I’ve (surprisingly) seen a lot of backlash on the amazing new Barbies that have been introduced. Not too long ago, Mattel rolled out some new shapes and sizes of dolls in their Barbie line. You can now purchase a curvy, tall, petite, or original Barbie. Now young girls and boys everywhere can see more of themselves and the people the love in the Barbie world!
Despite this leap forward in inclusiveness, I’ve seen a lot of people commenting on the new line as a negative thing. I’m honestly quite shocked by this take on the product. The main argument I’ve seen floating around is that these new Barbies will prompt young girls to notice the difference in the dolls and begin to compare their own bodies to each other much earlier. But Barbie has had many different ethnicities for decades and that hasn’t seem to mess up our youth. In fact, it’s seemed to have a positive effect in teaching children that diversity is a beautiful thing. And as for this idea that it will cause kids to compare bodies earlier; I’m not sure how much younger kids could possible be before starting to compare their bodies.
I have an incredibly vivid memory of being in gym class in the third grade, looking around at all the other girls and realizing I was bigger than most. And I really wasn’t even that much bigger, yet. It was then that I began a lifelong battle with myself and my body image, that I still struggle with at 21 years old. I couldn’t possible blame all my body issues on Barbie, but I’d be lying if I said that through my constant use of Barbie I hadn’t come to assume that I would grow up to look like Barbie in most respects.
We live in a thin-positive society. (Disclaimer: that is not to say that thinner people do not face body shaming and/or body issues, just that those who carry any extra weight are slightly more susceptible to experiencing these things.) As our youth grows up surrounded by constant images of thinner people in advertising, television, movies, and magazines, body image issues become more and more severe. And no, it is not as simple as parents reminding their kids how pretty they are, that does not undo the outside pressures that are impossible to ignore. (Believe me, if I had a dollar for every time my mother, and many other family members and friends tried to remind me how beautiful I am I’d have a couple small loans of a million dollars.)
Having these different shapes of Barbie will continue to remind girls that they can be absolutely anything they want to be; a teacher, a doctor, a fashionista, a housewife, a mother, a police officer, a firefighter, a gamer, a technician, any so, so much more! And it reminds them, they can be any shape, size, height, race, hair color, eye color, etc to be anything they want to be. And that is why I am so here for these new, beautiful, fantastic, positive Barbies!
P.S. Barbie’s coming out with Madam President and Madam Vice President Dolls this summer! I’m not too old to buy a Barbie, right?!
