Barbie dolls are definitely appropriate for young girls. I've heard all of the arguments that Barbies are grotesquely exaggerated, how if they were life size they'd be over 6' tall with gigantic breasts and hips and teeny-tiny waists. I've heard countless rants about how Barbies negatively affect girls' body images.

What I haven't heard is accounts of girls saying "Barbie makes me feel bad" or how they love their size appropriate generic dolls. That may be out there, somewhere, but whenever I hear something like that I actually hear an adult coaching them "doesn't Barbie make you feel bad about your body?".

Children are smarter than we give them credit for. They know that Barbie is just a doll, no matter how often they pretend she's their best friend, teacher, or baby-sitter. Saying that "She looks like a Barbie" is actually an insult directed at overly made-up, artificial looking women. It's not a compliment.

I've never met a woman who claimed that she wanted to look like Barbie- and admit it, we all grew up with "her". We may have wanted her clothes, or the life that we pretended she had, but very few girls grow up thinking that that's what they're supposed to look like. The few women who do believe it? They end up on Maury.

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