New Barbie doesn't undo the mistakes made by past "Eating Disorder Barbie."
Barbie has finally changed the iconic doll's body and skin colour. There's a new "Curvy" Barbie, "Tall Barbie" and "Petite" size Barbie. The new dolls are charming and come in a variety of different skin and hair colours to represent the sizes and ethnicity of the little girls who buy them. I found the change incredibly refreshing, but I also think they've waited too long on this and I also think the company should get a mulligan from the damage their original doll has caused little girls. Growing up I wasn't represented by a doll that drove around in a pink corvette, who dated a man whose hair was literally glued to his head like a hockey helmet and who had an anatomically incorrect alien body. I heard the jokes and the complaints about the new curvy Barbie on Friday...I heard...what's next... Dad Body Ken? Apples and oranges... We want a doll that's actually representative of a human....
If Barbie was a real woman she'd be forced to walk on all fours and would be physically incapable of lifting her over-sized head. Researchers at the Yale Centre for Eating Disorders compared the average measurements of a real woman to that of a Barbie doll and the results are startling.
Her head is two inches bigger then the average woman's. Her neck is twice as long and thinner then any woman's....and could not physically support the weight.
Her 16-inch waist would also be four inches thinner than her head, leaving room for only half a liver and a few inches of intestines.
She has a thigh gap you could drive a truck through...
Her wrists and ankles are so painfully tiny, they would not have the strength to carry the weight of her body.
Rehabs.com, and organization that treats people with anorexia have some interesting stats for us:
The odds of finding a single woman on this planet with the same tall and thin neck as Barbie is one out of 4.3 billion
The odds of finding a woman with Barbie's waist would be one out of every 2.4 billion
My point: the old doll was a mutant.
( BELOW THIS IS PIXI FOX...She's spent her whole life trying to look like Barbie..she wears a corset 24 hours a day and had rips removed to replicate Barbie's waist, she's also had lip fillers and an obvious boob job) The results....in my opinion, grotesque.
Growing up I played with hero dolls. I didn't want to be the damsel, I wanted to be caped crusader or wonder woman. Women have been vocal for years...we're tired of being represented by airbrushed models, photoshopped thinner then any female in existence.
The average size woman is 5' 4 inches tall and weighs around 166 pounds.
The average model is 5'10 and weighs only 107 pounds.
Where's my plus size Barbie? Let's use Tess Holliday as the inspiration. ( forgive my photoshop skills)
There is an epidemic of body hatred and I think Barbie might be the root cause of all of this. Little girls aren't born with the idea they are imperfect, that's an idea that's planted in their heads during childhood. Some more real-life facts from Rehabs.com.
Four out of five 10 year olds say that they are afraid to be fat.
Barbie's BMI is only 16.24. France has banned models with a BMI under 18.
42 percent of girls through third grade wish they were thinner.
1/2 of the girls aged 9-10 claim to feel better about themselves when they diet.
By the time these children reach high school 1 out of 10 students will have an eating disorder. 90% of all women with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25. Stats about Barbie:
There are 2 Barbies sold every second in the world.
The Target Market for Barbie are girls ages 3-12
A girls usually gets her first Barbie at age 3 and will have a collection of 7 dolls.
Back in the 1960's Mattel produced Slumber Party Barbie: shockingly, the doll came with a nightgown, a comb, a scale stuck on the weight of 110 pounds and a miniature weightloss manuel.
I'm serious. Disgusting right? The only thing written in the book? " DON'T EAT." Which is the matra rephrased by anorexics around the world..code word IDEA..which stand for.. I Don't Eat Anymore. The new Barbies are cool. The damage the brand has done to our little girls past and present... not cool. I suggest skipping buying your little girl Barbie altogether. Our little girls are dying to be thin.