Skinnier than you'll ever be.
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Barbie's proportions are stunningly unreal. Even if you decided to work out 6 hours a day and were eating nothing but kale salad, you couldn't possibly have Barbie's ultra skinny legs and super thin waist. Did you know?... “White skin, round eyes, and thin bodies are now markers of social status around the world. In a study of 3,300 females from 10 countries, aged 15 to 64, 90% said they would like to change at least one thing about their bodies. Most wanted to lose weight, and 67% said they withdrew from life-sustaining activities because of their perceived body flaw (Etcoff, Orbach, Scott, & D’Agostino, 2004). Women and girls’ body anxiety has become a global problem (Calogero, Boroughs, & Thompson, 2007). Skin-whitening products, plastic surgeries, and weight reduction are believed to help women’s earning potential and marital prospects in countries such as Hong Kong, India, Japan, and South Korea (Glenn, 2008; Li, Min, Belk, Kimura, & Bahl, 2008)” (DeFrancisco, McGeough, & Palczewski, 2019, p. 84). |
With that being said...
“The thin, White, blonde Barbie doll physique dressed in tight-fitting, revealing clothing captures predominant expectations of women’s beauty. In a survey of 4,000 people, results echoed this narrow definition (Brumbaugh & Wood, 2009)” (DeFrancisco, McGeough, & Palczewski, 2019, p. 84).” According to an article, This Is Not a Barbie Doll. This Is an Actual Human Being., written by Michael Idov and published on GQ.com, Valeria Lukyanova (as seen in the photo), who is also known as the Human Barbie, speaks defensively when mentioning, "Everyone wants a slim figure. Everyone gets breasts done. Everyone fixes up their face if it's not ideal, you know? Everyone strives for the golden mean. It's global now." This is an example of the notion that some expectations of women's beauty really does have a narrowed definition of what beauty really means for a woman. |
Barbies' face isn't like yours
Barbies’ face always has makeup on: - long eyelashes - lip gloss - brown eyebrows Eyes: - blue - double eyelid Compared to reality, many women’s eye color is different and some women have double eyelids while some others do not. [double eyelid: many of Barbies’ double eyelids size are wide and bigger. In reality, some women’s double eyelids are similar to Barbie. However, some women's double eyelids are narrower and smaller, which is not the same as Barbies.] Nose: - small Compared to reality, many women’s nose size are different Skin: - too pure (no scars/spots/acne) Compared to reality, many women will have acne/spots/scars on their face. Face: - Both sides of Barbies’ face are perfect and equal. In reality, many people (men/women)’s faces on both sides are not equal while some people's faces on both sides are equal. This means some of people’s left face side is smaller than the right side and some of people’s right face side is bigger than the left side. It is not too obvious to see it unless you will see it when it gets closer or you will see it in a photo. This is called an asymmetrical face. |
Barbie's UNREAL
At the beginning, Barbie's design was to try to break away the female traditional characters, and create an outstanding woman who is economically independent, courageous, enterprising, beautiful and smart. Under feminist era, Barbie’s unreal body proportion have been blamed a lot. People begin to think that Barbie should be designed according to the real female body, so as not to adversely affect social values.
According to data analysis, if a woman wants to have the same figure as Barbie, she needs to be 7 feet 2 inches tall, and can only weigh 115 to 130 pounds. The ratio of measurements is 38 to 48 inches, bust 18 to 23 inches, hips Around 30 to 36 inches. And using this ratio, if Barbie is a living girl, her neck cannot support her head at all, and her 6-inch tiny ankle cannot support the weight of her head and torso, so she must rely on her limbs. Crawling forward has seriously affected the standard of the human health concept. After Mattel redesigned Barbie in 1997, it not only increased the size of the neck and ankles, but also the waist. Many scholars criticize Barbie as "empty glamour", whether it is the display of physical body images or the expression of personal images in social culture, it is inappropriate. The popularity of Barbie dolls not only reflects the public's love for its styling but also becomes an ideal role model for many women. Women's pressure on their body may come from the ubiquitous unified standards for beauty. Whether it’s a Barbie doll or a daily fashion model flooded with mass media, they all convey a similar definition of an ideal body. Information in this section courtesy of: O'Brien, J. (Ed.) (2009). Encyclopedia of gender and society Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412964517 |