Barbie's better version

ll, Mattel’s Barbie, turned 55 this week, though you would never know it by looking at her.

Considering how long she has been around, it’s no surprise the doll has caused a bit of trouble — mostly surrounding her figure. Fortunately, an independent toy maker has offered a more realistic alternative.

If Barbie were a real girl, the constant attention to her unhealthy proportions would be annoying and insulting.

However, she isn’t flesh and blood. The unhealthy lifestyle isn’t something she is doing to herself — it’s something her influence is doing to her child consumers.

Everybody that has ever heard of Barbie knows about the doll’s crazy unrealistic proportions. If she were real, she wouldn’t be able to support her own weight and would have to crawl on her hands and knees. Not that her hands would be any big support, seeing as her wrists would only be 3.5 inches around.

It’s not hard to make the connection that the millions of young girls who see Barbie as a role model see her literally unattainable body type as the ideal.

It’s equally easy to make the connection to the growing rates of eating disorders occurring in children younger than 12.

The doll’s latest occupation as the cover girl on the annual swimsuit addition of Sports Illustrated has caused quite the scandal. The cover is notoriously reserved for the world’s sexiest women to be scantily clad and ogled.

Choosing to have a children’s toy fill this roll sends the wrong message both the consumers of the magazine and to the consumers of Barbie dolls.

The magazine has over-sexualized a doll. Barbie’s main function is as a stand in for children’s imaginative versions of themselves. That’s creepy.

Fortunately, there is another side to Barbie’s perpetual controversy.

Last year, a digital rendering of a “realistic Barbie” went viral. The image shows the typical Mattel Barbie standing next to a shorter, wider doll, whose proportions are congruent with the average measurements of a 19-year-old woman in the United States.

Since then, creator Nickolay Lamm launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to create his line of dolls with the same average measurements.

Lamm will create a line of what he calls “Lammily” dolls. The dolls will also have bendable arms, wrists, knees and feet, so the doll has a wider range of mobility, allowing for a wider range of sports and activities.

His idea is if the toy companies won’t change to accommodate concerns as to negative effects of their toys, then people should create toys that send better messages.

The project has already tripled the goal amount of the crowdfunding campaign — the public seems almost desperate for this doll.

Barbie’s 55th birthday has proved to be a polarizing one.

One side of the reaction shows how far society still has to come against over sexualization of young girls, and acceptance of realistic body standards.

The other side of society proves to be more progressive and empowering to young girls, accepting that “average is beautiful,” as Lamm’s campaign tells us.

After 55 years, it’s time for Barbie’s toy queen successor. Between being a doctor and an astronaut, you know Barbie must have worked up quite a retirement fund.

jordrile@indiana.edu
@RiledUpIDS