Barbie’s Makeover: Does it really matter?
After 50 years in the market, Mattel has finally surrendered to the cries of various customers, and released a line of diverse body shaped Barbies, in January 2016.
The company Mattel, founded by Ruth and Elliot Handler in 1959, created Barbie, a doll all too familiar to girls of every age around the world. The original Barbie proportions were of above average standards; A miniscule waist with ‘perfect sized’ breasts, white ethnicity, blue-eyes and blonde-hair. These were the characteristics given to the doll that has carried the ‘ideal’ body image for generations.
January 2016 marked an important day for kids in history: Mattel released a line of Barbies in all shapes, sizes and even skin colors. Curvy, petite, black, tall –7 skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles cant possibly disappoint. Mattel also released an advertisement featuring a young boy – stating that Barbie dolls are not exclusive to girls alone. The company’s slogan also changed to “Imagination comes in all shapes and sizes. That’s why the world of Barbie is evolving.”
However, this is not the first attempt Mattel has made to diversify their dolls. In 1980, Mattel released a black Barbie, but the dolls still had Caucasian features, they also attempted to make Barbie’s waist bigger in 1997 but that was not a big success either.
After Mattel made the announcement of releasing the new Barbie line, people began expressing their opinions. Since Barbie has been around for 57 years, she has had her fair share of controversies. Many complaints regarding the doll stemmed from the fact that she represented girls in a negative light. In 2014, a computer engineer Barbie book was released, insinuating in it that girls are unable to complete technical work without the help of males. Similarly, in 1992 Teen Talk Barbie spoke the phrase “Math class is tough!” Barbie is also commonly known to push weight loss with dolls such as ‘Barbie Baby-sits’, who came with a book on how to loose weight and the only tip was ‘Don’t eat!’ Not to mention ‘Slumber Party’ Barbie, who came with a scale permanently set to 110 lbs.
Because Mattel has made several attempts to diversify Barbie dolls over the years, what makes the new line so different? Today, media influences are bigger than ever and many outlets have taken the responsibility of portraying a positive representation for the young, easily influenced kids. Mattel has been an iconic brand in the lives of youngsters for many years. Taking this huge step to diversify their brand in order to reach their various audiences is a game changer itself. Their chances of promoting the positive representation of their brand will certainly increase after this superb change.
“Barbie is a huge role model for girls. What Mattel is doing is great because little girls look up to Barbie and want to be like her in terms of looks. It is very heartbreaking to see girls who aren’t skinny feeling insecure because they don’t look like her. Having a Barbie that is closer to their body shape would make girls more confident in their skin.” Says Alyazia Al Marri, who played with Barbies all her childhood.
Maryam Al Muzakki, a 17 year old who played with Barbies as a child and also has a little sister who now plays with Barbie, commented, “I think it’s a good idea and I support it because kids should have a variety of choices to pick from and people with curvier bodies should not feel neglected”. She continued to say “But in my opinion, a doll is just an object to play with and not a role model for kids, so I don’t think kids would really find a difference with the body shape”.
Nafja Al Jamal, an 18 year old girl also shared her view on Mattel’s new Barbie line “It’s a really good idea for kids to have different types of bodies represented in Barbie dolls because usually they’re all the same – tall, thin and tiny waists – and kids should know that people rarely look like that. It’s a good idea to put this concept in young minds before they mature” she also goes on to say “The next thing Barbie should change is that they need to include Barbie’s that are doctors, engineers and other important careers. Girls need to see that they can do these jobs too when they grow up and have the idea that they can do more than just have a big pink house and a nice car”.
For a lot of kids, Barbie is like a sister figure, someone that they look up to and strive to be like. Mattel sees this and has finally taken on the responsibility of creating a doll for everyone to relate to and look up to as a positive representation and role model when it comes to physical image.
