Displeased with the images Barbie represents for his daughters, Chris Farley Ratcliffe contemplates Barbie’s future in his home.
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“I want Barbieeeee!” This has become a frequent refrain around our house lately. For me it is an indication of a lost battle.
I dislike Barbie dolls and everything they stand for. I dislike the idealized and highly improbable female form. I dislike the materialism. I dislike Barbie’s sexist and stereotypical roles. I dislike her feet in permanent high heel pose. I dislike all of the pink and constant makeup.
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We have had a few Barbie dolls kicking around the house that people have given my older two daughters as gifts. I’m not sure why we didn’t toss them out, other than the fact that our girls didn’t really play with them so they just sat around at the bottom of toy bins like so much other kid debris.
Recently my toddler discovered these Barbie dolls. She loves them. She carries them around and regularly demands that she have them in her crib with her when she is taking a nap. One of them is always naked for some reason. The other one usually has her cocktail dress hiked up so she might as well be naked (at least they have ‘nude’ underwear on). This doll has a reversible dress that doesn’t come off, although that’s not to say there hasn’t been some effort made.
I often come across ‘cocktail dress Barbie’ lying on the floor like she has fallen off a building. She has more joints than the others. You can bend her knees, hips, waist, shoulders, elbows and turn her head 360 degrees. She is cheerful though. No matter how disfiguring and damaging her apparent injuries, she is always there with a smile!
Barbie is selling at a rate of three units per second worldwide, which means there are more Barbie dolls sold annually than children born in the world.
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Barbie’s Future?
Barbie is selling at a rate of three units per second worldwide, which means there are more Barbie dolls sold annually than children born in the world. It is amazing and scary that Barbie is so pervasive. I hope that humanity doesn’t see this as a challenge and decide to try to top the Barbie sales numbers.
I’m not sure of her future in our house. I strongly disagree with everything she represents and yet, my daughter is quite enamored with her. Do we do away with Barbie and deal with her trauma? I’m not sure if this is true of all kids, but mine seem to have tremendous memories and remember all kinds of things I thought they would have forgotten or for which I have retained no memories. So if we remove Barbie from our house will we cause a life-long trauma caused by a missing favorite toy? It is likely that someone will give her a Barbie along the way as a present so this will be a running battle.
Teachable Moments
Maybe we let Barbie stick around and use her as a teaching tool to talk about eating disorders. Did you know that if Barbie were a real woman she would have such a low percentage of body fat that she would be unable to menstruate? While I don’t believe that playing with one toy will cause any of my daughters to develop an eating disorder, I am concerned about the overwhelming media images and messages that reinforce the “thin is best” story line personified by Barbie.
I think most humans in the developed world and likely many in the developing world have dealt with and deal with body image issues. My hope is that I can help my daughters to feel good about their bodies most of the time. I have no idea whether letting them play with Barbie will help or hinder that plan. I guess I’ll let Barbie stick around to jump start a very important conversation with my daughters down the road.
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Photo: Flickr/RomitaGirl67. Originally appeared on Dad Goes Round. Reprinted with Permission
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My mom was absolutely opposed to me having Barbies as a little girl, probably for similar reasons, and eventually gave in since I wanted one so much. They are basically three-dimensional paper dolls. That was the original concept when they created them, and that’s how I always saw the. Plus, they are easy to carry in small hands, which many dolls aren’t. I’ve read analyses of Barbie and how specific toys give bad messages, but it depends on how you were raised. Barbie had a giant plane with her name on the side and a male pilot painted on it.… Read more »
Great article. Thanks.
My daughter dislikes any dolls or princess clothes…so far.
JP, My first two were like that. Until we acquired a bunch of hand-me-down princess dresses from a friend, then they started dressing up on a regular basis. Not associated with any particular princesses though since we haven’t watched the Disney princess movies.
Chris, do you purposely ban Disney Princess movies?
Erin, we haven’t really banned them, we just don’t have a lot of movies in the house to start with and we haven’t gone out of our way to buy the princess movies. For me it is more a matter of resistance to the ridiculous amount of disney princess marketing than a particular objection to the content of the movies themselves.
I had a ton of Barbie’s growing up. My favorite was Astronaut Barbie. She had a spiffy silver suit and pink astronaut helmet. I also had Carebears, My Little Pony (Before they became ‘My Sexy Little Pony”), Strawberry Short Cake (Before she went on her diet and got slimmed down and made her eyes the size of saucers) and Rainbow Bright before she became a sexy Halloween costume. I think there is some merit in the sexualizing of girls through toys. They have marketed classic toys with slimmer, more ‘sexy” looking sleek looks. Will Barbie alone impact your girls? It’s… Read more »
Thanks Erin, I agree that it isn’t going to be just Barbie or perhaps not barbie at all that influences my daughters’ perceptions on their body image and that it is a part of a broader cultural and media landscape. We slip in bits of information into every day conversations and as my oldest two’s friends start to hit puberty we will build in more conversations about body image. They already know that gaining weight is a normal part of their bodies preparing for puberty and what will happen during puberty. I agree that there are lots more conversations yet… Read more »
Your girls are very lucky to have a self-aware Dad that’s willing to keep the dialogue open!
Thanks Tom. I’ve actually received several comments along the lines of yours on my blog and through Facebook that have been quite reassuring. I realized that a helpful comparison for me is that I grew up playing with GiJoe figures and running through the neighbourhood playing ‘guns’ and I didn’t grow up wanting to join an elite counter-terrorism force. Some people are likely influenced or inspired by their childhood toys, not all are. I think it is about diversity of toys and how they are used. If they inspire creative play then they are worth keeping around. That said… I… Read more »
I understand what you’re saying but I have a different view. My daughter who is now 31 or is it 32 … was totally into Barbies. I can’t count the number that she had/has much less the countless buildings, cars etc. I say “has” because I have them all stored in my basement. Nothing about Barbie or her environment negatively affected my daughter in any way shape or form. “Body image” of Barbie had no influence. Barbie is a toy where little girls can play out their fantasies. Look at the old days where women would wear tight corsets to… Read more »