Sunday, October 11, 2009

Not My Size Barbie

Roughly 80% of women in America are dissatisfied with their appearance.

Out of ten of your girl friends, eight of them don't like the way they look. My roommate is one of them, my boss is one of them, my sister is one of them, my mother is one of them, I am one of them. And why do we hate our own appearances? Because we are constantly being told our own bodies aren't the desired prototypes of female beauty. What is the "ideal" female body type? Barbie, of course. Barbie has the body we all wish we had. She is precisely what women want their bodies to look like. She is the model of perfection.

And here's why she shouldn't be:

The average American woman age 22-32 is 5'4" and weighs 140 pounds. She has a 37" bust, a 29" waist, and 40" hips.

If Barbie was a real person, at a height of 5'6" she would have a 30" bust, an extraordinarily small 20" waist, and 29" hips. Even super-skinny Victoria Beckham has at least a 23" waist.

Check out this article from BBC to get a visual idea of
what Barbie's proportions would look like on a real human being, and read about the body proportion stats mentioned in the blog.

Not only would Barbie's proportions make her taller and skinnier than most women in the world, but if she was a real human she would not even have the
17% body fat necessary to menstruate. Also, her legs are 50% longer than her arms. The average woman's legs are only 20% longer than her arms.

If Barbie's proportions were applied to a woman's body, the woman would have to increase her height by 24 inches, increase her bust by 5 inches, reduce her waist by 6 inches, and lengthen her neck by 3 inches to attain a Barbie's body.
(Brownell, K.1995. Distorting reality for children: Body size proportions for Barbie and Ken Dolls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18, 295-298.)


Here's another visual representation comparing average women and barbie from teen-beauty-tips.com. Slightly different measurements but the same idea.


So let's recap:

Barbie's human dimensions basically give her a waist 9 inches smaller than the average woman, hips 11 inches smaller than the average woman, 30% longer legs than the average woman, and a lack of body fat that would classify her as clinically underweight.

It is possible that
one in 100,000 women could have the potential body proportions to have the same body shape as Barbie, So is her body type impossible? No, but it's extremely rare. The important point to understand is that achieving this body type for any woman is extremely unhealthy.

So my question for Mattel and Mr. Dickson is why would Barbie be marketed as a role model with a body type that is virtually unattainable for most women and is blatantly unhealthy? Considering Mattel is very aware of how influential and iconic Barbie is, why would they market their doll, who is the epitome of beauty and something that women try and model themselves after, as this image that will never be possible for almost any woman to ever achieve?

Mattel, stop pretending Barbie is just a plastic toy, she represents much more than just a child's plaything and females of all ages realize that. Give Barbie realistic body dimensions and make her body something that women can attempt to look like without having to starve or liposuction themselves to death.



1 comment:

  1. Teresa, You just might have offered the most compelling statistic I have heard about Barbie as a bad role model: that her dimensions are entirely out of whack with real women. I'm just wondering about the women you cite as unhappy with their bodies: I'd like to understand their media consumption. What TV shows do they watch and what magazines do they read. Is there a relationship?

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