What Hath Fifty Years of Barbie Wrought?

Catholic Exchange ^ | January 8, 2009 | Mary Anne Moresco

[Alex Murphy]

In the late 1950′s Barbie became the first “adult” doll for children. She was copied from a German prostitute doll name Bild Lilli, who was a character in an “adult” cartoon. The prostitute Lilli doll was sold, not to girls, but to men in bars and tobacco shops. Unaware of her prostitute background, Barbie’s American creators used the prostitute Lilli doll as a prototype for the first Barbie doll....

....Barbie is not only indecent and overly-thin. She is a narcissist. She herself could write a book on self-absorbed excess and acquisition. With disturbing ease, Barbie spreads this debilitating mentality of acquiring and excess to young girls. One look at the magnitude of Barbie’s paraphernalia will show you why. Barbie owns just about everything. This includes over forty pets from a lion to a horse to a zebra; multiple vehicles from a Corvette convertible to a “surfs up cruiser,” Volkswagon, Mustang, Ford, Jeep, “Hot tub party bus,” and a “Jam and Glam” bus; and a mountain ski cabin, a 3-story “dream house,” and “Barbie Talking Townhouse.” And this barely touches the surface of Barbie’s possessions and what has helped make her worth $3 billion a year to Mattel....

....Mattel has earned billions on Barbie, but at what cost to girls and their virtue? What will the next fifty years be like? We can continue to build Mattel’s fortune, to offer girls more scantily-clad, toy-acquiring, self-absorbed, empty-headed plastic dolls as role models, and lead girls to fall into that same vain glamorous, over-sexed, anorexic pit. Or we can give them baby dolls, and modest dolls to care for, and saints to emulate as we guide them in virtue.

Truth be told, I was looking for photos of a religious Barbie doll (pull her string and she says "Mass is hard!") when I came across this article. It may be four years old, but IMO it's still worth the read.

[JoeProBono]

[no-to-illegals]

My better half and I tried to have Mattel start a realism Barbie line. Our line was rejected. We had crack-pipe Barbie, Rock Star Barbie - dressed in meat, Politician Barbie - pull a string and she lies to you .... a whole line of realism ... all rejected.

[wastedyears]

I suppose next they’ll try to go after rock and metal music again, as if rap and hip hop are so virtuous.

Metal ‘till I die. \m/

[wastedyears]

When thinking about rock star Barbie, why does somebody not participating in the rock genre come to mind?

[no-to-illegals]

We had anatomically correct Ken and Barbie too ... Rejected.

[MeshugeMikey]

This comes as something of a revelation.

Id always sensed there was something quite strangely unwholesome about barbie!

[knarf]

a whole generation or two o’little boys still tryin’ t’look up sexy girls’ dresses

[central_va]

White trash Barbie;

[miss marmelstein]

Barbie brought beauty and glamor into little girls’ lives. As Shane said, a gun is only as good or as bad as the man who uses it. A Barbie is a pretty little toy - developed along the lines of the 1950s ideal of beauty. Just because the culture has denigrated into depravity is no reason to blame this harmless toy. Personally, what makes me worry about modern womanhood is the emphasis of classless soccer practice over ballet, piano and ice-skating lessons.

[no-to-illegals]

you worked with me and my better half?

[yarddog]

My daughter told me a few days ago that my granddaughter was into the “American Girl” dolls. I was in Wal-Mart Sunday and could find absolutely nothing like that.

The saleslady in the toy department said she had heard of them but did not think they carried accessories for them.

They had 3 or 4 aisles of Barbie stuff tho. I guess Barbie really was a successful idea.

[no-to-illegals]

developed along the lines of the 1950s ideal of beauty

not exactly ... to quote the article ...

She was copied from a German prostitute doll name Bild Lilli, who was a character in an “adult” cartoon. The prostitute Lilli doll was sold, not to girls, but to men in bars and tobacco shops. Unaware of her prostitute background, Barbie’s American creators used the prostitute Lilli doll as a prototype for the first Barbie doll.

[no-to-illegals]

that begs the question ... Unaware?

[central_va]

Goth Barbie:

[Salvation]

American Girl dolls are so popular right now. Don’t buy Barbie junk.

http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/static/dolls.jsp?gclid=&utm_source=Yahoo%20Search%20%20Bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=american%20girl%20dolls&utm_campaign=B_AG_Core_Plus_Desktop&cm_mmc=CPC-_-Yahoo%20Search%20%20Bing-_-B_AG_Core_Plus_Desktop-_-american%20girl%20dolls

[nascarnation]

American Girl sells on line and in their own branded stores.

(as a parent who bought hundreds of bucks of this stuff LOL)

And of course they’re on the FR sh!tlist because they fund Girls Inc.

[yarddog]

I think I met her somewhere.

[JustSurrounded]

Barbie dolls can cause girls to dislike their own body shape, and lead them toward eating disorders. The Journal of Developmental Psychology reported on a study conducted to assess the impact of images of dolls on young girls. This study showed that, across the board, girls were more dissatisfied with their shape and desired more extreme thinness after seeing Barbie doll images than after seeing other pictures.

And yet, we have the Mrs. O pushing "Let's Move" and schools sending home notes saying our children are too fat. I would think that message would encourage girls to be dissatisfied with their shape, as well. Seems like somebody can't get the message straight.

[yarddog]

Thanks.

It appears that I know nothing about dolls. Shopping for my grandson was much easier, in fact I already have both his birthday and Christmas gifts.