From the time when a girl child is born, is introduced to a variety of things and one of these most common toys that she is familiar with is a Barbie doll and this is also one of the most popular toy companies for girls all over the world which has offered young girls dolls, dollhouses, and the accessories that goes with them.
Maybe the names are different but all the toys are somewhat similar, symbolising the full set of feminine characters. Most of the girl toys in stores have certain characteristics. These roles portray femininity, beauty, and certain gender roles.
Then this journey continues, most girls spend the phase of their growing up with playing and dressing up these dolls as their possession.
This part of growing up enters the imagination of the female child and impacts the perspective of the way she looks at herself, the way she understands the girlish way of living. Barbie has been very influential to young girls, affecting how they dress and even act. For most young girls, Barbie represents so much more than just an unrealistic body type, Barbie is a role model. So is this role model for young girls good or bad?
Let us discuss
So the main question comes that if it is good or bad role model for young girls to play with Barbie dolls? Lets discuss some effects of this
• Set unnecessary fixed beauty standards on the minds of young girls: It sets a particular boundaries of how one should look like, the way one should dress like. If we add the doll’s unrealistic physical proportions to the pre-existing societal beauty standards, and we will end up with several women in real life spending thousands of dollars on plastic surgery to get the “Barbie look”.
• Desiring unrealistic appearance: These “perfect”, unrealistic dolls have set a standard which thousands of girls fail to meet, therefore causing self esteem issues they could carry into adulthood.It makes girls obsessed with the features and flawless look which is nearly impossible to be possible in reality. They grow while noticing changes in their bodies which are difficult for them to accept. This is when girls start being on hard on their real self and try to change their appearances.
• Neglection of diversification: The Barbie doll set a fixed look of fair skin tone, perfect figure, height, hairs and overall flawless soft look. This is the point where young girls forget that there is diversification in every body and it's totally alright to not match certain standards.
• Have created stereotypical boundaries: It has been considered for a long time now that dolls are made for girls to play with. This misconception excludes some unique minds of little girls from exploring the things they really get attracted to.
It is believed that every girl should admire the soft nature of Barbie and try to be the same, and this really become exhausting to pretend like one you don't want to be like.
These dolls may seem harmless, but the damage they bring into the lives of women all over the world is catastrophic.
The failed attempts to gain Barbie-like body proportions have more effects that often lead to teenage girls into self-harm, simply starving themselves to lose weight and have perfect figure would already be a form of self-harm, but some would seriously try to punish themselves for “not being skinny enough.”
What can be done so that this toy impacts in a least way possible and even puts a positive effect on the little minds of young girls? We cannot completely eliminate Barbie doll from a girl's childhood. But, It is the responsibility of parents to introduce them it in such a way that they accept the fact of looking normal and accept their imperfections.
Grateful that now finally an era of self-love and mental health awareness is dawning, so that everyone, more importantly women are slowly stopping to blinding following and having these unrealistic demands. Even toy companies should normalise making dolls that are realistic and normal, the kind of dolls which represent the diverse bodies and make the females that you don't have to be beauty queen but a 'BEAUTIFUL YOU'!
