Are barbies bad role models for girls?

In some FB group this girl is posting that girls who play with barbie dolls grow up with a wrong idea about being perfuct. of having perfuct bodies and life style. They become depressed. I played with dolls and grew up just fine.


"Barbie has become a role model for young girls at a terrible cost. Playing with Barbie could potentially lead to consequences such as depression, unhealthy eating habits and in the future an eating disorder. Girls learn to desire a thin body ideal at a young age and this stays with them until they are older. TV and other media are constantly bombarding girls with unhealthy body images and ideals, that there is no way they could unlearn what they learned as normal, when they were playing with Barbie at age five. Barbie is what they are supposed to look like when they grow up, and this is only further perpetuated by exposure to the extremely thin actresses and models that become their role models when they are older. "


http://www.oprah.com/oprahradio/Dolls-and-Eating-Disorders-Audio

I think people who want to take offense and find issues with things will do so even when there is nothing to get upset about. Barbie is such a case. I know tons of girls--myself included--that played with Barbie dolls and didn't have a poor self-image solely because they didn't look like Barbie. Are there some kids out there who would admit they felt they could never live up to the Barbie image? Maybe, but I don't feel they are in the majority. Stick thin models and actresses that they see in ads every day probably have a larger impact.

Yes, at least Barbie had a shape, so many famous people today are stick figures or stick figures with fake breasts.
I think it's good that Mattel came out with a diversified line of Barbie's, I am white and didn't like the blonde ones, my complaint was years ago, the black/asian dolls looked exactly the same except for the color...they have gotten better with that.

i agree about the Stick thin models and actresses have a much more stronger inpacked

bethandmanly wrote:

I think people who want to take offense and find issues with things will do so even when there is nothing to get upset about. Barbie is such a case. I know tons of girls--myself included--that played with Barbie dolls and didn't have a poor self-image solely because they didn't look like Barbie. Are there some kids out there who would admit they felt they could never live up to the Barbie image? Maybe, but I don't feel they are in the majority. Stick thin models and actresses that they see in ads every day probably have a larger impact.

I couldn't agree more. I was a serious Barbie fanatic growing up and I certainly didn't look at her waistline and think that it was realistic OR attainable. Good grief, girls aren't stupid. The real life actresses and models, as Cheryl said, are the ones who girls are looking at and thinking "Oh hey, she can be that thin---maybe I can get to that weight." If they only knew how unattractive most guys think those teens/women are. They have done many polls and the majority of guys actually like a little meat on the bones, and they are as confused as the rest of us as to how this whole 'skin and bones craze' even started.

littlehouselover wrote:

Yes, at least Barbie had a shape, so many famous people today are stick figures or stick figures with fake breasts.
I think it's good that Mattel came out with a diversified line of Barbie's, I am white and didn't like the blonde ones, my complaint was years ago, the black/asian dolls looked exactly the same except for the color...they have gotten better with that.

So true. I got a rude awakening recently when I was looking for a Disney princess 'Barbie' for a birthday present. Whoa. They are no longer the 'cute' Disney princesses. These princesses have longer, more narrow faces, hollowed out cheekbones, more eye make-up, the works. I want to say they look more 'adult', but it's more than that---they look more like princesses walking street corners. WHAT is going on with our whacked out society?!?!

I agree girls.I think it's silly to blame poor barbie for having eating problems.

Click Here----> Model Made to Look Like Barbie

That's sick

That is sick. At first, I thought it was life size doll. That someone bought, as model.

I heard on Inside edition. That other female looking like a barbie. A man looking like ken doll.


I played barbies, I didn't want look like a barbie. I was depressed when playing barbies. Some of the outfits, my barbies wore. I wish, they made in human size. But, they never did.

I never wanted to be Barbie either, although I envied that dream house. : )

Maybe a realistic Ken would be some padding on the tummy, a bag of chips and a soda. lol
Barbie can have some cellulite, a diet book and some yogurt.

Fantasy is fantasy, if we can't tell the difference...something was lost over the years.

Right,I mean nobody with a normal mind set would think barbie shape and sizes are real. In all honesty people are just blaming Barbie cause they don't have that life style.Your right some people can't tell the differences between fantasy and realty,

Buttercup wrote:

Some of the outfits, my barbies wore. I wish, they made in human size. But, they never did.

LOL, that was depressing! But what's funny about that is I was just as jealous of Miss Piggy's wardrobe as I was Barbie's. (I am being completely serious. I truly wanted Miss Piggy's wardrobe---she had quite the amazing ensembles! ). So there ya go. For me, it wasn't Barbie's body I was after, it was her wardrobe. And her dream house, as Littlehouselover said.

littlehouselover wrote:

Maybe a realistic Ken would be some padding on the tummy, a bag of chips and a soda. lol
Barbie can have some cellulite, a diet book and some yogurt.

I love it!

littlehouselover wrote:

Fantasy is fantasy, if we can't tell the difference...something was lost over the years.

Thank you. THAT is it in a nutshell. It's like all the zillions of kids who play violent video games and do NOT act out the violence. There are always going to be those extremists, in every scenario, that give people reason to look at what they think might have caused it. When in actuality, look at who this person is. That 'life size Barbie' had something go wrong in her childhood or else is mentally ill. Sorry, she is not right in the head. You can't pin that on Barbie. Not to mention, there's a 'real life 'anime girl' now too. There just some really messed up people out there. If they don't act out in this way, they'll find another way.

Click on the link below and then click on the "AGE" button to make Barbie age......of course, since she is a doll, you can click again and make her young....Where is MY Rejuventate button???

http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/articles/bulletin/interactive/barbie/index.html

I agree amy.