groups. The study also found that the immediate impact of the respective images grew less noticeable in older girls, though the insecure and self-deprecating attitude remained, showing that attitudes around appearance are formed quickly and early on, and stick with kids throughout their entire lives.
This is the issue plaguing teens: they no longer see Barbie as a role model. They have outgrown her, but they have not outgrown the standards of beauty she set. Instead, what they used to see as an ideal, has now become an expectation for how they should appear. Because of Barbie’s lack of diverse representation (for most of its existence) and dominance in the toy world, many teens grew up without realistic role models. Where Barbie was always so quick to adapt to society’s newest lifestyle trends, her appearance remained fixed, with Mattel only releasing more inclusive Barbie dolls in 2016. The expansion included 3 new body shapes, 7 skin tones, and Barbie’s of differing abilities. While this is a step in the right direction, it is far from enough. Even the “curvy Barbie” still sits at a US size 6, smaller than the average US woman.
So, what do teenagers with this instilled beauty standard do? In the case of Valeria Lukyanova, they resort to substantial cosmetic surgeries to achieve the doll-like appearance. As stories of these “real-life Barbies” continue to appear in the news, it’s proven that for people living in a Barbie world, life in plastic is fantastic. But for teens who cannot afford to alter themselves through plastic surgery, they deal with this standard in a different way: aggression. In the same study where girls were shown one of three different sets of images, the playing habits of the children with Barbies were recorded. It was observed that older girls had aggressive tendencies when playing with Barbies, doing things like cutting off her hair and saying “They are all perfect and it’s just too much.” Due to her dominance in their childhoods, older girls had grown to hate not only the doll itself, but the unshakeable standards it had set for them.
So, should we still give our children Barbies? Upon looking at the psychological effects, one would likely say “no”, but there’s more thought to be given to the question. Now that Barbie has become more inclusive, her reach could provide the next generation with valuable role models and representation. But there is still work to be done. While the doll is still just as influential, it is not ground-breaking and progressive like it was in the 60s, and rather seems to be trailing three steps behind the rest of society, causing more harm than good. Now, in a world where education and resources are better than ever before, we girls can do anything. It’s time for Barbie to follow suit.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17543266.2016.1214291
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16569167/
https://theses.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/handle/123456789/4706/Driessen%2C_R_1.pdf?sequence=1
https://www.history.com/news/barbie-through-the-ageshttps://www.gq.com/story/valeria-lukyanova-human-barbie-doll