what is the deal with barbie ...

[rumi]

barbie hasn't become an issue .. yet but i want to be prepared.

can you all enlighten me on the pros and cons?
thanks

[faerierose]

Well, IMO the biggest con to barbie is an unrealistic image of women. Her body type is physically impossible (proportion wise). Also my DD has gotten a few as presents and they are not easy for her to play with. They don't really stand, it's difficult to get them in varying positions and the hair is a mess after like a day, don't even get me started on the clothes... Well I guess I can't think of any pro's. Hope that helps.

[ewe+lamb]

Originally Posted by faerierose

Well, IMO the biggest con to barbie is an unrealistic image of women. Her body type is physically impossible (proportion wise). Also my DD has gotten a few as presents and they are not easy for her to play with. They don't really stand, it's difficult to get them in varying positions and the hair is a mess after like a day, don't even get me started on the clothes... Well I guess I can't think of any pro's. Hope that helps.

:

DD hasn't got any as pressies - yet but I just wait for the day, then I think the doll may quietly 'disappear' one day.:

[angela&avery]

well, the deal with barbie is the negative body image. I personally have no problem with barbie. I played with them as a child and have always had a good body image. I remember my best friend coming out with all this talk about the body image thing and I didnt get it when we were like preteens. I didnt see what all the hype was about, and I still dont buy into it. Its like anything else. I think more important is how the female role model in the female talks about herself and her body and how she treats the child. My daughter loves her barbies. She plays with them at ease, she doesnt care if they dont stand alone. She is quite adept and loves to change their clothes and has a car that she loves to drive them around in. My daughter is a fashionista so the clothes and shoes draw her to them the most. None of what she has is innapropriate or sexy. Its just stylish stuff. I personally stay away from the Brats dolls because of hte heavy make up and sexy clothes, but I have no problem with Barbie.

[wanderlost]

I loved Barbie as a girl - and I don't think I have a negative body image, or ever really did for that matter. I don't know how I will handle Barbie when dd is older (she is only 4 months now!), but I do know that I would take Barbie over Bratz anyday! Those dolls are really sleazy looking (that being said, I know that if I was a little girl, I would have LOVED Bratz, so...??)

The thing is, despite how Barbie looks (or Bratz for that matter) I spent a lot of hours playing imaginatively with my Barbies - we had entire sagas going on - I don't see my son doing this ever with any of his charatcer dolls - which is probably my fault - though I don't remember being "taught" to play with Barbie.

[pixiepunk]

obviously, as others mentioned, there's the body image thing. but for me it's also about materialism - you can't just have the Barbie, you've gotta have the hundred different outfits and the car and the hot tub and blah blah blah. i don't want my daughter to think accumulating material things is going to make her happy.

and then of course if you're interested in not clogging up land fills i'm sure Barbie isn't made of biodegradable materials (of course, neither is much else you're going to find in a typical toy store...).

DD got one as a present from a xmas gift exchange at her dance school. she played with it for about 2 minutes on the first day. after about 2 weeks, it got freecycled along with a bunch of other toys we weren't playing with - that was almost 2 months ago, and she's never once asked where it was. If she wants to play with dolls, she seems to prefer babies - at least atm. i'm willing to remain open about it as she gets older... i'm not dead set against it, but i think there are a lot of more interesting and stimulating toys out there and i'm hoping she will realize this on her own.

when i was a kid, my Barbies mostly ended up as casualties during Star Wars battles and afterwards, when they were all missing limbs (thanks, little brother...) i decided i'd be a physical therapist like my mom and opened a barbie invalid hospital where i helped them to learn to live with their disabilities

[Hatteras Gal]

I wrote a paper on the phenomenology of Barbie in grad school. I wonder if I still have it somewhere.

[angela&avery]

Originally Posted by pixiepunk

obviously, as others mentioned, there's the body image thing. but for me it's also about materialism - you can't just have the Barbie, you've gotta have the hundred different outfits and the car and the hot tub and blah blah blah. i don't want my daughter to think accumulating material things is going to make her happy.

there are many many toys out there that this description fits with. Personally, I dont feel like its good for kids to be materialistic about any toy. Whether its plastic or not. As a kid I did not have every barbie accessory and neither will my daughter. She is quite happy with the small wardrobe her barbie has and the barbie car. Also, seeing how we dont watch a ton of commercial tv, its not constantly in her face or mine for that matter. The only time we see that stuff is if we are in a toy department in a store.

[mamamela]

I played with Barbie all the time as a kid, and although I have not always had a very healthy body image, I think it goes way beyond Barbie and at society and media etc. I played for hours with my Barbies and each one had a name (a name other than California Barbie or whatever, an individual name I made up), they had occupations I made up and lives and it was all quite creative and imaginative and fun. My brothers Star Wars people were a family of midgets in the town who operated the trash compactor. I still laugh when I remember how he would get so mad saying that they weren't dolls- they were action figures!
When my dd was 1 she got a Barbie from my mom and I was not too thrilled because it just seemed ridiculous- she was way too little for that- so it went up for a long time. Eventually Barbie came out a few years later and got 2 female friends and one male one who my son took over and named Nakey Man as he was always naked. More than once I have felt I needed to explain to people that Nakey Man was a toy not a real person when my son was talking at social events about things that Nakey Man did at home.
Recently after reading a book called Shoes Throughout the Ages, and seeing tiny shoes from China made during foot binding times, my daughter (8) commented that Barbie looks as though her feet were bound. Quite observant as she actually does. I though that tiny waist would be hard to maintain- I can't imagine walking on those feet.
In any case, Barbie is far from her favorite. She would just as soon play with her corn husk doll. I think the wanting of every new Barbie and every accessory for her can only come from media exposure to all the ads for those things. The job of marketers is to influence people to buy things, but I think one of my jobs as a parent is to shelter my children from those people and their ads, and teach them at a young age to see when people are just trying to sell them something.
One last thing- my midwife had a poster in her office of a robust and full figured doll lounging scantily clad on a couch with a great caption about how there are about 12 women in the world who look like supermodels and Millions who do not.

[SuperMama]

[onlyzombiecat]

My dd has not been too interested in Barbie or similar type dolls. She prefers animals to dolls.
When I was a child I played with the dolls and their heads were always coming off. I saw dd walking around with a Barbie leg the other day. I don't say no Barbies ever but I don't encourage it either.
It is a doll that encourages consumption with tons of accessories, Barbie's friends, and lots of merchandise.

[mamatoady]

I think the body image issue with barbie is a problem, if there are already or could be problems with your child anyway. I was 4 when I had my first barbie, but didn't have the body issues at 4, at 5 and 6 I started to believe that I would have a "barbie type figure" when I was all grown up. Whether that was because of barbie, magazines, tv or everything put together, who's to say. I don't think Barbie helped the issue. I know in 6th grade, when my friends and I found no use for barbie we'd make barbie and ken have sex (did anyone NOT do that? ) I don't think I had a lot of imagination though because I'd just dress them up and then they'd lay there and I never really did anything with them...however, I always wanted more!!! I think some of my body issues are because obviously I do not have a barbie figure (or anything close) and I don't think I realized until I graduated high school I'd never have that body and it didn't matter how much I weighed--even at 90 lb. that and I'm only 5'4", I have unruly hair etc.etc. (I don't weigh anywhere close to 90lbs. either ....)

I like groovy girls as a barbie replacement
sarah

[MtBikeLover]

I played with Barbies as a little girl and never had a body image issue. I honestly just don't see the big deal about playing with barbies. My daughter has a couple that we bought for her and both her and my son play with them. Her favorite thing about barbie is looking for the boobs to see if there is milk

[levar]

I like Barbies. And Care Bears. And Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And Dinosaurs. And Raggety Ann N Andy. And Bunny Rabbits. And Rescue Heros. And those little ninjas that come in the gumball machines. So does my son. And his friends, both male and female, many ages. They all play with all of them, the same, together, indoors and out, etc.

I think ADULTS are the ones who seem to make a big deal out of Barbies in particular. I don't see kids actually seeing them any differently by themselves? I did over hear one time an ADULT telling my son that Cali-Girl couldn't marry Mikey (TMNT) [Barbies and TMNTs don't 'mix' she said] and ride off into battle with him on T-Rex to smash Sunshine Care Bear who'd kidnapped Green Ninja ... But, my son's response (and mine, actually) was "Why Not?"

[antannie]

I am so glad my daughter is past that stage. If we had her from infancy there would never be one in the house. My parents wouldn't allow them and I turned out ok. We had tons of baby dolls and adult dolls with realistic shapes. My dd gave up all her Barbies to her younger sibs when she moved here and we got her horses to play with instead. The clothes are slutty and the makeup and permanently high heeled feet suggest an image I do not want my daughter to expect to emulate.

I prefer more natural toys although dd has things like a stereo and mp3 player and gameboy (she came with that)

For Christmas last year her biological gramma gave her a Barbie and she didn't know what to do because we are a Barbie free zone but we said anything Gramma gives her she can keep. She said Gramma doesn't understand she is not into Barbies and hasn't been for 3 years or more.

DD just came in to see my post. She played with Barbies because those are the toys she was given. That is what she knew. Now she knows new things, toys that allow for creative open ended play and imagination.

[lasciate]

If you look at the new Barbies in stores, they've made her shorter and more realistically proportioned again. She looks about 16.

[terrordactyl]

Originally Posted by angela&avery

well, the deal with barbie is the negative body image. I personally have no problem with barbie. I played with them as a child and have always had a good body image. I remember my best friend coming out with all this talk about the body image thing and I didnt get it when we were like preteens. I didnt see what all the hype was about, and I still dont buy into it. Its like anything else. I think more important is how the female role model in the female talks about herself and her body and how she treats the child. My daughter loves her barbies. She plays with them at ease, she doesnt care if they dont stand alone. She is quite adept and loves to change their clothes and has a car that she loves to drive them around in. My daughter is a fashionista so the clothes and shoes draw her to them the most. None of what she has is innapropriate or sexy. Its just stylish stuff. I personally stay away from the Brats dolls because of hte heavy make up and sexy clothes, but I have no problem with Barbie.

: exactly

[muttix2]

I like the American Girls dolls.

[RBinTEX]

I think Barbie is a shameless tramp. She always ends up naked in the middle of my livingroom with her knees up around her ears. Disgusting!

[muttix2]

Originally Posted by RBinTEX

I think Barbie is a shameless tramp. She always ends up naked in the middle of my livingroom with her knees up around her ears. Disgusting!

: