As I have mentioned many times, I am an intern in a fifth grade class. Talking to the kids today, I started thinking about the various things they have to entertain themselves. Sure they each have the traditional balls and bats, but this generation also has Wiis (is this the correct plural?), Xboxes, iPhones, and a menagerie of other entertainment devices. This being said, it surprised me when some of the girls in my class told me that they still had dolls at home.

Dolls, especially Barbie, are more prevalent in our society than you would think. Many of us grew up with Barbie, brushing her hair and hoping for the Barbie corvette, but one has to wonder if she is good for the girls of today. It has been said time after time that if Barbie was real she would be incredibly disproportionate, and while this is true, the plastic surgery craze has made many real women disproportionate. What worries me more than anything is the outfits that Barbie and her friends are dressed in.

A visit to a Barbie Clothing site, shows Barbie on the red carpet with a dress that barely covers the top of her thighs. Part of Barbie’s the Gold Label Collection contains a light pink mini dress along with black fishnet stockings and heeled boots in addition to a frail white sleeping gown. Barbie’s Black Label collection contains a mesh outfit with garters and thigh-high boots. What makes these outfits stick out even more is when they are compared to the vintage Barbie outfits in the same 2008 catalog. The shortest skirt in the section lightly touches the knee, and every woman has a coordinating jacket. Why are we showing these girls that they should dress like that? Why are we sexing up the images our 4 and 5 year olds see?

Now I will admit the Barbie fashions mirror the same fashions our current society has, a look at Lindsey Lohen or Miley Syrus (my displeasure with them is another story) will show you that. Just because these girls dress like this doesn’t mean we should reinforce that image among our young girls. That is why I hope you will join me, those with and without children, to push more wholesome female dolls including American Girl and Gali Girls who show our girls realistic body shapes with clothing appropriate to their age.

 

About half of my own Mini-Barbie Collection is seen in the photo above. Yes, I too was part of the Barbie Culture.