Feedback Wanted: Got Barbie?
Posted on June 20, 2008
Filed Under Social Issues, Parenting
Our three daughters play with dolls. We’ve never had Barbie dolls, though. And for good reason - what little girl can measure up (literally!) to the bronze babe with such an exaggerated figure? Better to have toys that are more…appropriately proportioned, I think.
Here’s one commentary on the doll and her effect on society.
What do you think? Is this on the mark? Or is the writer off base here?
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7 Responses to “Feedback Wanted: Got Barbie?”
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This is by no means off base! I just finished an Anthropology class as part of my degree at my local community college where the professor spent a portion of class time discussing Barbie. One of our required reports was about the media’s influence on children’s toys-wow, what an eye opener! Some students chose to do their reports on Barbie. I cannot recommended enough to parents to spend just a little time researching how the toy companies groom our kids through the media and the effect it has on our kids. It boils down to this-the toys choose the kid-not the other way around!
While I have friends that don’t allow their daughters to play with Barbie dolls, I grew up with them and had hours of enjoyment playing with my sisters and Barbie dolls. These are some of my fondest memories. While I think the proportions are not right for the average person, I don’t think that this had much of an impact on the way I felt about myself. I think that most of the way I felt about my body came from my peers and from Hollywood, the media and culture. I think my Barbies had very little to do with it. Some may disagree with me, but I don’t feel that this is a “hill to die on.” My 4 daughters have Barbie dolls and they really enjoy playing with them. I don’t think they notice the proportions.
I agree completely.
I’ll exaggerate to make my point but if you sleaze Barbie up just a little you’ve got Pamela Anderson and SHE, my friends, is NO ROLE MODEL for our little girls.
Just my opinion.
I grew up playing with Barbie I also had a Marie ( as in Donnie and Marie talk about dating my self) All of my girls played with Barbie my oldest daughter still has here teacher Barbie and is in college to be a teacher. My other two girls mostly played cowgirl or vet Barbie, both are in high school thinking of going to vet school. I believe Barbie gives girls the idea they can do anything, I mean hasn’t Baribie been almost every occupation? You just need to feed your girls interests whatever they may be and help them focus on the gifts God has given them.
I completely understand the concern. However, I think a lot of it has to do with parenting. Many of them are inappropriately dressed and their bodies are not natural for sure. I played with them as a child and they aren’t what gave me a negative view of my body. The kids in my class are my first memories (5th grade) of someone making fun of me for not having the perfect body. My husband and I have bought our daughters Barbies. We have bought beach barbies with swim suits that aren’t merely strings, these barbies have hips and big feet (like me!). For Christmas we gave our youngest a teacher barbie that included two smaller dolls. She had a dress that went down to her knees and didn’t have a plunging neck line. I think that parents do have to be wise to what they purchase and it wouldn’t be such an issue, talking about things openly would also help. The dolls I’ve been upset about, when given to my daughters, are the Bratz dolls.
I hesitated to respond because I am a father of three, and one of them is a daughter. It appears that only Mums are replying. My daughter played with barbies and other dollies, yet her understanding and respect of her body came from my wife, myself and other Christian adults in her life. If we parents can help our daughters understand the clear difference between dolls and reality, it helps our children to like themselves and to have a better sense of balance. Entering puberty and then going through the teenage years means our daughters and their brothers will have many emotions and feelings about themselves, i.e. the hair is too short or too long, or acne is a problem, etc. But the issue of “balance” is key in them learning to like themselves, which means they will respect others and their parents and siblings. Our three kids are adopted from India plus we’ve been home-stay parents to nine others from Asia and the Pacific so parenting twelve kids who are going through their teens means balance is top of the list. Showering our daughters with love is not necessarily the key to helping them have a healthy balanced view of their bodies.
All three of my kids play with Barbies (daughters 7,2 and son 5), we have several girl and boy dolls and a Barbie dollhouse. The 7 year old knows what is and isn’t appropriate dress and will not dress nor ask to purchase a barbie with her tummy showing. Playing with them is so incredibly beneficial to their imaginations, they love to play house, school, work, etc and they share and get along all the while. They are not looking at the proportions-what about baby dolls…some are big some are small, what is that saying? Our self image and obsession with how we look is not coming from dolls, but rather us parents and the media we expose them too. And why do we talk of movie stars and musicians being role models, shouldn’t parents, pastors, mentors, church members be our kids role models??