The hype and hoopla over a divisive figure

There is a lot of buzz and criticism going around after the latest release of the movie Barbie. We all know who and what Barbie is and it’s no wonder the movie is under fire. The doll has always been an icon of fashion and beauty, something that most normal ladies cannot mimic because she does not look physically normal. According to one critic, Barbie has the height and proportions of someone who, in reality, would literally not be able to hold her head up or walk on two legs. Her neck is too long and too thin to hold the weight of her head and her ankles are so narrow they would not be able to carry her body weight.

This little doll, along with all her paraphernalia, has been bought for little girls since it was first released in 1959, in both the blonde and brunette versions. Over the years various other versions of her have been released to cater for different communities. The bottom line is, this doll is considered to set a very poor example to little girls in terms of their body image because, in reality, no one can look like her. But if adults try so will little girls who know no better. Recently, a woman in America was so unhappy with her appearance that she sold everything she had, including her home, to get plastic surgery to look, not so much like Barbie, but better. She now seems to be satisfied with her appearance but the downside is she is now living out of a van because she sold all her possessions, including her house, to pay for the surgery. Is this crazy or not? I wonder if she had a Barbie doll that she aspired to.

When I was a kid, I had dolls but never a Barbie. My dolls were normal looking. I started out with a little doll that went by the name of ‘Tiny Tears’. It was very popular in those days. It looked like a baby and had a dummy in its mouth and wore a nappy. Then later I had another very average and normal looking doll. She had blonde shiny hair and I named her Mary. But after several washes of her hair, it ended up looking more like yellow wool and then, for some reason, I decided to give her a haircut. Poor Mary. She never looked the same after that. All this being said, I never wanted blond hair because Mary had it. Those dolls were not controversial.

In fact, I don’t believe that there is any other toy on the planet, other than toy guns, that are as divisive as the Barbie doll. I mean has GI Joe, a boy’s doll, ever been under fire the way Barbie has been? Never. In fact GI Joe is considered the epitome of an American soldier fighting for America’s freedom. There is also the Captain America toy which again is not controversial because he fights against evil (both in this world and outer space) and there’s nothing physical about his appearance that people can’t copy if they worked hard by exercising, eating right and going to the gym. But, strangely enough, boy’s dolls don’t seem to have an adverse effect on their mentality the way some girl’s dolls do. Girls seem to want to be the thing they are playing with!

Many people are already adversely affected by many famous fashion influencers who are now so readily accessible via social media. There are people who’ve had facial and body enhancement and who spend thousands on makeup, hair, clothes and accessories. These influencers get paid thousands of dollars to make posts about the latest fashion and beauty trends. If they’ve gone under the knife, for a fee, they will advertise the clinic that performed their procedure. It doesn’t matter if it’s liposuction, unnecessary facial enhancement, Botox and any other lift you can think of, they will post about it. But the biggest question everyone should have in their minds when they see these posts is, has the influencer really undergone those procedures or is this an advertising gimmick to gain followers and to make money? Children are impressionable. They should be shielded from Instagram and TikTok posts that encourage them to be what they cannot and shouldn’t be. And where the Barbie doll is concerned, I am puzzled as to why parents so readily purchase it for their girls knowing how it could influence them.