Barbie- Beauty or Beast?

Barbie is a toy that most of us played with as kids and have idolized, whether the reasoning being her long blond hair, her big boobs, or her skinny waist. Even very young girls want to look like her and live the Barbie lifestyle- in the dreamhouse with a man that looks just like Ken. We talked about Barbie in WS for a while and how the doll that is loved by so many is destroying little girls’ lives.

In our course book, there is an article by Susan Jane Gilman entitled “Klaus Barbie and Other Dolls I’d like to see”. This is one of the readings that really intrigued me and continues to do so. Gilman opens her article by saying, “For decades, Barbie has remained torpedo-titted, open-mouthed, tippy-toed, and vagina-less in her cellophane coffin- and, ever since I was little, she threatened me.” She goes on to talk about how perfect Barbie is and about how children get the idea that because Barbie is such an idolized toy, this is how they, too need to look in order to get the same status. Later in the article, Gilman goes on to compare Barbie to the Aryan race. She states “They [Barbies] ultimately succeed where Hitler failed: They instill in legions of little girls as preference for whiteness, for blond hair, blue eyes, delicate features, for an impossible uberfigue, perched eternally and submissively in high heels.” I will never forget this quote because I feel it is so true. Barbie is seemingly an icon for Aryanism. And to think that so many little girls have idolized her, meaning they have taken in similar thoughts of those of Hitler, that blond hair and blue eyes equals perfection.

            I was really interested in this idea of Barbie having the perfect body so I did some further research on the topic. Apparently I am not the only one who has ever wanted to look into it because I found an article, published by CBS News, about a college student who made a life-size Barbie doll. A student at Hamilton College, Galia Slayen is a former victim of an eating disorder. She was curious to see what Barbie would look like if she were a real woman, so she made her life-size. The results are shocking to me, as this Barbie woman has off-the-wall proportions. Her measurements would be 39” at her bust, an 18” waist, and 33” hips. Barbie would be 5’9”, wearing a size 3 in shoes, and would have to walk on all fours. This is truly sad to look at, considering that we put into little girls’ heads on a daily basis that Barbie is perfect and beautiful. Seeing this picture, as posted below, Barbie would really be an abnormal and deformed human.

So why is it that we idolize the impossible, such as such a small waist and thin legs? Consider the images you idolize? What is perfect to you?

 

Galia Slayen, with her life-size Barbie. Click here for CBS News article.

 

 

Gilman, Susan Jane. “Klaus Barbie, and other dolls I’d like to see.” Women: Images and
            Realities. Ed. Suzanne Kelly, Gowri Parameswaran, Nancy Schniedewind. New York:
            The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2012. 71-75. Print.