When a girl plays with Barbie...

[humbugbug]

Anyone else seen this advert showing a little girl pretending to be a professor. I was never really into dolls, but can definitely say that Barbie and her unattainably bizarre proportions only ever made me feel inadequate.

Barbies are fun to play with. I had Sindy as a child but happily buy Barbies for my DD. I have also collected some special ones for myself! I don’t understand any critique about body shape, it just didn’t enter my head to compare myself to them. They are a fantasy toy.

My memories of playing with Barbie are mainly about undressing her and wondering if that's what women were supposed to look like. I'm not just saying that now for feminist reasons.

I had a Barbie in the 80s, a friend and I used to play with them a lot. But I never looked at her and felt sad I wouldn't look like that. I'm now 5'1 and overweight but would still be happy for my child to play with Barbies. They're great dolls for make believe, plus you can get so many different ones.

I was talking about jobs I'd done in the past the other day and 8yo DD looked at me open mouthed, full of admiration, and exclaimed "wow Mummy you are just like Barbie!!"

I've never been a fan of hers but my kids love her for her brains and talent not her body.

Oh and clicking her weird kneee joints back and forth. Strangely satisfying but i'm quite glad my legs don't do that.

I used to get frustrated that her legs wouldn't separate enough to sit on my big Sindy horse so that I could give her riding lessons! Sindy however had much more flexible hips and did very well in my dolls' gymkhanas as did She-ra although the fact that her horse could fly probably gave her an unfair advantage

I had a Sindy doll. Layed a lot with my cousin who had Action Man, so Sindy did spend a lot of time on the battlefield.
In her spare time she enjoyed wild swimming (a generation ahead of the curve) although my Dad used to go mad if he found Sindy skinny dipping in the pond. I had to fish her out of the bin several times.
I've missed the Barbie thing with my DD as she's had zero interest.

Ffs it's a doll.

Find something worthwhile to moan about.

Barbies are awesome.

I played with barbies as a child. I am pretty much the most not body conscious person you could meet. I’ve never stressed about appearance or weight. I’ve never been on a diet. I grew up to become an academic. But I think that had much more to do with the messages about bodies and what women can achieve than anything. I was raised by a single mum who build a career rather than stressed about hair extensions.

I think kids aren’t nearly as susceptible to these sort of subconscious things as we think they are. Dh and I are not Christian, but we both grew up in Christian families, went to church schools, made to attend church. We worried about putting our dc into a church school (there are no other options within a 30+ minute drive). But dh reasons it did us no harm, despite our parents best efforts. Our dc will be fine as well.

Though I have to say, I much prefer classic barbie to these awful dolls with the huge sex doll eyes and eyelashes that are everywhere these days. They make me cringe.

Nope not inadequate. I never considered comparing to barbie's body shape as a child, why would i given she was an adult doll?

Wonder if anyone ever felt inadequate to a Bratz dolls out of proportion head?

I never liked dolls and Barbie did make me feel inferior but so did lots of things as I was relentlessly bullied for being the fat kid from about 5 so looks were on my radar from very young.

Sindy made me feel inadequate because she had horses. I would never have horses :(
I didn’t consider her body shape once. Though barbie annoyed me a bit as she was always on tiptoe.

I think Barbie gets too much of a hard time these days.
They have responded to demands and created a whole new product with varying body shapes and new marketing to inspire girls to be whatever they want to be but I don't think there are many other 'girl toy' brands that have had it as tight. Every pink toy advert on the kids channels just now is make your own lip gloss or baby prams or other tat plastered in glitter that is hardly breaking gender boundaries. Then the boys toys come on and it's all - save the world hero's and science.

I would argue that if barbie ever made a child feel inadequate that it wasn't the barbie doll doing that it was the child's home life or other experiences.

100% agree with this.

I loved barbie as a child, and disney princess dolls, and Cindy (Cindy was my fave as she had brown curly hair and blue eyes like me - think she's still at DMs house)

Apart from that I didn't care about their looks at all, I just liked them because they were grown ups and could do things - unlike baby dolls that I found boring. Me and DBro would play together with his action man and camping equipment and my Pochantus and cannoo and they'd have camping adventures.

The other game I played was to dress them all up flowery (like fairies) and lead them from the destroyed rainforest - plot of a kids film I'd seen at the cinema!

I absolutely LOVED barbies and to me I had this world that was very female centred with the occasional man. The women did everything - raised children, ran businesses, etc etc. The clothes and stuff I loved but more from the design point of view, it inspired a life long love of fashion. I honestly think playing with barbies expanded my mind beyond other influences eg tv and film. My barbies were kick ass independent women!!!

I had 52 barbies when I was little. I had the Barbie Dream House. The Campervan. The Swimming Pool and a Fantasy Castle which blew out bubbles.

Not got my PHD quite yet but I teach at a good university and am well on my way to being a professor.

In my case, the advert is totally realistic.

I never bought Barbies for my daughter, but she already had Disney princess body shape equivalents.

She has seen 100s of real life women on a daily basis - and me, naked, a lot.

This is really weird, but she has never said “I want to look like Aurora” but she has said “I hope I’m going to get big boobies like you - do you think I will?”

So seems she’s worked out that I am real and the dolls aren’t (every MN child is a genius!)

My girls had them but preferred baby dolls mostly. They weren’t damaged by seeing them. They didn’t have lower aspirations because of them.They didn’t suffer body image problems because of them. They simply played with them and used them as pupils in schools or patients in hospitals.

I’ve always liked Barbie, she shows girls many career options from such a simple toy.

I was way ahead of the curve. My Barbie and sindy were married to action men and a Jem doll, who changed gender but kept her/his hair. They had flower fairy children. My Barbie usually had to go on missions to rescue people who had been kidnapped, although I was also heavily influenced by Dynasty.

I do not rescue kidnapped people, nor do I own a selection of horses,although Dh has the same colouring as one of the action men.

rufflecrow my knees click

Honestly I loved playing with Barbie dolls as a child, and teenage mutant ninja turtles dolls as well as baby dolls and matchbox cars.
I didn't want to be Barbie any more than I wanted to be Donatello, Tiny Tears or Ford Escort.

My children loved Barbie, and I would rather a child had to imagine, than they were glued to a screen.