According to CBS News, even back then, Barbie was craving perfection. As quoted from Merriam Webster, “...the quality or state of being perfect: such as freedom from fault or defect: flawlessness...” (Perfection). The Barbie doll, if blown up into a real life human, could not even stand. The size of her feet are not big enough to hold someone of that tall and she would have abnormally small muscles.Yet, we place these in the hands of young American girls, and say “this is the image you are to strive for to succeed in society.”  As a society today, we strive for perfection, and to us, a doll of these proportion are perfect. The Barbie demonstrates unhealthy perfection, introduces eating disorders, and mental instability.

Barbie's first job, according to TIME, was a “teenage fashion model”. She was introduced in 1959 by Ruth Handler,  whose intent of the doll was to give young girls something to play with rather than take care of, which was typical during this time period.  She made her way into young girls hands in a small black and white strapless romper styled outfit. She wore white sunglasses to match and represented the makeup of the time with blue eyeshadow (Barbie).  She was the idol of every young girl. She demonstrated the high morals of the time that were physically impractical. As the doll evolved, her hair changed, her make up changed, even her job changed, however her body shape never did (Barbie).  She flaunted her flawlessness to young girls as she would prance around her Barbie Dream House; which clearly overestimates the standards of living for the American population. She has succeeded to plaster the idea of what perfection is in society into the growing minds of young children. We may not directly say the word “perfection”, however, our society thrives on the idea of being perfect and our youth see that.

Many children have access to a device of some sort from a young age from which they can access a type of social media from. This later takes the body image that they were taught from dolls including Barbie and put it into real life standards. From a young age, the American youth has the idea to look like this idea of a type of perfection.  Therefore, during middle/high school, it opens the opportunity to body image issues and also will insert the idea of starving and eating disorders (Healthy Teen Project). Quoting the Healthy Teen Project, “40-60% of elementary school girls (ages 6-12) are concerned about their weight or about becoming overweight. This concern endures through life”(Smolak) . The craze to be little, petite, fit, perfect is out there and it was imprinted in the beginning with this doll, even if that's all Barbie is, a doll.  

Two terrifying words for teen girls, the thigh gap. In a watered down dialect, it is when a girls thighs don’t touch, as like Barbie’s. Teens today feel like this determines whether they are skinny or overweight, it is a factor that determines body image. But little do people know, that while yes, weight has something to do with if  your legs will touch, a large portion is your hip structure and how it is set up. Crazy to think about from day one, you were not meant to look like this doll that you idolized. To quote LiveStrong, “it encourages eating disorders.” According to the Barbie Facts Sheet, life-size Barbie would be an average of 5’9 and only a whopping 110 pounds (Katz, Neil).  That weight, is technically considered an unhealthy weight, but we, we see this as pretty.  Those little plastic shoes, those, according to the Facts Sheet, are equal to a size three foot. (Katz, Neil ). It would be impossible for a human of that size to be balanced on a foot of that size.  Barbie would also have a size two waist, which is uncommon in society today. The average size of a young adult females waist is a size 18 (The Average American).

Did you know that there was a doll specifically called “Curvy Barbie”? She was created due to the lack of purchases of the doll. To the eye of some consumers, the problem is fixed. They puffed up the doll a little and now she is average. They attempted to make her more relatable and yet she is labeled “Curvy” and is still smaller than the average population.   While there are many different types of Barbie dolls, the normal curvy barbie averages to be a size 14. The average American Jean size is an eight-teen (Bates, Claire).  To you, that seems like the difference of four small numbers, but for all the girls, they know how good it feels to drop one size. To see that this doll, who is labeled to be “Curvy” is smaller than you by a lot, how do you think young teens would feel?

Most of you, well all of you in this room, because you took American History, know the events that women took to be able to work, what feminism was to them. She was created to give girls inspiration to achieve their goals and work when they are older. According to TIME magazine, after she was a “teenage fashion model”, according to Barbie, she broke records with her Dream House and then soon after, becoming a female president and an astronaut (Barbie).  While these jobs were meant to empower the youth and show that they would be accepted as a man, it showed that they still had a role of the women and be perfectly poised nad dressed in pink. When Barbie “went to the moon” she was sporting her rose gold boots, gloves, and suit details (Barbie). She later was introduced as the CEO of a company, but this doll was only wearing pink, a statement color for Barbie that heavily portrayed the feminine side of the doll and the company of Barbie (Barbie).  Young girls were given the idea that in order to look like this doll, they could only wear pink. Despite the jobs Barbie was given throughout the years, Model is the one that has heavily stuck (Sean).

Lammily, another doll company and competitor to the Barbie company, has introduced that Lammily doll that, according to the doll measurements, is more accurate to the young adult female society (Sean). The Lammily company did an experiment with young girls and asked questions such as, “What job would this doll have?” or, “Which doll looks most like you?”(Sean). The results showed that the majority of the young girls felt more relative to the Lammily doll that had dimensions more accurate to the sizes of our society (Barbie) (Sean).

The  doll sizes have impacted young girls and the female society and the future female society. Standards have gotten higher. Standards have impacted the US culture and lifestyle. Standards have affected life choices. As said before, the high standard of body image introduced at such a young age by these influences “...encourages eating disorders...” (Filling in the Facts About Thigh Gaps).