2 of 42

Write now Article Tools

It's just a piece of plastic. That's the trope that most of us repeat when we're asked about Barbie. Sure, she's idealized. Sure, "You look like a Barbie doll" is a phrase mixed with deep layers of envy, condescension, and revulsion. But ultimately, it's just a doll. Isn't it?

Miss Barbie has gotten a lot of flak over the years. In particular, I remember reading as a body-obsessed, self-conscious preteen about the heiress apparent to the Barbie fortune. This girl's life had literally been turned into a quest to make her look like a piece of plastic, and she had enough damage over it to fill up a two page magazine article and bring the budding feminist in me to a righteous fit of anger. I would spend my teen years terrified and mesmerized by the barrage of PR in the media, in magazines, in the fear over the obesity "epidemic;" by every facet of our culture that told me "normal" was thin, affluent, and vapid-all seemingly pushing me to fit into the ideal represented by this blonde, blue-eyed wonder. Against all my striving, it left its mark. It would be hard to deny that there is a problem among teenage girls, and it would be even harder to pretend that the media machine of which Barbie is a part has no contributing effect.

That said, is Barbie bad for girls just by being Barbie? No. Barbie truly is just a piece of plastic. It's what we do with her that makes her toxic or innocuous. What we do with her-hold her up as the pink-wearing, femme, impossibly proportioned, blonde ideal-is bad for girls. We can give our daughters, sisters, and nieces a doll to play with, but we cannot do so without counteracting the toxic mythology around this particular doll. Barbie is not the problem. Girls will have to reckon with the message Barbie buys into with or without the actual doll. In fact, I'd say it's much safer to give a girl the actual Barbie doll. If you allow her imagination free reign, perhaps she'll come up with her own alternatives for what a Barbie doll "is." Just make sure, when the time comes, you provide that girl with support to imagine alternative ideals to that of the Barbie myth.

Learn more about this author, Mandy Hackman.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Are Barbie dolls appropriate for young girls??
We want to hear your view. Write now!