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Child Item

Is Barbie The Devil

astonaidan

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/dec/06/why-wont-buy-barbie-daughter-christmas

Just want a womans perspective if this is the common thought on Barbie, was researching what to get my niece for Christmas and came upon this site.

Like my sisters all played with Barbies and well hasnt seemed to have a negative impact on them

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Ciara GaGa

"Every doll is wearing pink, every trim is sparkly, every skirt is obscenely short, every pair of shoes disablingly high"....

My favourite toys when I was little were my Barbie dolls and although many of her outfits were short and glitzy, there was and still is a variety of types...doctor/nurse, teacher, dentist, vet, fire fighter, architect, pilot, police woman etc

Theres even a president Barbie! https://www.google.ie/search?q=president+barbie&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=11OuUturEOWw7QaUrIDYDw&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1365&bih=664&dpr=0.75#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=rJEA9aU6vO20sM%3A%3BRI163AB9Im0dQM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F2.bp.blogspot.com%252F-0D6UVqyHVac%252FT6IeEuUXrqI%252FAAAAAAAAAiE%252F6_8k8Zfr4vw%252Fs1600%252Fbarbie-for-president-2012.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcampaignsick.blogspot.com%252F2012%252F05%252Fbarbie-for-president.html%3B950%3B950

bodice ripper

fussyonion wrote: »

Just because your parents bought you train sets and books doesn't mean the children of today want the same.

I totally get that you'd be trying to protect your child and I do see where you're coming from, but my opinion is that children don't see these dolls as anything other than harmless dolls.

I never for a minute thought of Barbie as anything other than a pretty doll to dress up and have fun with.

I never wanted to be her, I never compared myself to her..I would have been six, seven or eight years old and they were just the It toy of my generation.

I'm just trying to point out that kids are innocent and they don't see things the way we see them.
I didn't mean to come across nasty in my previous post, I'm just explaining how I see it.

Great, fantastic. Raise your kids that way. I wouldn't. That is how *I* see it. I didn't have toys full stop, but I wouldn't go that far personally. But the way I was raised, it would never have crossed my mind to want a barbie doll, and it contributed to who I am today. I thought that was what everyone passed to their kids...?

SparkySpitfire

http://shop.barbie.com/en-us/productdetail.html?id=18338936&productxxx=1&ProductName=Barbie-Mariposa-and-the-Fairy-Princess-Princess-Catania-Doll

Waaaaaaaaaaaant. Ooooooh

What's so wrong with wanting to be a princess?

Love how to article is bashing Barbie but it has led me to go looking at them and admire the pretty dresses hehe

April O Neill II

Candie wrote: »

If I had a daughter I wouldn't want Barbie around to teach her that the ideal way to look is like a brain dead junior hooker on the night of a rugby international.

She doesn't offend me but there are much better toys out there for kids. Like Lego. Get her Lego. Lego is great. All kids love Lego.

I loved Lego. I also loved Barbie. It's not one or the other.

fussyonion

bodice ripper wrote: »

Great, fantastic. Raise your kids that way. I wouldn't. That is how *I* see it. I didn't have toys full stop, but I wouldn't go that far personally. But the way I was raised, it would never have crossed my mind to want a barbie doll, and it contributed to who I am today. I thought that was what everyone passed to their kids...?

I don't know what you mean by "raise your kids that way"?

What way exactly?

April O Neill II

April O Neill II wrote: »

I loved Lego. I also loved Barbie. It's not one or the other.

Though to add to this, Barbie was classier when I was a kid. But I was an arty kid and loved dressing up my Barbie and doing her hair. What's wrong with that?

metaoblivia

SparkySpitfire wrote: »

http://shop.barbie.com/en-us/productdetail.html?id=18338936&productxxx=1&ProductName=Barbie-Mariposa-and-the-Fairy-Princess-Princess-Catania-Doll

Waaaaaaaaaaaant. Ooooooh

What's so wrong with wanting to be a princess?

Love how to article is bashing Barbie but it has led me to go looking at them and admire the pretty dresses hehe

I have to admit, going through all of those outfits - scandalous as some were - did make me want to dress that Barbie up. I'm more drawn to the special event/holiday glamour gowns than anything else.

http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Collector-2010-Holiday-Doll/dp/B0037UT1LY

Yes, please.

bodice ripper

fussyonion wrote: »

I don't know what you mean by "raise your kids that way"?

What way exactly?

Whatever way you think is best. I, personally, don't think barbies are a good thing. I oversaw my apprentice tattooing a barbie doll logo on herself today. It clearly means something to her, and I hardly think of her as an eejit. But for me, the absence of barbie/brats/hair styling dolls was a major plus.

xxmeabhxx

I used to play with barbies all the time when I was a kid and I don't think children see them the same way adults do. When I got a new barbie, it looked pretty for a few days until me and my sister had managed to completely tangle the hair and the limbs would fall off. Honestly, what I remember most is getting my mom to put the legs and arms back on when they fell off which happened a lot and trying to untangle the hair and find a matching outfit as they all got mixed together. Also, it's about creating stories and having them interact with each other, it's imaginative and not just about mindlessly combing their hair for hours. I think the media and celebs are to blame for body issues, not toys.

fussyonion

xxmeabhxx wrote: »

I used to play with barbies all the time when I was a kid and I don't think children see them the same way adults do. When I got a new barbie, it looked pretty for a few days until me and my sister had managed to completely tangle the hair and the limbs would fall off. Honestly, what I remember most is getting my mom to put the legs and arms back on when they fell off which happened a lot and trying to untangle the hair and find a matching outfit as they all got mixed together. Also, it's about creating stories and having them interact with each other, it's imaginative and not just about mindlessly combing their hair for hours. I think the media and celebs are to blame for body issues, not toys.

You have just summed up exactly what I've been trying to say.
Thank you!

jill_valentine

fussyonion wrote: »

but my opinion is that children don't see these dolls as anything other than harmless dolls.

I'm sure you're right. But that doesn't mean that they are. Kids absorb their ideas about the world from everything around them whether they're aware of it or not. This stuff does have an effect, it does plant the seeds of what is or is not a good thing to want or aspire to.

Somebody compared it to Action Man - yes, there is a similarity, but if somebody grew up to want Action Man's body, for instance, it's an achievable ideal. Healthy even. And you're about to slap a load of body armour on it so he can go into battle, rather than tarting him up so he looks hot. Barbie's body is not healthy - somebody with her proportions literally could not survive. That's what we're presenting to young girls as perfection, something it is absolutely impossible to achieve and harmful to even aim for, and we get that message in before they have an adult body or body image of their own.

And it's not Barbie in isolation, either, people dismiss this stuff when it comes up in just this regard as if it's something minor, but they have to do the same with Sindy, and then Bratz, and then they have to do it with "Girl's Lego", and then...

Obviously Barbie isn't single-weird-melded-mittenhandedly responsible for giving young girls weird ideas about body image or career paths, but it just can't really be argued that she's not a symptom of something rotten in the bigger picture.

wolfpawnat

Barbie is the ultimate feminist, there is nothing that bítch can't do, and she has everything she could ever want doing it. She don't need Ken to pay for anything.

That said, I only ever wanted the animals that came with Barbie. I hated the cow with a passion. I don't like them, but it's just a doll. Some girls like them, some don't. Getting a child Lego is not forcing them to become a builder or an engineer. Letting them watch Peppa Pig is not telling them to be a pig. I think there are far too many people with far too much time on their hands complaining about every little thing they can think of these days. Would they not read a book or get a past time for themselves.

strobe

jill_valentine wrote: »

And you're about to slap a load of body armour on it so he can go into battle, rather than tarting him up so he looks hot.

So... teaching young boys they should murder other human beings at the behest of politicians... grand.

Teaching young girls its fun to dress pretty... Satan at work.

Got ye.

Bog Standard User

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I was never able to achieve my dream of having the same body as my toys. Eventually I just had to learn to accept that I would never be a robot that could transform into a car.

oh but you can fullfill your dream... happy xmas

Sleepy

Meh, my daughter has Barbies, and her little sister dolls and various bits and piecs. She also has lego, farm sets, teddies, buggies, cars, various play-sets etc. She knows just fine how normal women look because she's surrounded by them: her mammy, her grannies, her aunties etc. How they act and dress will have far, far more impact on her ideas about body image than the dolls she plays with.

I would love to know how much the company selling the Lottie dolls paid the author for her article though! Talk about a press-release masquerading as an article!

Jester252

The only way Barbie can be seen as evil is how men are portrayed as lazy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie's_careers Look at the jobs Barbie had while Ken just sat at home scabbing off her

Sleepy

Thinking about this a little more: I wonder is Barbie just an easy scapegoat for some people who don't want to recognise their failings as parents?

We all make mistakes raising our kids. Much and all as we don't like to admit it, we're human and utterly fallible. Hopefully our mistakes won't be major ones and they're rarely the same ones our own parents made (in fact, they're often the exact opposite: e.g. smothering or spoiling children when your own parents were distant or absent etc.)

A mother who's constantly cycling through the latest fad diets or that leaves trashy magazines which berate the usual vacuous celebrities for putting on weight and celebrate their "great new look" after they've had their latest round of lypo is far, far more likely to cause body image issues than any toy ever could.

SparkySpitfire

metaoblivia wrote: »

I have to admit, going through all of those outfits - scandalous as some were - did make me want to dress that Barbie up. I'm more drawn to the special event/holiday glamour gowns than anything else.

http://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Collector-2010-Holiday-Doll/dp/B0037UT1LY

Yes, please.

Those collector Barbies are the BUSINESS.

Did anyone else have the massive Barbie plane?! BEST. PRESENT. EVER.

April O Neill II

And, about my earlier comment about liking both Lego and Barbie.

My folks and the folks of my friends couldn't afford to buy us any of the accessories to go with our Barbies, so we used to spend HOURS constructing our own houses and furniture for them out of cereal boxes, sellotape, poster paint and anything else we could find. When I think about it now, it was quite a sophisticated operation for a gaggle of girls who went to a terminally sexist primary school (boys play sport, girls knit type thing) We practically needed to appoint a site manager.

We would all have been quite arty childers, which helped, but I have no time for people who claim that playing with Barbies stymies a child's imagination. Firstly, you're not giving kids very much credit at all, and secondly, for us, having Barbies helped bring out our resourceful, creative sides.

And we had Mary Fitzgerald on Make and Do giving us tips on how to make little things for our Barbies. Good ol' Mary.

April O Neill II

I always wanted a brunette Barbie and a black Barbie to put with my ice cold blonde. :cool:

SparkySpitfire

April O Neill II wrote: »

And, about my earlier comment about liking both Lego and Barbie.

My folks and the folks of my friends couldn't afford to buy us any of the accessories to go with our Barbies, so we used to spend HOURS constructing our own houses and furniture for them out of cereal boxes, sellotape, poster paint and anything else we could find. When I think about it now, it was quite a sophisticated operation for a gaggle of girls who went to a terminally sexist primary school (boys play sport, girls knit type thing) We practically needed to appoint a site manager.

We would all have been quite arty childers, which helped, but I have no time for people who claim that playing with Barbies stymies a child's imagination. Firstly, you're not giving kids very much credit at all, and secondly, for us, having Barbies helped bring out our resourceful, creative sides.

And we had Mary Fitzgerald on Make and Do giving us tips on how to make little things for our Barbies. Good ol' Mary.

Tissue box baths were the shizz.