Barbie : damaging female body image?

Around the world Barbie has been a much loved toy for decades. The fashion doll manufactured by Mattel Inc was first launched in 1959 and has been criticized many times over the years for having unattainable body proportions. Recently, there have been many articles on the internet talking of a new 'average' sized doll being released which portrays proportions more like that of the average female. The image below compares the typical Barbie with a new version based on the proportions of an average nineteen year old. Personally, I think the new doll cannot come soon enough, eating disorders are on the rise and for younger generations I feel it is important to try and cut the view that you have to look like the old Barbie to be beautiful. The average size 12 is more beautiful than a size 0, what do you think? 

I know that many people will argue that Barbie to many girls is just a toy and won't affect their views on body image, however many studies have shown that for others it does. It may shock you to know that 4 out of 5 ten year olds say they are afraid of being fat and by the time children are in high school 1 in every 10 develops an eating disorder. Additionally, of all the people experiencing an eating disorder,a shocking 90 percent of them are females between the ages of 12 and 25. To me this is just awful and I'm all for anything to help change this.

A few years ago The Body Shop launched a campaign to try and challenge beauty stereotypes and increase female self esteem. This involved the creation of a doll called Ruby, shown in the image above. As you can see the Ruby doll is quite different to the standard Barbie and encourages females to remember that not everyone looks like supermodels but that's ok. 

I am not suggesting that it is wrong to be small or thin, I know some people are naturally a size 6 / 8 which is perfectly fine but what I think is wrong is for girls to think that they should be thin in order to be beautiful. Barbie's proportions are unattainable and attempting to be her size can lead to anorexia and other eating disorders which are extremely harmful.

As a psychology student I'm really interested in topics like this so I'd love to hear other people's views. I'm currently researching dissertation ideas for my psychology degree relating to body image and social media so I am really interested in your views. You might like to check out these articles from the BBC this one from the Daily Mail for more info on the new average sized doll. Please leave me a comment if you have time & as always thank you so much for reading my blog!