Girls, Warts And All

Life in plastic, it바카라�s fantastic바카라�but it was never meant to be realistic. With her stick-thin body and poker-straight hair, Barbie hardly looked the part of the everywoman. Inspired by the mid-century German doll Bild Lilli바카라�sold by bars and toba­cconists and popular among Dutch sa­i­l­ors as a sex toy바카라�Barbie doll was launched in 1959 by American toy company Mattel. She took the second half of the 20th century by storm: the Barbie culture now spans cultures and continents, with her image stamped on the minds of generations. Her impossibly perfect image. The critics would not be silenced: Barbie promoted an unrealistic and unattainable body image, leading to body perception issues and severe eating disorders among kids.

Enter imperfect Barbie. Mattel respon­ded바카라�to the more plastic problem of plummeting sales, with a reported 20 per cent fall from 2012 to 2014, as well as the criticism바카라�through a secret endeavour with a cryptic yet hopeful codename: Project Dawn. Dawn broke in January 2016; Barbies with normal body types, cellulite, acne and stretch marks, Barbies of different ethnicities, hair textures and skin colours now populate the shelves.

The new range appears to be doing well. 바카라�Today, Barbie is the most diverse doll line in the marketplace, offering a variety of body types, skin tones, hairstyles and eye colours. Currently, everything on Barbie is selling바카라�the variety we offer is resonating, igniting more opportunities for storytelling and imagination through Barbie play,바카라� says Lokesh Kataria, head of marketing, Mattel, India and South Asia, adding, 바카라�Over the past four years, the Barbie brand has been undergoing a transformation to maintain relevance with today바카라�s parents and children and the world girls see today.바카라�  

Kataria further mentions that Barbie the brand has been performing well across India: 바카라�The preference of the brand has seen a considerable spike from both girls and their mothers due to both the evolution of the marketing message to focus on the type of play Barbie enables, and the addition of more variety into the line to include a more diverse offering.바카라� Rivals too have arisen: Lammily, the 바카라�normal Barbie바카라� created by the evidently imaginative Nickolay Lamm, is the new 바카라�it doll바카라�. More anatomically correct than your garden variety Barbie, she boasts an athlete바카라�s figure. Makeup? Minimal. Her acne and stretch marks? She바카라�s not bothered.

So, what has the orthodox Barbie wrought to provoke such a revolution? 바카라�Kids are impressionable, and are bound to pick up subtle hints and make their own assumptions, which could be faulty. Dolls act as companions, making it easy for the child to emulate the physical characteristics as well, be it the stick-thin figure of a Barbie or the muscular body of an action figure,바카라� Mumbai-based psychologist Dr Anjali Chhabria tells Outlook. Kavita Devgan, a Delhi-based nutritionist, concurs: 바카라�It teaches children to aspire for a skinny body, as that doll has been made exceptionally thin with completely unrealistic measurements. They project an inappropriate and potentially dangerous representation of what the human form should be for young children.바카라� Coming with makeup, clothes and other accessories, the dolls also put pressure on children to aspire to a certain lifestyle.  

And what do children and young adults do to 바카라�emulate바카라� these plastic bodies? Nandini Raman, an academic in Delhi, says, 바카라�I see a lot of kids at school and college go through this identity crisis, sometimes even leading to eating disorders. Barbie is really far from what any woman looks like. Kids, at this impressionable age, end up self-harming, growing up with low or no self-esteem, lack of confidence and a poor body image.바카라� Early on, Barbie바카라�s manufacturers poured oil on these flames: in 1963, the doll came with a book titled How to Lose Weight, with strict instructions to eat little. Research has shown that Barbie, with her 36-inch chest and 18-inch waist, would lack the 17 per cent body fat required to menstruate.

Another dimension to Barbie바카라�s global hegemony is that it reinforces an American, specifically a white American, conception of beauty, in an exercise of soft power. A 2003 study (The wonder of Barbie: popular culture and the making of female identity, by Lenore Wright) argues that Barbie embodies an American zeal to legitimate their country as a superpower바카라�an ­aspiration that바카라�s largely been fulfilled, as seen in the pop-cultural legitimacy of other American cre­ations like Superman and Batman. With an asc­endant Barbie, the terminology of 바카라�pretty바카라�바카라�a limited lexicon consisting of 바카라�white바카라�, 바카라�slim바카라� and 바카라�blonde바카라�바카라�gained a fresh bulwark. And this exclusive whiteness exemplified another American phenomenon, claims the study: the marginalisation of other races in that country.

In the Indian context, such aesthetic compulsions help drag the colonial hangover into the afternoon; memsahib is alive and well. Swati Pal, principal, Janki Devi Memorial College, Delhi, recalls, 바카라�Not just the Barbie doll, but all the wal­kie-talkie dolls I saw as a kid, were fair and had blue eyes and golden hair. Owning a doll like this was a really coveted thing, an aspiration. And what a perpetuation of a stereotype.바카라�

How useful is imperfect Barbie as a remedy for such maladies? Psychologist Dr Seema Hingorrany is hopeful: 바카라�The new range of imperfect Barbies helps us understand that we are not plastic, and hence cannot be perfect.바카라� She adds, 바카라�The truth was that beauty was what the aura depicted, which was not told to girls. For generations, the concept and definition of beauty were distorted, which thankfully is corrected now.바카라�

Recalling the psychological effects and consequent eating disorders, Devgan says, 바카라�If for nothing else, then to help undo the damage the earlier imp­ossibly thin (almost anorexic-looking) Barbie had inflicted on the psyche and thought process of an entire generation or two of growing children. Hopefully, the curvy Barbie will give girls a more accurate and realistic view of body image.바카라� The new range바카라�s inclusiveness may also be a plus, although even this reinstates stereotypes바카라�perhaps it바카라�s only that there are more of the latter to choose from now. 바카라�I appreciate the effort the makers are putting into the way they are bringing the dolls about now: pilot, gymnast, doctor, rock star, the doll can be anyone. And yes, now she can also be fat and dark, curly and freckled, in jeans and wearing keds,바카라� says Anubhuti Krishna, a mother of two girls who otherwise has a strict anti-Barbie policy.  

It바카라�s been nearly three years already, and Mattel seems upbeat. The realistic Barbies look like a tribe of young girls who children of all appearances can relate to바카라�and this seems part of a wider trend. Nowadays, challenging the traditional catwalk, we see fashion shows for women with dark skin, acid burns and disabilities, and plus-size women. Only time will tell whether all this is merely an intellectual exercise or a real social movement.