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Week 11 [09.01-15.01] Barbie and how little girls view the world

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What forms a worldview of a child?

Probably everyone being a little kid was sure about becoming a princess, footballer, hero or a singer in the future. It didn’t matter that our parents were for example doctors, lawyers or mechanics and had a simple, common jobs – no, we were born to live in a fairy tale and be heroes or princesses.
We watched a lot of cartoons, tales or just family movies where everything was possible. Also we played special toys like Barbie, My Little Ponies or Superman and Batman, read comics about super heroes like X-men, Hulk or Spiderman.
All of these things formed our worldview and our way of thinking. However, most men already know that they won’t be super heroes, but just engineers. On the other hand,  young women still want to look like Barbie. They want bigger lips, a narrow waist and long legs.

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/3601aa_8a364dc73d654ac58dcb6bb634ccfdfe.jpg


Barbie – some basic facts

I don’t want you to get bored, so I will present you a short history of Barbie and some funny facts.
It main inventor,  Margaret Roberts,  someday noticed that her little girl plays with a doll giving it adult features (then all dolls were produced as babies). She realized that it may be a good idea to start producing dolls which would look like adult people. Then Barbie was invented. Her name – Barbie is a diminutive of inventor’s daughter name – Barbara.


Some facts

  •           Since 2015 Barbie dolls have been available in 8 different skin colors, 23 hair colors, 22 hair styles, 14 face shapes and 18 eyes colors.
  •           Barbie didn’t have a navel until 2000
  •            Barbie has 130 different jobs (a teenage model, stewardess etc.)



Tree change dolls Project

You may have heard about this woman. Her name is Sonia Singh and she changes doll’s faces into more natural.
You can watch a short film about her here:





In my opinion there is no point in selling Barbie and giving young girls a false vision of life and of an ideal appearance of a  woman. Everyone looks different and not every woman has an enormous lips, great body, long hair and long legs. Also not every woman has to do make up as though she was going to a red carpet party every day. We should let kids realize people are different and they should look the way they want to.


Do you think it may be a good idea to start selling more natural dolls?
Do you like the way Barbie looks?  If not, what would you like to change in her appearance?
If you had a daughter, would you buy her a Barbie doll?
https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7577/15517351428_7e12957b5b_b.jpg

Comments

Michał Pycek said…
In my opinion showing adult-looking dolls to small girls has never been a fully thought through idea, becuase they would look up to them and want to become just like them before they even become teenagers. On the other hand, image of adult women with exaggerated make up is spreading worldwide from every single media channel, many advertisements and also brands - and noone can change it until social awareness regarding this topic changes.
Regarding the looks... I never played with Barbie dolls and to be frank I do not really care the way they look. I know my sisters used to play with them when they were little, leaving the dolls all over our home. If I had a daughter myself, I guess I would buy it if she was interested in having one, but this is something I haven't thought about yet.
8 January 2017 at 16:53
Piotr Basiński said…
Do you think it may be a good idea to start selling more natural dolls?
I think it good idea to start selling more nature dolls because I should show women more realistic models and beauty. Shows little girls with no need to have make-up, have big eyes or long legs to be beautiful. What causes that girls who become women do not have low self-esteem late because are not the same as those idealized dolls. They accept themselves as they are.

Do you like the way Barbie looks? If not, what would you like to change in her appearance?
Now the dolls are similar to our colleagues that show with each of them can be beautiful.
If you had a daughter, would you buy her a Barbie doll?
If I had a daughter I’d buy a doll.
8 January 2017 at 21:57
Sylwia Pechcin said…
Unfortunately you're right that almost everywhere we can observe ladies with too much make up and probably after a few operations correcting their faces or bodies...
9 January 2017 at 16:21
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
11 January 2017 at 20:58
Unknown said…
I have met repeatedly with the same opinion as That presented by you and still i can not agree with that. Your point of view is corect We are all different and not that perfect, right. I just cant believe That young girls model themself on Barbie. I used to play Barbie and it was just a doll which i never treated as a model of perfection and i never even tried to compare myself to plastic toy.
I believe kids are not focus on appearance and just have fun without complex.
11 January 2017 at 21:00
Sylwia Pechcin said…
I see what you mean, but I still in my opinion girls in their young ages are searching someone or something to imitate and follow. When they see beautiful Barbie advertisement where everything is perfect and pink - they want to be like Barbie.

But as you said - everyone has his own opinion ;)
12 January 2017 at 08:35
Unknown said…
I'm not sure how much does it have to deal with the fact that I'm a male, but I've always preffered more interactive toys than dolls of most kinds, like for example lego, other toys that require some kind of assembly, science/learning sets (like little chemist), train models, remote contolled toys or various proffession sets (like firefighter, policeman or even soldier). Choosing any of theese would probably be a sfaer bet for both boys and girls. Also many 'adult' common items can make great toys if they are not too dangerous.
12 January 2017 at 21:25
Dajana Kubica said…
Recently I saw on the Internet a new doll produced on the model of Barbie, but with the real proportions of the body. Even in some school test was carried out, giving the child a choice between the original doll, a new Barbie. All children chose the second option, justify their choice that a doll appears to be simply nicer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jue_JlxnPGM
I think that producing dolls with realistic proportions, could influence how children in the future will look at the standards of beauty.
13 January 2017 at 22:59
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I think it's ok to let your child to play with Barbie as long as child understands that it's just a toy character, usually kids don't project themselves to toys, they just play with them and imagine different roles for them. Forcing production of "real" dolls seems to be a bad idea because this is not how an open market works, it's like forcing film makers to replace a good looking actress, even if she acts good with someone who looks and acts like an average person.
13 January 2017 at 23:45
Unknown said…
I totally agree with Aleksandra. I used to play Barbie, indeed it was my favourite doll and it never gave me a complex about my look. Parents didn't need to explain me that's it's only a doll, and that normal person don't look like this - I quess it was obvious for me at some point or I simply didn't care about my look at that early age.

Only one irritating thing which I remember about Barbie doll was it's inavailability with different hair colour than blonde. And I really wanted a dark brown-hair girl, just the same as I was/am. Finally I get one, however, I don't remember if it was Barbie doll or just really similar by body proportion brand.
Of course I'd buy my daughter a Barbie doll, they're the prettiest ones.
14 January 2017 at 22:23
Sylwia Pechcin said…
I agree with you. When I was a child I loved to play in the kitchen with my grandmother. She was giving me some bowls, spoons or jars and I was the best musician on the planet ;)

I can also agree that interactive toys are more interesting for kids, but at some point they may be too obvious or limit kid's imagination. When you play a doll or a teddy bear you have to be creative, because this toy doesn't do anything by itself ;)
15 January 2017 at 13:53
Sylwia Pechcin said…
I have never seen this video and I like it a lot.
We can suspect that many children have chosen the new doll just because it's a new one, but on the other hand they also list many advantages of it, so I think they really like it.
15 January 2017 at 13:59
Sylwia Pechcin said…
I can't agree with you.
My point wasn't to force production of real dolls instead of Barbie. We can observe that children want to play with dolls witch look less plastic and fake like these showed in a movie.
Secondly I don't think that real doll have to look average, fat or just ugly. It's possible to create less fake doll, but still good looking and nice.
15 January 2017 at 14:06
Unknown said…
In my opinion there is no something like ideal appearance or perfect measurements, so the idea of selling more natural dolls is right. I believe that promoting non existing ideals could be dangerous especially for young women. I think that in my future I would buy Barbie doll for my children, however, they must understand that this is only a toy.
15 January 2017 at 15:30
Jagoda Bielawska said…
I had a Barbie - I'm a girl, so when I was young, it was the most common gift I had ever had. Now everyone is fricking out about how Barbie looks like, but, personally, I don't remember that I ever had a thought about that I should look like her. It was a toy, nothing more.
15 January 2017 at 18:38
Krzysztof Maciaszek said…
In my opinion people nowadays overthink such trivial things.
Please it’s just a toy, it’s purpose is to be played with by a child, not to give some false vision of life and appearance of a woman.
Everything might give kids false vision of life, from cereal commercial to fairy tales. Should we also ban “Cinderella”?
It shows false vision of life because not every poor girl will be rescued by a prince charming and live in the castle.
Or maybe we should make it “more natural”, lets make a tale where she is rescued by car tire dealer and live in apartment building in suburbs and work part time as a cleaning lady. It’s more realistic right? But it’s just a tale, it should be unrealistic and fun. That’s all what the childhood is about
15 January 2017 at 21:17
Adam Nowak said…
I beleive that Barbie dolls are the first step to create a new consumptionist generations of women. In their childhood they are observing Barbie as a perfect woman, woman that they want to be, the trick is that Barbie doesn't exists. It's fake. It is impossible to be like Barbie, you can only look more and more similar to it. That urge to look like a impossible woman drives huge beauty industry and generates ridiculous profit. The same is happening with boys. They are exposed to impossible male models, men with big muscles and everything, men that don't exist in nature. It is impossible to look like a Schwarzenegger without destroying your health and of course without spending much money on medicines, but it is told to young boys that they have to look like Arnold to be sucessfull in life. Of course, they won't...
15 January 2017 at 23:45
Unknown said…
I am totally agree with Krzysztof. I don't see the problem here. People nowadays like to create the problem to discuss during the long winter evenings.
When I was a girl I had a few Barbie dolls. And I've grown up absolutely normal. And if I will have a daughter I will buy these dolls for her. The child doesn't think about all this crazy psychological stuff, maybe we also shouldn't?
Come on, this doll is sweet:)
15 January 2017 at 23:54
Krzysztof Lichota said…
Of course I think there should be more natural dolls. I think Barbie done enough harm for many people. Like this poor people who try to achieve something that is not possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2yIGkStXco

I dont understand why Barbie dolls have such an impact on young girls and society. I really like natural Barbie more. Im sure that many girls(and boys too) got depressed because of those unnatural dolls. And it is horrifying. I would like my daughter to play with such a dolls. Children imagine that it is how they should look and it is not fair. Your self-confidence should not be based on how you look. And this is what Barbie dolls do to the society. Im against them.
16 January 2017 at 01:08
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