The darkish aspect of ‘Barbie’: It’s not all fairly in pink amid cosmetic surgery craze

Life in plastic — it’s not so unbelievable, in response to some Barbie bashers.

A new study found that an amazing 82% of the 1,000 multi-generational, feminine case research assume Barbie dolls — which take middle stage in a extremely anticipated Margot Robbie film premiering Friday, July 21 — promote unrealistic physique expectations to women and girls.

Feminine dolls have traditionally featured slender figures with lengthy, straight blond or brunette hair — and shockingly perky bosoms, particularly for the Nineteen Fifties, after they first hit the market.

“They didn’t assume that the general public would settle for a doll with breasts for youngsters,” the late Ruth Handler, who invented the determine in 1959 after seeing her daughter play with paper cutouts of grownup dolls, once said.

“I knew they have been flawed,” the co-founder and former president of Mattel, who died at 85 in 2022, bragged of the then-controversial endowment.

Quick-forward to 2023: The new research from Harmony Healthcare IT additional discovered that 69% of ladies assume Barbie can truly result in harmful physique picture points. Her slender-but-busty physique has been attributed to some ladies’s insecurities, spawning the “Barbiecore” fashion aesthetic, Pepto-colored inside design and a military of “Barbie Lady” wannabes present process excessive cosmetic surgery to seem like a toy.

“I’ve performed soccer all my life, and even at my peak bodily kind, my physique by no means resembled Barbie’s,” Stephanie Rodriguez, a 26-year-old video producer and Brooklynite, advised The Put up. “At a younger age, Barbie made me query if my physique was regular.”

Not solely that, however when Mattel launched the notorious blond 64 years in the past, for practically 10 years they produced Barbie dolls that have been solely white men and women.

Nonetheless, Handler was proper: Barbie turned an on the spot hit, promoting practically 300,000 dolls in its first yr.

“Earlier than Barbie, just about the one dolls that have been obtainable at the moment have been child dolls — as a result of most ladies at the moment solely turned mothers,” Cindy Eagan, writer of “The Story of Barbie and the Girl Who Created Her,” advised The Put up in 2018.

Occasions change, although: With Barbie, ladies may play-act their futures — and never solely as moms however as profession gals, too.

In the meantime, not everyone seems to be leaping on the Barbie-bashing bandwagon.

“I beloved the concept that Barbie wasn’t one-dimensional like most dolls,” Chandler Bishop, a mega-Barbie fan, advised The Put up.

“As a child, I used to run to the shops, hoping I may get my fingers on a Barbie,” mentioned Bishop, 24, a senior copywriter from Brooklyn, simply one in all many different little ladies who desired to play with the pretty-in-perpetual-pink doll.

However whereas Mattel’s Barbie model thrived in gross sales and boosted little ladies’ profession goals, the corporate additionally confronted backlash for its lack of range.  

“[Barbie] was a reasonably, blond, blue-eyed, white woman, tremendous skinny, nice boobs, lengthy legs, and I wasn’t that,” Bishop, 24, shared. “As an African American girl, it did make me conscious she was the sweetness normal in America — and I’m not that.”

In 1968, Mattel expanded the catalog to function dolls representing ladies of shade, akin to one named Christie, the first black Barbie doll.  

Ultimately, in 1980, they launched the world to black and Hispanic dolls actually named Barbie. 

Though prospects have been ecstatic to see a wider vary of dolls, they nonetheless struggled to attach with the model due to the drastic distinction in Barbie’s physique in comparison with the common girl.

“I couldn’t relate to Barbie, she was a tall, skinny, blond character, and I used to be a chubby little woman with brown hair who wasn’t an athlete and couldn’t do the issues Barbie did,” Brianna Mati, a speech and language therapist in Orlando, Florida, advised The Put up.

Within the 2000s, the common weight for ladies was 171 kilos, according to a 2018 study. In the meantime, Barbie dolls as human-like figures resembled 5-foot-9, weighing 110 kilos with a BMI of 16.24, in response to a examine from South Shore Eating Disorders Collaborative.

Barbie’s human-like determine falls below the “weight standards for anorexia,” SSEDC claims.

Mattel constantly promoted seemingly unhealthy habits to younger consumers, together with the 1965 Slumber Get together Barbie that featured a toilet scale completely set at 110 kilos and a e book titled “How you can Lose Weight,” which provided this terse weight-reduction plan tip: “Don’t eat.”

Fortunately, once more, occasions do change.

In 2015, Mattel launched a brand new set of Barbies representing three new physique varieties: curvy, tall and petite.

At present, the model represents “35 pores and skin tones, 97 hairstyles, 9 physique varieties and counting,” according to Mattel’s site — and 60% of respondents to the 2023 Concord Healthcare survey assume new Barbies are higher at reflecting all physique varieties.

“I’ve undoubtedly fed into the brand new Barbie period as a result of I’ve purchased my daughter a bunch of Barbie merchandise and can contemplate getting her a doll that has darker hair and represents a combined race,” Brianna Mati, 26, admitted of her daughter Aria Ferreira, 1.

Mattel has apparently discovered a approach to maintain Barbie as a cultural icon from 1959 to 2023 due to a willingness — nonetheless doubtlessly time-delayed — to adapt to the ever-changing toy trade.

“I like that Barbie is extra various and inclusive now,” Bishop gushed. “I believe it’s so vital to have illustration, particularly for younger ladies.”

Based on the Concord examine, 53% of Gen Z ladies assume Barbie represents the perfect physique sort.

“The trail [Barbie] is on is certainly making an enormous distinction in younger woman’s shallowness,” Bishop mentioned.

Moreover, 39% of Gen Z ladies contemplate Barbie a task mannequin.

“I like how Barbie mentioned, ‘She might be and do something.’ She expanded my view on life and motivated me to go on the market to pursue my goals,” Bishop mentioned.

“Barbie had all of it, so why can’t I?”

Now the Barbie-verse has expanded to the massive display with Greta Gerwig’s new live-action film “Barbie,” a fantasy-comedy that focuses on the well-known dolls, Barbie and Ken, as they depart the colourful world of Barbie Land and their journey to the true world.

The film has taken a brand new pivot to the model’s inclusion, showcasing range among the many star-studded forged members — Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, America Ferrera and Kingsley Ben-Adir — as representations of various Barbies and Kens.

“I’m to see how this new film incorporates different points of being lovely not simply the visible points however tapping into your soul,” Mati advised The Put up.

Practically 38% of Concord survey respondents mentioned they plan to see the brand new Barbie film — and 35% of Gen Z ladies assume the movie will give them a extra optimistic perspective.

“I’m a Barbie woman, despite the fact that I don’t seem like her,” Bishop quipped. “Her spirit transcends greater than what she appears like.”