Life-size Barbie gets real women talking (OMG...39-18-33 what a woman!)

[Snoutport]

So here is a real life Barbie Doll. Sexy, eh?

Great article here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/ (and a video to boot!)


(EDIT: a second article was posted using a more scientific approach: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7920962.stm)

[Sannum]

1. She looks like the newest FOX News anchor.

[valerief]

28. Bwahahahaha!

:rofl:

[Arugula Latte]

39. You won the thread!

:rofl:

[Keith Bee]

48. Rimshot!

Or...some other type of shot. }( :evilgrin:

[Hepburn]

70. ROFLMAO!

:rofl:

Duzy!!!!!!!!

[bluethruandthru]

71. Hahahahaha! n/t

[calimary]

76. Except her lips aren't balloony enough.

Everything else above the waist is, though!


:rofl:

[Hugabear]

117. Or the latest teabagger celeb

n/t

[Aerows]

2. Okay - I'm all for calling out unrealistic examples of women

but the boobs are way too big. This isn't representative of women, this is what the artist wanted to represent what they thought of Barbie.

Hyperbole and misrepresentation do not cause any good.

[Skidmore]

3. Read the article.

[Aerows]

9. I did

And I stand by my comments. The woman who made the statue has a distorted sense of body image - I get that. I'm just saying that she ALSO distorted Barbie's body to make it fit what she thought was Barbie's body image. Do you understand what I'm saying?

You have a distorted body image, and then you make Barbie have a distorted body image, as well.

It's even more grossly exaggerated - maybe that's what she is trying to say, then, that unhealthy women grossly exaggerate body images. Note that I understand the message, but I think distorting a distortion ends up looking silly, if that makes sense.

[blondeatlast]

19. The artist wanted to get women talking about body image--but look

what DU women are discussing. I agree with you; had the artist made a proportional model it would look just as ridiculous and better suited her cause.

Barbie is exaggerated to be sure, but to distort it even more defeats the purpose.

[P. Galore]

148. Agree. A scale model of Barbie would have been more effective, but the

message is still an important one.

[EOTE]

13. Thank you. It's ridiculous to attack hyperbole with more hyperbole of your own.

She could have made the life-size Barbie proportionate to the real thing and it still would have an impact. Making another grossly exaggerated model really doesn't do anything to bolster her case.

[EFerrari]

33. It's a parody.

"A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule. See Synonyms at caricature."

[EOTE]

37. Then she's not making a very effective argument.

If she wanted to show how ridiculous the standards set forth by Barbie are, then she should do that by showing what a full size Barbie looks like. If she's trying to show how exaggerated the features are, and then goes on to do gross exaggeration of her own, she's not making a very good point.

[EFerrari]

41. That is what parody is. It's interesting that a lot of responses to this thread

are some version of, this artist has no right to create her own distortions.

She has every right to do that. Creating her own is one way to repudiate the distortions that have been imposed on her since her mother dressed her in the very first pink thing.

It's also the case that people with eating disorders literally can't see their bodies as they really are at times. Which is another great point this Barbie makes.

[JVS]

47. If that's what parody is, how can one distinguish between parody and building strawmen?

[EFerrari]

62. Literacy? Would anyone mistake Swift's "A Modest Proposal"

for a literally serious argument? Maybe.

[JVS]

64. So in WWI when the Germans were depicted as baby-eating Huns, was that satire?

[EFerrari]

67. Exaggeration but not parody or satire.

It's the difference between The Onion and Bill O'Reilly. The Onion expects you to be literate enough to spot the exaggeration. O'Reilly counts on your not being able to do that.

[EOTE]

59. Sure she has a right to do that.

Just as everyone else has a right to tell her what a poor comparison she's making. She had the opportunity to make a valid point using honesty. That she's just using more wild exaggerations doesn't help her point at all.

[EFerrari]

63. A poetic device is not a lie. n/t

[EOTE]

66. And neither is noting that this particular "poetic device" does nothing to further her cause. NT

[EFerrari]

69. Calling this repesentation of Barbie dishonest is to miss the entire point.

No literal Barbie was injured in the making of this piece. lol

[EOTE]

72. And what would that point be, exactly?

That Madison Avenue creates ridiculous standards for women, so they must be exaggerated greatly so people understand these standards? If something is so ridiculous, it should stand on its own.

[EFerrari]

74. Using distortion to comment on distortion

may be the oldest kind of poetics. It's fine if you don't like it but you "should" be aware of it as a form.

[EOTE]

77. That's a very poor strategy.

So to attack McDonalds, I could use a horrific caricature of a Big Mac on a poster board and put a caption underneath it that says "5,000 calories". Some people might get turned off by it, but others might say "Wow! Does the Big Mac really have 5,000 calories?" When they realize it has closer to 500, I'm guessing they'll be far less outraged at McDonalds and far more toward the person who made the stupid poster.

[EFerrari]

78. And if they were critical thinkers, they might think about

why someone would use that exaggeration.

[EOTE]

79. When I see a person making a gross exaggeration, I think it's likely they have an agenda.

And when I combine an agenda with someone who doesn't care much for the truth, I typically think this is not someone whom I want to be getting information from.

[EFerrari]

82. That' s exactly right. That person has an agenda

that they would like you to think about.

In this case, the artist was using the grotesque in order to comment on images of women. Which is entirely different than presenting you with a scale model of Barbie.

gro·tesque audio (gr-tsk) KEY

ADJECTIVE:

1. Characterized by ludicrous or incongruous distortion, as of appearance or manner.
2. Outlandish or bizarre, as in character or appearance. See Synonyms at fantastic.
3. Of, relating to, or being the grotesque style in art or a work executed in this style.

NOUN:

1. One that is grotesque.
2.
1. A style of painting, sculpture, and ornamentation in which natural forms and monstrous figures are intertwined in bizarre or fanciful combinations.
2. A work of art executed in this style.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/grotesque

[EOTE]

83. But this is wrong for so many reasons.

Madison Avenue pushes a view of women that has become the ideal. That's what people associate with beauty. When people see this absurd caricature of a Barbie, they're offended because it's nothing approaching Madison Ave's ideal. I think people realize that almost instantly. So they just see a woman making a point very poorly. She's trying to suggest that Barbie sets impossible goals for young women (true). To illustrate that, she makes a life size version of Barbie. If she had made the life size version proportionate, people would see how ridiculous Barbie is. Considering she didn't make it anywhere near proportionate, most people will just see a young woman with mental issues.

[EFerrari]

85. No, it's not wrong.

Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's wrong.

She did it in her way, not in your way. That doesn't mean she's mentally ill. That means she's not you.

[EOTE]

87. I'm simply expressing my opinion.

Conversely, just because you don't like my opinion, doesn't mean I'm wrong. I'm saying she's using a poor rhetorical technique to bolster her claims. I'm sure it will work to an extent for people who simply don't value accuracy.

[EFerrari]

88. Accuracy is not at issue in this piece.

She isn't pretending to have rendered a scale model.

And yes, you are wrong to call this artist dishonest because she wasn't alleging literal truthfulness but an artistic rendering.

[EOTE]

90. She claims that's what she was going for.

"Four years ago, Slayen, then a student at Lincoln High School in Portland, Ore., built what she believed to be a life-size version of the doll she played with as a child as part of the first National Eating Disorders Awareness Week."

“I’m blond and blue-eyed and I figured that was what I was supposed to look like. She was my idol. It impacted the way I looked at myself.”

Basically, she's saying that she figured she was supposed to look like Barbie, so she made this model to show how ridiculous such expectations are. Yep, Mattel is telling all young girls out there that their breasts should be 5 times as large as their head.

Mattel even says that Barbie's proportions aren't based upon a full sized person, but this woman's gross creation doesn't even come close.

[EFerrari]

93. Life-sized, not scale model.

Do you also think she was trying to fool you into believing Barbie had no hands?

It is gross, exactly. That's why I gave you the definition of "grotesque" to read.

[EOTE]

95. She slams Mattel for making Barbie with such unrealistic proportions.

Then why on earth would she do the same thing with her model? If Mattel made a doll with such ridiculous proportions to begin with, why would she need to further exaggerate that in her model? She's trying to suggest that THIS is the standard of beauty that's being projected. It's not, not even close. It's a spectacular fail of logic.

On edit: Thanks, but my vocabulary is fine as it is. I don't need a primer.

[EFerrari]

96. If there is a failure of logic here, it's not hers.

She is, precisely, using grotesquery to comment on grotesquery. :)

[EOTE]

97. we can't blame barbie for all of our body image woes but this life-sized model of barbie

allows parents to say with confidence that barbie may be fun and games , but she's not real." She's obviously suggesting that this "life-sized" model of Barbie shows how ridiculous the toy-sized version is. Is she not? Then she attempts to do this by making a wildly-exaggerated model of what's already wildly-exaggerated? Parents won't learn a damned thing by looking at her stupid model. Only that some people really don't have a damned idea as to how to make a point.

[EFerrari]

100. So, you're speaking for all parents now?

You might notice that plenty of people got her point just fine on this thread.

[EOTE]

104. The comment was her's, not mine.

She was suggesting that this model will show parents what a ridiculous standard Barbie sets. This woman's model might do that for some parents. Those would be the ones with IQs less than 80.

[EFerrari]

107. In your opinion. On the other hand, you had a lot of trouble

even recognizing the form she's working in.

[EOTE]

109. I recognized it from the beginning as a really pathetic way to try and make a point.

It would be like me trying to prevent people from becoming republicans by holding up signs saying "Republicans want to rape your children!" And then hoping that people will think "Heck, even if Republicans DON'T want to rape my children, they must be really bad, right?"

Not once was I ever confused as to what she was trying to accomplish.

[EFerrari]

110. No, using a grotesque image of a Babie is not the same

as making false statements about Republicans.

Looks like there is still some confusion here.

[EOTE]

112. So explain to me how this works.

A parent sees this ridiculous model and thinks "Wow, is this what Barbie looks like blown up to full size? We really need to be teaching our children better." That seems to be the only way anyone could "learn" something from this display, and it requires great ignorance on behalf of the parent. Any parent without that level of ignorance would realize the pathetic attempt at truth the creator made and discount anything else she has to say as well. This woman will even admit that she was attempting to make the model to scale. She failed miserably.

[bettyellen]

121. many people wouldn't think twice about body image if they saw an exact scale version of Barbie

they'd think it was a display prop from FAO Schwartz and think nothing at all of it. It is supposed to provoke thought and discussion, and yes- it worked, even on you,

[EOTE]

123. Yes, it worked.

It made me think that this is a mentally unbalanced woman who makes an extremely poor point. It worked in allowing me to judge those who think this is a good point to make. I now know that they are utterly uncritical thinkers. She's got people talking about body image, yet she hasn't bolstered her case at all. That's called failure.

[bettyellen]

128. it worked "in allowing you to judge" LOL, were you unable to before.....

and you criticize others for expressing themsleves poorly or "uncritical" thinking. LOL. Heal thyself buddy. At least I got a chuckle out of your posts, if nothing else.

[EOTE]

144. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt before judging them.

Allow them to explain themselves perhaps? But now it's quite clear this is a case of "Girl power yay!". Who cares about anything resembling logic when something makes you feel good deep inside. I've asked multiple people now to explain this and all I get is snark in reply. Yes, "uncritical" is being kind.

[bettyellen]

156. What she did is to up the ante. So many women today have outrageous boob jobs the original is lookin

way too normal.
You though she should just make a scale model of Barbie why exactly? What would that mean to you- making a copy- better craftmanship? Why would that even be interesting at all, please explain. i You think ANY of this discussion would be happening? People would just think it was a display prop made by Matell.

[bettyellen]

157. What she did is to up the ante. So many women today have outrageous boob jobs the original is lookin

way too normal.
You though she should just make a scale model of Barbie why exactly? What would that mean to you- making a copy- better craftmanship? Why would that even be interesting at all, please explain. i You think ANY of this discussion would be happening? People would just think it was a display prop made by Matell.

[EFerrari]

124. Yes, it seems that way to you.

:)

[EOTE]

127. Another attempt to explain the logic of this and you pass again.

I guess it's just one of those things you've got to "get". The emperor wears no clothes, indeed.

[EFerrari]

140. It's been explained to you multiple times

that this version of Barbie has nada to do with literal truth.

[EOTE]

145. Then what DOES it have to do with?

I haven't asked you multiple times "What ISN'T this life-sized Barbie about?" I've asked what it IS about, something you've been completely unable to answer. Congratulations, you've brought obtuse to a whole new level.

[Snoutport]

118. well put EFerrari point, set, match.

[EOTE]

122. Yeah, bravo.

A poster trying to defend a ridiculous mischaracterization by using many of her own. Point, set and match so long as one isn't looking for something at all truthful.

[EFerrari]

125. You seem to have no understanding at all

of the uses of the ridiculous. That's a shame.

[EOTE]

126. Neither do you.

Since I've asked you a myriad of times to explain how this woman's stunt will further her cause and each time I've been met with silence. I made a very apt comparison, but you dismissed it entirely without telling me in the least why it's not appropriate. Anyone with any intelligence to begin with would dismiss this as the failed experiment of a mentally unbalanced woman. She's getting a lot of attention, for sure. But so would any maniac running through City Hall making crazy demands.

[EFerrari]

141. If you reread the thread, you'll see several attempts by more than 1 poster

to help you understand the issues here. There has been no silence whatsover.

And it should be obvious that telling lies about Republicans isn't the same as a creative interpretation of Barbie. One is claim to literal reality and the other is obviously not.

Calling this woman a liar or mentally unbalanced adds nothing to the discussion.

[EOTE]

143. Funny, I was asking you.

Numerous times I asked you to explain the logic of this and you just send back snarky replies suggesting that I don't "get" it. Surely it wouldn't have been that difficult to copy and paste something or other. But why do something useful when you've got snark?

[Snoutport]

154. google "toys and body image" and there are multiple studies to read

it is real easy to educate yourself these days.

[EOTE]

155. Nice way to avoid doing any actual work.

I suggest you do the same thing. You'll find myriad studies which say that the type of stunts listed in the OP are actually detrimental and don't do a damned bit of good. Wow, that was easy.

On edit: typo.

[bettyellen]

129. Ha ha EF, he's rubber and you're glue.....

[EOTE]

147. Yep. That's the exact level of maturity I've encountered on this thread.

It's pretty hard to escape the bullet proof logic of "I'm rubber and you're glue". Perhaps it was kind of ridiculous of me to expect an adult conversation.

[Snoutport]

131. I offered up links of studies/articles that back up what we're talking about

best we can do is hope to educate, eh?

[EOTE]

146. Please provide me these links.

If you're referring to your OP, it does nothing of the sort.

[NoGOPZone]

159. You can try to educate

but on another thread he attempted to prove something by telling me he had been using blocks since he was a teen. I'm not sure why that was supposed to be dispositive, particularly since most of us have given them up by that age.

[bvar22]

80. "this particular "poetic device" does nothing to further her cause"

I disagree.
It worked for me.
YMMV




Who will STAND UP and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
"By their WORKS you will know them."

[EOTE]

84. And many more people will realize what a poor rhetorical tool she's using.

And completely ignore or ridicule her. If Mattel made a 1/8th scale version of that "life size Barbie" this young woman has made, it would look hideous. So, any point that this woman is trying to make regarding Mattel, or Madison Ave. in general, is completely lost.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

119. Gawd ... +1000

I said something similar below. This is her artistic expression. She distorted it for her own reasons. Figure out what those might be, people.

[theHandpuppet]

153. +1

:thumbsup:

[Snoutport]

52. Maybe she just wanted to start the conversation? In which case...she totally won

The second article uses real people and real measurements and they are not attainable either.

[EOTE]

58. So far, the conversation seems to be trending toward her using dishonest tactics.

So, I don't see how that can be construed as a win.

[Snoutport]

116. Um...well, since a ton of the negative comments are from one person I'd disagree

I'd say we've found a couple of really fast typers who don't like it and some other people having a discussion.

[EOTE]

150. And a ton are from others.

And quite a few other comments don't take the article seriously and dismiss it with a quick joke. Very few here seem to be suggesting this stupid stunt is actually doing any good. You may not be a fast typer, but you've certainly posted quite a bit trying to defend this idiotic stunt.

[bettyellen]

130. one person declared themselves a trend, LOL ?!?!

[EOTE]

149. That's right. There's no one else here who notices how stupid this is.

Only there are. Several. But don't let the fact that many of the people on this thread realize how stupid it is prevent you from having a jolly fun time regardless.

[immoderate]

65. This is what a full size barbie looks like.

It's a different message.




--imm

[EOTE]

68. Yes, this one looks less like she'll fall over with a slight breeze.

And less like she suffers from microcephaly. But still looks like something approaching an unattainable ideal. If a good argument is to be made, gross exaggeration shouldn't be required.

[Shiver]

139. The failure in this piece is that it needs to be explained to be understood.

Art that is successful in crafting it's message requires no explanation. My first thought upon seeing this was "wow, she either didn't care or completely sucks at working to scale". My second thought was on how the head was so small, and made me wonder if the message was that barbie is somehow mentally deficient, despite being an astronaut when the whim takes her. I didn't even get the 'unattainable ideal' aspect until I read the article.

Gross exaggeration is a tool of art, to be certain, but I think the artist was less than successful in this case.

[EOTE]

151. That pretty much sums it up.

But prepare for the flames. Apparently, pointing out how this stunt fails to achieve its intended goals means that you're a stone cold sexist who wants all women to have eating disorders.

[Shiver]

152. Flame away.

I've been through three years of art school critiques and two more of design critique. I've been a semi-professional artist since high school. I have thick skin, and I know what I'm talking about.

[Snoutport]

94. is that an 18" waist?

[immoderate]

101. Good question. First thing I thought of too.

I don't know. :(

--imm

[slampoet]

136. +1

[Bluebear]

138. OK --- **SIR**

[robinlynne]

14. Exaggeration or sarcasm are means to get attention apid to what you want to say.

[Snoutport]

55. exactly. nt

[hlthe2b]

60. I believe you are missing the point...

[FormerDittoHead]

120. Exactly. Girls will easily dismiss this because it's obviously not "Barbie". Too bad.

If they used THE REAL Barbie's proportions, the "message" would be much stronger, IMO.

Now if you could ONLY do something to reduce this shoe fetish so many women have...

[FSogol]

4. Except that Barbie isn't intended to be a scale model of a human, it is a toy.

:shrug:

[Silent3]

7. That doesn't even look like a realistic scale model of the toy, however.

I flipped through the picture in the article. While many of the dolls have unrealistic proportions, they don't look THAT far off.

[Aerows]

11. Which was my point

As an anorexic, however, she has a distorted image of bodily proportions, and I suppose this is just the latest manifestation of it.

[Snoutport]

18. toys influence children's perceptions ...

[logosoco]

5. Looking at that picture makes my back hurt!!!!!!!!nt

[WinkyDink]

6. Too many would tell her her hips are too big.

[tularetom]

8. Looks like Ann Coulter was the model for Barbie's arms

Can't see the Adam's apple though.

[anneboleyn]

114. *snort* Yes, amen, Tularetom. The Barbie arms are creepy indeed.

[JVS]

10. The proportion looks off. Barbie's head is bigger.

[Snoutport]

12. I think it is one of those make-up heads.

Funny nobody is mentioning the 18" waist.

[JVS]

22. Barbie's waist can be weird because it serves as the joint for the doll as well.

The mechanics of the toy make it so that the waist is even thinner

In this Barbie without the same swivel waist feature, it's less freakish

[Warren Stupidity]

15. her face and arms should be cut and bruised

from falling down all the time.

[demwing]

16. A more realistic scaled up Barbie

here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7920962.stm

[Snoutport]

17. Thank you for sharing! I edited and added this to the original post

More scientific and less artistic...

[blondeatlast]

27. I find that much more discussion-worthy.

But what if, instead, Libby's height of 5ft 6ins (1.68m) was to remain unchanged. Doing the maths, Libby would have an extraordinarily tight waist of just 20ins (50.8cm), while her bust would be 27ins (68.5cm) and her hips 29ins (73.6cm). Even the famously slight Victoria Beckham reportedly only has a 23ins (58.4cm) waist. But neither are they unheard of - Brigitte Bardot was famous for her 20ins (50.8cm) waist.

Still would be quite odd, but not impossible.

[demwing]

53. There's a quote that stands out, from the woman who had plastic surgery to look like Barbie:

"There's nothing wrong in using her as a role model when it comes to looks, as well as attitude to life."

WTF? How does a plastic doll have an "attitude to life"???

[SidDithers]

35. Great article...

thanks for adding it to the thread.

:thumbsup:

Sid

[lumberjack_jeff]

113. I look just like GI Joe.

Except my forearms don't rotate 180° at the elbow.

[pinkkillersheep]

20. That's hot...nt

[Search4Justice]

21. A point well made.

What I can't figure out is why there are some defending the "Barbie" mindset. That "toy" is probably responsible for more womens struggles with eating disorders that any other single item on the planet.

Good grief, talk about cognitive dissonance.

[AngryAmish]

25. Proof? Any evidence?

Images cause mental illness? And what exactly is the mechanism? Surmise and conjecture don't count.

[Search4Justice]

30. Oh please...

... you actually think I'm going to waste my time proving the painfully obvious to someone who would probably just dismiss it anyway?

Not bloody likely.

[AngryAmish]

54. So there isn't a causal link.

[Search4Justice]

92. Couldn't say personally..

... but there's several links posted on this thread that certainly point that direction. Seems to a much bigger issue for you than it is for me.

As a side question, out of curiosity, how many Amish little girls have Barbie dolls?

[Snoutport]

40. toys and teaching ideals go waaaaaaay back. um...didn't you learn from your toys?

Here is an article from Concordia

Children’s toys and fairy tales
The toys that children play with also help shape a sense of what is physically
desirable and undesirable. Perhaps the most talked about example of this is the
Barbie doll, which is one of the biggest selling toys in history. A typical young girl
who owns a Barbie has an average of 7 Barbie dolls. When the doll was first
released in the 1950Õs, it was considered odd to have a doll with breasts, since
dolls at the time typically represented babies or young girls. Barbie was different.
She was marketed as the girl who had it all. Part of childrenÕs play is to project
themselves into the toys with which they are playing. Little girls playing with the
doll become Barbie during play, and this can translate into wanting to be like
Barbie when they grow up. This includes looking like Barbie. It may not be
apparent by looking at the doll, but BarbieÕs measurements do not represent the
measurements of the typical woman. Those working in the field of body image
often point out that if Barbie were life-sized her measurements would be virtually
unachievable. To get an idea of what your measurements would be if you had
BarbieÕs proportions, do the calculations in the box to the right.
Certainly, Barbie is not the only childrenÕs toy that influences body image.
Action figures such as GI Joe, Superman, Batman and other army figures have a
big chest, muscular arms and legs, and a flat stomach with the desirable Ò6-packÓ.
Animated characters often have bodies that set the standard for what children
believe is desirable. The heroines in Disney classic films such as Beauty and the
Beast, Cinderella, Snow White and The Little Mermaid are all thin and attractive
with long legs and ample breasts. In many childrenÕs stories, the hero or heroine
is described as attractive while the evil character often has a deformity or is
unattractive or overweight.
These toys and childrenÕs stories, combined with family influences, firmly set in
place a young personÕs attitudes about physical appearance and what he or she
believes to be desirable physical qualities

http://www-health.concordia.ca/pdf/healthinfo/bodyimage.pdf

[Snoutport]

46. More from the Nursing Center An excellent article on body image and how toys/media DO impact kids

It is a VERY informative (and long) article. If you really want to learn about the issue, this is a great place to start. I'm a teacher and toys are used EVERY day to teach kids how things should look like. This is a red car. (toy car-very realistic) This is a frying pan (toy cookware-very realistic). This is how a baby looks (baby doll-very realistic). This is a woman. (Barbie doll-VERY unrealistic)

Here is a paragraph from the article/study:

In a recent survey on body image conducted by the Girl Scouts of America, most girls (59%) reported that they were dissatisfied with their body shape; 66% wanted to lose weight; 65% correctly identified themselves as being either normal weight or overweight; and 33% had a distorted image about their weight. Girls younger than 18 years were more affected by media stimuli using thin models than college-age and older women. Promotion of false images (airbrushing, digital enhancement) that few women can obtain propels many young women into eating disorders and promotes an irrational fear of being fat.5,6 Bennett et al7 report a global study in 2004 by the Dove "Real Beauty" campaign, where 42% of first- to third-grade girls state they want to be thinner and 81% of 10-year-olds are afraid of getting fat. Only 2% of women and girls in this study would describe themselves as beautiful.7 (from: 7. Bennett J, Childress S, Schrobsdorff S. Weighty matters. We know that the trend toward super-thin models is pushing some of them to go on potentially deadly diets. What's it doing to the rest of us? Newsweek Web Exclusive. February 8, 2007. http://www.newsweek.com/id/113689/output/print . Accessed December 9, 2008

The link: http://www.nursingcenter.com/prodev/ce_article.asp?tid=1024096

[EFerrari]

31. Denial. n/t

[WatsonT]

57. Did the barbie doll determine what women should look like

or did previously existing expectations of what women should look like influence the design of barbie?

It's a symptom, not a cause.

/how many kids did the math and extrapolated what proportions they must have to look like barbie? It's not readily apparent from just looking at the doll what it would look like sized to average height.

[Froward69]

23. Everyone knows Barbie got everything in the divorce from Ken

even though she was gallivanting around with G.I. Joe. She Kept The Malibu Beach House the Jeep and the corvette all because she called the cops first when Ken became Angry. Ol' Ken is now doing Cowboy skits and Begging to really be set afire on that stake. (the payment on the Malibu beach house ain't cheap!" Additionally Wouldn't Ken be as outlandishly disproportional with a 15" appendage?

G I Joe was smart enough to not marry her so he could keep his Jeep and Weapons.

Seriously though The Mock up Barbie we did 20 years ago had a proportional Head hands and body. this one is not to scale.

[seabeyond]

24. well, my gosh, she has a zillion professions while ken smiles wide and does nothing

but poses.

dontcha know

[Snoutport]

49. POOR KEN: Height: 6' Neck: 15" Chest:36" Waist 26.5" Hips: 33.5

Hell...Poor Ken! He's a MESS!!

[dkf]

26. I'd be curious to know about the typical mannequin

[bettyellen]

106. average young woman in her 20's? she;s about 5 6 1/2", 39- 30- 41"

[eowyn_of_rohan]

29. It is a personal, artistic statement in which she is parodizing barbie

sad and odd that she is getting so much criticism here!

[jezebel]

32. Her back must HURT. nt

[seabeyond]

34. to be fair, lets do the gi joes my sons played with.... i hear the argument

my sons and i would have the same conversation about the gi joes. and it was brought up and to my attention by my articulate older son.

[Snoutport]

50. Ken's bod:

http://www-health.concordia.ca/pdf/healthinfo/bodyimage.pdf
has ken's proportions!

Ken
Height: 6'
Neck: 15"
Chest: 36"
Waist 26.5
Hips: 33.5

[anneboleyn]

115. Argh, the link won't work for me. Wow, Ken's measurements are demanding. 26 inch waist.

And 33 inch hips? I think my brother fit these measurements when he was around 13, but not as a man of 42 (and he is just average size, not overweight at all).

[blondeatlast]

36. Okay, I loved Barbie as a kid. I knew I'd never look like her, but I loved her

great clothes and mine was, well--a nurse, a movie star, a teacher, a doctor, and I even made believe she was a lawyer. Without male help, she camped, she rode a bicycle, she had her OWN home--things I didn't realize until later that women didn't normally achieve on their own (at the time).

My favorite doll was this one, though:


I also loved Legos and electric trains--I realized (or cared) that I was never going to be an architect or run the ATSF. :shrug:

I miss my Pearl... :cry:

[Keith Bee]

38. WMD

[joeybee12]

42. I' like to know why she hasn't fallen forward onto the ground?

She must be tied to something...basic physics can't explain her staying upright.

[seabeyond]

43. legs are 5 adn half feet long so balances it out a bet if stance is proper. nt

[Plucketeer]

44. Ludicrous.

As a guy, I can say that I've never found a Barbie Doll's image to be stimulating or even a model of what I'd like to have in/as a mate. She's about as representative of real women as Ken is of your average guy (save the comic remarks ladies, please).

Look at a Barbie Doll. Are it's arms like the shovel handles on this scaled up version? No. You can do alot with papier mache, and bit more effort with this exercize would've lent alot more credibility to the argument.

I did get a kick outta the Mattel rep's comment: " “Girls see female body images everywhere today and it’s critical that parents and caregivers provide perspective on what they are seeing."
Right - now can't you just see a tyke getting her first Barbie and having a serious lecture laid on her by her parents??? That's about as realistic an expectation as the hope that warning labels on cigarette packs have of dissuading folks from smoking!

When are we going to have to include the information in car owner's manuals that your new car DOES not and WILL not transform into a battling android? You know - in spite of what you've seen on movie screens or the transformer toys you played with as a kid!

BTW, I like some MEAT on my women. I find the anorexics in bikinis to be freaks.

[Iggo]

45. Her head's way too small.

Should be at least twice as big as the real woman's head.

[ismnotwasm]

51. There is a statistic somewhere

One I can't find, on how many little girls mutilate thier barbie dolls. It's a fairly high number if I recall. I've always hated barbie, but not because of the boobs. It's those fucking feet man. Feet on dolls for little girls made for high heels and only high heels are disgusting.

[Zax2me]

56. It's just a DOLL - a TOY

you adjust most toys to full scale and they look silly.
If you want controversy I guess you can find it anywhere if you look hard enough.

[bengalherder]

61. I never noticed any of that as a youngster.

Barbie's sexuality went totally over my head. But then I can't really say my friends or myself were poster children for 'how you are supposed to play with Barbie'. Barbie joined the Sunshine Family, the Johnny West dolls, the Breyer Horses, and Planet of the Apes characters for multitudes of adventures all over the house and in the yard. GI Joe was always the bad guy who got his commupance in the end.

I certainly hope kids today are as imaginative and not cowed by Barbie's fashion image. I certainly feel for the ones who were unimaginative enough to take it all seriously.

[blondeatlast]

75. Yeah, that's how I played with them too. My Barbie was the engineer to my dad's and my

electric train spread!

[EFerrari]

102. Is there any evidence that little girls who internalize this image

lack imagination?

That seems like an awfully easy way to dismiss the issue.

[Snoutport]

132. here is a lot of info in this article

http://www.nursingcenter.com/prodev/ce_article.asp?tid=1024096

[EFerrari]

142. That's a really good article.

Body image is like any other other product - the way a kid responds to them depends upon how the kid has been taught to interact with new objects and also the kid's stage of development. The insidious part of it is the kid becomes the product if things go wrong, and it spins out as a life threatening control issue if things go very wrong.

[RebelOne]

73. She looks to be deformed. n/t

[CBGLuthier]

81. It is a lie.

Christ would it have fucking killed her to do it accurately. Is this an example of alleged poor female math skills?

Destroys the message completely.

Fail.

[EFerrari]

86. It's frightening that people can't distinguish between art and falsehood.

That's the same reason the Puritans banned just about everything that made living worthwhile.

[sudopod]

133. Why does this make you so mad? lol. nt

[Snoutport]

137. that's what I don't get! some people got really mad at the girl over this

but she got the discussion going, that's for sure!

[EFerrari]

89. This Barbie is so tragic in so many ways.

And everyone is focusing on her boobs. Anyone notice she has no hands?

[ismnotwasm]

91. That's what I think!

And what about her feet? Does she have those deformed feet? BRATS dolls trumped barbie as far as offensiveness goes.

[EFerrari]

98. When I was about 4 and got a first run Barbie

I couldn't figure out why she was wearing high heels with a swimming suit. lol

Also, her feet looked like they hurt. Which, as a rebel against shoes even at that age, was clearly my projection. Never did change my mind about that. :)

[Snoutport]

105. I did, but I'm gay.

[EFerrari]

108. Lol.

:)

[cognoscere]

99. Google "real doll" NSFW N/T

[Change Happens]

103. Which one is she?

[Forkboy]

111. I see the new Tomb Raider game is out.

[tabasco]

134. Va-va-va-VOOM!

Hey baby! (in my best Beavis voice)

[Throd]

135. That isn't what Barbie looks like. I step over them every day.

[HolyCity2012]

158. Donald Duck