How Barbie Has Carried the Weight of Society On Her Tiny Shoulders
As a child, whatever is given to us often gets absorbed in ways that will continue to play a role in our lives as it progresses. Many people believe that whatever a child is surrounded and influenced by in their early years can easily impact on who they become later in their lives.
Looking back at my childhood years, the most prominent influence I had were Barbie dolls. Opening the package full of garments and accessories for the doll was a delight, and even more whenever I had to decide which outfit would match the story I was creating for my doll. While these moments were mostly shaped by a child’s imagination, it allowed me to project myself and my greatest dreams into her. After all, playing with a Barbie doll was the greatest highlight of my day. In a way, it planted a seed in my interest for the fashion industry. Barbie is a fashion icon and the brand dolls are known for sparking up the creativity and imagination for their young, or even older consumers. With the many variations of styles and garments, there is no limit to how much a consumer can style these unique dolls.
As the most popular brand of doll sold in the entire world it is not surprising that Barbie’s franchise has been the focus of many controversies. While the doll itself is not harmful at all, societal ideals built around her image have certainly caused a negative impact - not just for consumers, but the franchise - for decades. According to Hulu’s Original documentary ‘“Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie,” Barbie dolls and the character herself get caught up in prominent issues in our society, such as gender roles, white supremacy, body image and beauty ideals. These ideals have been reflected by a doll with unrealistic body proportions and features - a beauty standard that real-life women cannot really realistically meet. This has been an issue for a long time because even though we know the doll is plastic, the expectation imposed by Barbie is ultimate beauty and femininity. Certainly, beauty ideals created by a doll is a huge weight on the shoulders of women, but as our society has begun to value “true” beauty and reject unrealistic beauty standards, the Barbie franchise has decided that it’s time for to rethink what their brand represents and how it can be shifted into a better light for a rapidly growing and changing society.
Lineup of Barbie dolls.
In order for us, as consumers and members of society, to rethink the way we see Barbie dolls, it is important to think, what was the original goal of developing a 3D doll for young girls? Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, explained that creating a Barbie Doll was to encourage girls to dream, and to grow up with the freedom to make their own decisions, all through Barbie’s image. Barbie’s goal was not to become a beauty standard for young girls, in fact Ruth Handler explains that they were not too worried about Barbie’s beauty because they did not want to make the doll so beautiful that it’s beauty would become too threatening to young girl’s who would likely see themselves in these dolls.
Now, while the original intention was meant to empower young girls and women, the way Barbie was placed an ideal Beauty standard due to her thin waist, long legs, and plump firm breasts certainly created a bad reputation. As society evolved of course, some of the unrealistic expectations left by Barbie dolls remained for quite some time, and have left Mattel’s representative product in crisis. However, in order to fight back, Barbie designers began to develop collections to empower not just women, but people from different ethnicities, shapes, and physical abilities. Barbie collections began to include dolls made to reflect the real beauty of society. While many would think that this would help remove the negative association that society has had with Barbie for the past few decades, America’s favorite doll has slowly begun to fall into the back of the shopping racks to collect dust. During the pandemic, many consumers stocked up on board games rather than dolls, causing a percentage of drop in Barbie sales.
Still, Barbie still remains a prominent icon for many generations. She is no longer a non-living product because society has given her life by involving her in real-life issues and often making her the focal point of these issues. Andrea Nevins, the writer of “Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie”, says, “Society still has a very complicated and unsolved idea of what women should be today. That’s captured in this doll. She carries a lot on her tiny shoulders. I think we all do.”
As a child, I always thought of Barbie as the doll in which I could make my dreams come true. Now that I’m older, it seems that while playtime with Barbie is over, we share a common weight to be carried in our shoulders: women will always be judged by society’s ideals of perfect, “doll-like” beauty.
Barbie’s main goal upon creation was to be a doll whose growing owners could relate and project themselves onto and as the years go by. It seems that both women and Barbie have grown and changed together. Whether people still enjoy what Barbie represents or dislike the doll, it is safe to say that the weight placed on a doll’s shoulders eventually affected the weight that women have had to carry on our shoulders.
