The Barbie doll has been a popular play toy for young girls since the late 1950s. Although the Barbie doll seems like an innocent toy, it has had an effect on little girls’ body images. Many studies have shown an association between young girls playing with Barbies and eating disorders. Even grown women want to resemble Barbie so badly that they start to do surgery on their bodies which can be very dangerous. This has led to the term, Barbie Syndrome, which refers to “the drive, often of adolescent girls, to attain impossible standards of beauty, projected by toys—e.g., Mattel’s Barbie Doll—and the media, resulting in failure and frustration, issues related to body image, eating disorders, and self-image” (“Barbie Doll Syndrome”).
Barbie is giving girls the wrong representation, particularly, in regard to their body image and the impact it has had on eating disorders. Fortunately, in recent years, societal organizations have taken steps to counteract this dangerous representation.
First, Barbie is giving girls the wrong representation, particularly, in regard to their body image. Surprising Barbie is so thin that her weight and her body proportions are unattainable and unhealthy. This fact creates potentially dangerous situations for young girls to be influenced by this unattainable body type. One particular research study in 2006, conducted by Helga Dittmar, Emma Halliwell, and Suzanne Ive, found that young girls, ages 5 going to 8-years-old, who were exposed to Barbie, experienced self-esteem and body issues. Dittmar et al.’s study are extremely important as it is this study an innovative exposure paradigm has been used with young children, thus offering a methodologically rigorous examination of Barbie as a cause of girls’ feeling of unhappiness with their bodies and their desire to be thinner.
Young girls wanting their bodies to be like barbie and are trying to look like a doll. When one hundred and sixty-two U.K young girls, ages five going to eight of the same were given picture books with either no pictures of bodies whatsoever, Emme doll (a doll with realistic body proportions) images of Barbie, or images of , the young girls who looked at the books with Barbie images were more unhappy with their own body image than those girls who read Emme or books with nobody images. Their study did not find these same findings in the oldest girls, however, the evidence that Barbie is influencing this younger population of girls, still points to the need for some type of change. Dittmar et al. also concludes that this early pattern of looking up to an unrealistic body image could play a role in later struggles with eating disorders.
Second, Barbie and the unattainable body image she represents have particularly been associated with increased risk for eating disorders. As mentioned previously, Dittmar et al.’s study concluded “Even if dolls cease to function as aspirational role models for older girls, early exposure to dolls epitomizing an unrealistically thin body ideal may damage girls’ body image, which would contribute to an increased risk of disordered eating and weight cycling” (283). One example of how Barbie has influenced young girls in this regard occurred with the launch of “Slumber Party Barbie” in the 1960s (“An Epidemic of Body Hatred” par. 8). Barbie once came with a bag to sleep in, her hair source and a scale permanently that was stuck at 110 lbs, with a small book on her side written on the book was the title“How to Lose Weight”.
Those singular expressions composed in the book saying "DON'T EAT!. "Ten years after this suggestion might redevelop Concerning illustration cryptogram statement "I. D. E. A. " utilized internet by method for sufferers for ingesting issues - short to the chilling slogan: I don't consume any longer. Barbie syndrome affects everybody not just kids, even in the real world especially for some people's jobs. When photo editors decide that a celebrity's body just isn't a good fit for their magazine, they'll sometimes cut and paste her face onto an entirely different body. The waists of perfectly healthy women are digitally pinched to an unrealistic degree, and their thighs are slimmed down to resemble sticks - the perfect Barbie doll look. If a model's ribs are very visible due to her extremely low weight, editors will brush over them to make them appear less prominent. (AN EPIDEMIC OF BODY HATRED 5). Celebrities are now standing up against photoshop and the whole ideal of Barbie syndrome. Many companies are changing their model body, height and sizes just because they didn’t achieve the self-appointed body standard. Many women in the modeling industry are coming out and showing how their photo has been changed.
Third, in recent years, societal organizations have taken the step to counteract this dangerous representation. Barbie and other companies are creating a new doll that has a more realistic and attainable body which is good for younger girls to play with. In developing the workshop format, we tried to provide enough structure and eclectic raw materials to invite focused thinking about embodied femininity, but without imposing our own expectations about how the girls “should” view Barbie and reinvent or remake her ( Collins, Lidinsky, Rusnock, and Torstrick 106-107).
The minority group started to complain and stop buying Barbie because it wasn’t representing their community/children. After so many years of condemnation that Barbie's looks did not reflect her diverse audience, Mattel (a toy company that produces Barbies), struggle to boost sales. Mattel introduced the Fashionistas line around 2013 to 2015. The Fashionistas line includes more multiculturalism dolls. Mattel decided that they will bring out dolls with three new realistic physiques with different skin tones, many different eye colors and with different hairstyles. The doll new will contain petite, tall and curvy.
In conclusion, Barbie has been given girls the wrong representation, particularly, in regard to their body image and it has had an impact on eating disorders among young girls. luckily, in recent years, societal organizations have taken the step to counteract this dangerous representation. Barbies have played a big role in so many people's childhood but it has had an effect on them physically and mentally. Barbie had created a delusionally of a perfect body and height for young girls which they feel like it is the standard/right body type. They try to achieve something that is not achievable. A lot of people are seeing the effect it had to have on young girls and they are trying to speak up about it. Young girls/moms are glad that they are trying to do something to help the problem even though they did it because they were losing the customer and they also wanted to improve their sales.
“An Epidemic Of Body Hatred.” Dying to be Barbie: Eating Disorders in Pursuit of the Impossible, Rehabs.com, 2012, www.rehabs.com/explore/dying-to-be-barbie/#.wcx6g-yrkuk.
Collins, Louise, et al. "We're Not Barbie Girls: Tweens Transform a Feminine Icon." Feminist Formations, vol. 24, no. 1, 2012, pp. 102-126. http://search.proquest.com/docview/1019046911?accountid=14129.
Diep, Francie. “The Science of Barbie's Effect on Girls' Self-Esteem.” Pacific Standard, 29 Jan. 2016, psmag.com/the-science-of-barbie-s-effect-on-girls-self-esteem-4f32325ff602#.sdpkb3pbk. Accessed 27 Oct. 2016.
Dittmar, Helga, Halliwell, Emma, and Susan I've. "Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? the Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5 to 8-Year-Old Girls." Developmental Psychology, Vol. 42, no. 2, 2006, pp. 283-92. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.2.283.
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