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Author Topic: Family: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?  (Read 9857 times)

mlr52

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Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« on: December 31, 2013, 01:10:06 pm »
Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?

See the photo and read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/plus-size-barbie-should-dolls-reflect-real-world-body-types-1.1609453#ixzz2p4ohg8vx

Although the doll is out, the question is still a vaild one.  Does it give childern the idea that being big is ok?, Does it promote accecptance of ones self and others?  Or does it promote an unhealthy body image?
« Last Edit: May 07, 2019, 01:33:32 pm by RandallS »
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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2013, 01:24:53 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;134560
Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?

See the photo and read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/plus-size-barbie-should-dolls-reflect-real-world-body-types-1.1609453#ixzz2p4ohg8vx

Although the doll is out, the question is still a vaild one.  Does it give childern the idea that being big is ok?, Does it promote accecptance of ones self and others?  Or does it promote an unhealthy body image?

 
Wait - THAT doll promotes an unhealthy body image, but the REGULAR one DOESN'T??????

Now personally, I'd also like an option in the middle - but the "regular barbie" isn't physically POSSIBLE.  So complaining that a different one promotes an unhealthy image when it's an image that they actually SEE DAILY and can achieve without SURGERY is a hell of a lot healthier, all weight-issues aside, than a super-thin doll that can only be achieved with massive surgery enhancements.

I think that doll is cute.  a hell of a lot healthier looking than the original.  now all they have to do is stop promoting the idea that the female foot comes in heel-shoe only and we'll be well on our way to reality-land.

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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2013, 01:49:26 pm »
Quote from: HeartShadow;134562
Wait - THAT doll promotes an unhealthy body image, but the REGULAR one DOESN'T??????

Now personally, I'd also like an option in the middle - but the "regular barbie" isn't physically POSSIBLE.  So complaining that a different one promotes an unhealthy image when it's an image that they actually SEE DAILY and can achieve without SURGERY is a hell of a lot healthier, all weight-issues aside, than a super-thin doll that can only be achieved with massive surgery enhancements.

I think that doll is cute.  a hell of a lot healthier looking than the original.  now all they have to do is stop promoting the idea that the female foot comes in heel-shoe only and we'll be well on our way to reality-land.

 
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Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2013, 02:00:52 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;134560
Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?

See the photo and read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/plus-size-barbie-should-dolls-reflect-real-world-body-types-1.1609453#ixzz2p4ohg8vx

Although the doll is out, the question is still a vaild one.  Does it give childern the idea that being big is ok?, Does it promote accecptance of ones self and others?  Or does it promote an unhealthy body image?

Being fat is okay. Being fat does not in and of itself equal being unhealthy. Not that anyone's health is anyone else's business. Fat children deserve to be told they're beautiful and worthwhile as well as skinny children. There is nothing wrong with fat bodies. What there is wrong with this scenario is the idea that fat people should somehow settle for their bodies being constantly shamed and villainized, that to demand images of ourselves in dolls and in the media is somehow damaging to children.

You wanna talk damaging to children? My mother routinely locked me out of the house in the summer and wouldn't let me back in until I had exercised to get satisfaction. I was given Burger King on a regular basis and then shamed for being overweight. My mother's obsession with fat - 30 grams of fat a day was her limit, when most children and adults need at least twice that for bodies to function well - meant I was on a roller coaster of dieting /as a child/. It meant I got a doctor's permission to go into weight watchers at fourteen and was praised for how "good" I was at losing weight and consoled when I couldn't lose any.

I wish I had fat dolls so I wouldn't have hated myself so much as a child.
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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #4 on: December 31, 2013, 02:32:07 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;134560
Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?

See the photo and read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/plus-size-barbie-should-dolls-reflect-real-world-body-types-1.1609453#ixzz2p4ohg8vx

Although the doll is out, the question is still a vaild one.  Does it give childern the idea that being big is ok?, Does it promote accecptance of ones self and others?  Or does it promote an unhealthy body image?

 
As a child who'd been told there was a possibility I'd be disabled when I got older and my non-worky joints gave up, I wish I'd had a wheelchair-using Barbie, or at least one with crutches. It would have made me feel better about my time spent on crutches and the spectre of future wheelchairs. (As it happened, she *was* about as bendy as me, though I doubt that was the intention!)

There's no such thing as a standard body. That's an illusion perpetuated by the discourse of normalcy, which makes us believe we all have to reach an 'average' which isn't average at all. (At least the Greek version, the concept of the 'ideal', was understood to be out of most people's reach.) Toys like Barbies are a part of the social construction of normalcy. Not to mention the patriarchy.

And you only have to look at my five-year-old niece to see what an effect these things have on children. She was desperate for a Barbie for a couple of years. My sister was of the opinion that it would encourage poor body image and be a poor role model. My niece was so persistent that this Christmas my sister gave in and got her one. Niece wanted a princess Barbie - my sister got her an equestrian one. At least she's doing something less passive, my sister said!
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Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #5 on: December 31, 2013, 03:07:57 pm »
Quote from: Naomi J;134568
And you only have to look at my five-year-old niece to see what an effect these things have on children. She was desperate for a Barbie for a couple of years. My sister was of the opinion that it would encourage poor body image and be a poor role model. My niece was so persistent that this Christmas my sister gave in and got her one. Niece wanted a princess Barbie - my sister got her an equestrian one. At least she's doing something less passive, my sister said!

My 7 year old daughter has 2 barbies - both given to her by other people who did not discuss it with me first. I was just showing my husband the picture of the plus-size barbie when my daughter commented that she wouldn't want to play with that Barbie because she's not so pretty anymore.

I don't even really know how to react to that other than the fact that I want to go pull the heads off her Barbies. I did say that I thought the plus-size Barbie was very pretty and pointed out that I'm overweight and she thinks I'm pretty. I don't think she got it though.

I hate Barbie

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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2013, 03:45:49 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;134560
Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?

See the photo and read more: http://bc.ctvnews.ca/plus-size-barbie-should-dolls-reflect-real-world-body-types-1.1609453#ixzz2p4ohg8vx

Although the doll is out, the question is still a vaild one.  Does it give childern the idea that being big is ok?, Does it promote accecptance of ones self and others?  Or does it promote an unhealthy body image?

 
I'd also like to say, the fact that my initial impression looking at the doll was that she looked out of proportion says a LOT more about media and social issues than the doll.  We don't even know what a PICTURE of a healthy person looks like anymore.  They're all airbrushed to look like barbie.

I don't know anyone that looks like barbie.  I do know people that look similar to that doll.  How is unrealistic healthier again?

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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #7 on: December 31, 2013, 04:24:46 pm »
Quote from: HeartShadow;134573
I'd also like to say, the fact that my initial impression looking at the doll was that she looked out of proportion says a LOT more about media and social issues than the doll.

 
To be fair, I thought the same, though not from an aesthetic POV.  Those hands and feet do look a bit too teeny tiny.
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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #8 on: December 31, 2013, 06:20:08 pm »
Quote from: HeartShadow;134562
Now personally, I'd also like an option in the middle - but the "regular barbie" isn't physically POSSIBLE.  So complaining that a different one promotes an unhealthy image when it's an image that they actually SEE DAILY and can achieve without SURGERY is a hell of a lot healthier, all weight-issues aside, than a super-thin doll that can only be achieved with massive surgery enhancements.

This. The standard Barbie is a pipe dream. Having the standard Barbie be "physically possible" would be a great start.
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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #9 on: December 31, 2013, 07:39:05 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;134586
This. The standard Barbie is a pipe dream. Having the standard Barbie be "physically possible" would be a great start.

 
Sorry I did not mean to start the thread and run, someone thought we came to work to start new work, not understaing we were there to finish the old, and not carry work into the new year.

My understanding is the the original Barrie, translates into 39", 18", and 33".
Corsets anyone?
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Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #10 on: December 31, 2013, 07:43:28 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;134600
Sorry I did not mean to start the thread and run, someone thought we came to work to start new work, not understaing we were there to finish the old, and not carry work into the new year.

My understanding is the the original Barrie, translates into 39", 18", and 33".
Corsets anyone?

Even in a corset that's got to be tricky! My 7 year old has a bigger waist than that and she's slim

mlr52

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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #11 on: December 31, 2013, 07:53:23 pm »
Quote from: rocquelaire;134601
Even in a corset that's got to be tricky! My 7 year old has a bigger waist than that and she's slim

 
I believe Mamy had to get Scalet O'Hara into a 17" one.

It seams like toture to me.
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Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #12 on: December 31, 2013, 08:09:12 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;134602
I believe Mamy had to get Scalet O'Hara into a 17" one.

It seams like toture to me.

How could she even breathe?

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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #13 on: December 31, 2013, 08:14:18 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;134602
I believe Mamy had to get Scalet O'Hara into a 17" one.

It seams like toture to me.

 
Not to mention the damage that all that compression can do to the internal organs.


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Re: Plus-size Barbie: Should dolls reflect real-world body types?
« Reply #14 on: January 01, 2014, 01:17:52 am »
Quote from: mlr52;134560
Does it give childern the idea that being big is ok?,


Being big IS OKAY.

Quote from: mlr52;134560
Does it promote accecptance of ones self and others?


I doubt Barbie promotes acceptance on any level at ALL, but -- speaking as a fat person -- it would be nice if some of the fat figures in pop culture WEREN'T bundles of negative stereotypes -- and Barbie is seen as a successful woman who gets...pretty much anything she wants. Seeing a fat woman who is successful and gets what she wants? Definitely an improvement.

Quote from: mlr52;134560
Or does it promote an unhealthy body image?

 
"Body image" definition:

a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others

Current Barbie shapes promote an unhealthy body image. If anything, the Plus Size Fat Barbie might do some work to reverse that damage.


(I really hate the euphemism "Plus Size" to refer to fat folk, as it explicitly denies us our agency in deciding what size is normal and appropriate for us -- as do the words "bigger" and "overweight".)
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