{"id":5822,"date":"2023-07-20T20:43:38","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T13:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=5822"},"modified":"2023-07-20T20:43:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T13:43:38","slug":"barbies-out-of-date-beauty-standards-still-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=5822","title":{"rendered":"Barbie&#8217;s Out-of-Date Beauty Standards Still Persist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"drop-cap text-big text-gray\"> <span class=\"drop-cap__first text-dropcap \">I<\/span> grew up collecting Barbies that looked <em>nothing<\/em> like the chubby, acne-prone-by-age-10, frizzy-haired little girl I saw in the mirror ever would\u2014and I say that as a white woman without disabilities or any other intersectional layers of marginalized identity. Even now, the aesthetic that Barbie embodied left me questioning how I look and present in my world. (Though I\u2019m not <em>blaming<\/em> Barbie for the body dysmorphia I developed as a teen, she certainly didn\u2019t help). So when the doll <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/barbie-new-body-cover-story\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/time.com\/barbie-new-body-cover-story\/\">got an inclusive makeover in 2016<\/a> after decades of controversy surrounding her unrealistic proportions, I felt hopeful that the next generation of doll lovers wouldn\u2019t hold themselves to the same impossible beauty standards that I did.<\/div>\n<p>To date, Barbie manufacturer Mattel has since expanded the brand to include more than 175 dolls with varying skin types, hairstyles, and body types, as well as a doll with vitiligo, a doll with Down syndrome, dolls that use a wheelchair or a prosthetic limb, a doll with hearing aids, and a doll without hair. And when I more recently found out that Greta Gerwig would be directing the new <em>Barbie <\/em>movie<em>\u2014<\/em>and had plans to use the film to address the doll&#8217;s problematic past and include Barbies of <em>all <\/em>shapes and sizes, all through a feminist lens\u2014I marked my calendar for July 21 and started planning my hot pink outfit for premiere day.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content \" style=\"\" data-module-init=\"related-content\" data-module-immediate=\"\" v-cloak=\"\">\n<div class=\"related-content__wrapper \" v-cloak=\"\" :class=\"{'is-loaded':isLoaded}\">\n<p> <span class=\"inline pr-6 text-seafoam-dark\">Related Stories<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <related-content class=\"related-content__links\" parent-article-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/barbie-beauty-standards\/\" current-title=\"If She\u2019s Everything, Where Does That Leave Me? There Are Problems With Barbiemania\" current-image=\"WG_Editorial_Barbie_feature-425x285.jpg\" v-on:parsely-posts-loaded=\"onPostsLoaded\" start-date=\"2023-01-20\" tag=\"div\" inline-template=\"\" url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/barbie-beauty-standards\/\" secret=\"w5ztterVB03LGZJLfXS0hf3EvQBuFFIWew9hmVQxthU\" apikey=\"wellandgood.com\" limit=\"3\"> <\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"related-content__card mb-[10px] sm:mb-[20px]\" :class=\"{'related-content__card--full':posts.length === 1}\" v-for=\"(post, key) in posts\"> <a v-on:click.prevent=\"trackLinkGA($event, key)\" :href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/barbie-beauty-standards\/post.url\" data-url-source=\"related-content\" class=\"related-content__link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"\"> <\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content__card--image bg-tan\" :style=\"{ backgroundImage: 'url(' + post.image_url + ')' }\"> <img :src=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/barbie-beauty-standards\/post.image_url\" :alt=\"post.title\"\/> <\/div>\n<p> <\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/related-content> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Fast-forward to about a month ago, when Barbiemania emerged in full force amid the movie\u2019s official press tour and general cultural excitement. It\u2019s become impossible to log on to social media (or drive down any billboard-laden street or walk into a freaking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zara.com\/us\/en\/woman-barbie-collection-mkt6395.html\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.zara.com\/us\/en\/woman-barbie-collection-mkt6395.html\">Zara store<\/a>) without being bombarded with images of Barbie\u2019s blonde hair, blue eyes, and thin body in the form of actor Margot Robbie, who\u2019s playing the iconic doll in the film. It didn\u2019t take long before my work inbox began to flood with emails from beauty brands with products that promised to make me (and, by proxy, any Well+Good reader) look as blonde, smooth, and <em>perfect<\/em> as Barbie. The rhetoric brought me right back to feeling the same way as I did when I was 10 years old and realized that I would never look like <em>that <\/em>Barbie.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear: I haven\u2019t seen the movie. From what I understand, though, the beauty industry\u2019s commoditization of and messaging surrounding Barbiemania is in complete opposition to the film\u2019s messaging, which reportedly rejects the perception that Barbie\u2014in her classic form\u2014is the pinnacle of feminine beauty. \u201cI don\u2019t think you should say, \u2018This is the one version of what Barbie is, and that\u2019s what women should aspire to be and look like and act like,\u2019\u201d Robbie recently told <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6289864\/barbie-time-cover-story\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6289864\/barbie-time-cover-story\/\"><em>Time <\/em>magazine<\/a><em>. <\/em>\u201cIf [Mattel] hadn\u2019t made that change to have a multiplicity of Barbies, I don\u2019t think I would have wanted to attempt to make a Barbie film.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though the film features various actors playing various Barbies\u2014Issa Rae as President Barbie, Sharon Rooney as Lawyer Barbie, Kate McKinnon as Gymnast Barbie\u2014it\u2019s Robbie\u2019s \u201cStereotypical Barbie\u201d (a moniker in the movie meant to highlight that the original blonde Barbie may still be most associated with the toy but isn\u2019t the only legitimate one on the block) whose likeness we can\u2019t escape. And certain segments of the beauty industry have capitalized on the insecurity that the traditional Barbie image evokes to try to sell products\u2014completely missing the point of the steps that the film has tried to take forward and, in effect, messing with our mental health.<\/p>\n<h2>Barbie, personified<\/h2>\n<p>When Barbie hit the shelves 1959, she was the first ever mass-produced adult doll on the market. Before she came around, baby dolls that taught little girls how to be mothers were the only option. At the time, Barbie\u2019s blonde hair, blue eyes, and itty-bitty waist represented the \u201cideal\u201d woman. It wasn\u2019t until 50 years later\u2014in <em>2014!<\/em>\u2014that people caught on to the fact that it would be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medicaldaily.com\/pulse\/barbies-body-measurements-set-unrealistic-goals-little-girls-sales-plummet-316006\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.medicaldaily.com\/pulse\/barbies-body-measurements-set-unrealistic-goals-little-girls-sales-plummet-316006\">physically impossible<\/a> for a human to actually look like her (her breast-to-waist ratio would cause her to topple over, she\u2019d have to walk on all fours, and she wouldn\u2019t be able to hold up her own head).<\/p>\n<p>But by then, the damage had already been done. A 2016 study\u2014which, coincidentally, came out the same year that the body-inclusive Barbies were introduced\u2014found that girls aged 6 to 8 who played with Barbies were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S174014451630208X\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S174014451630208X\">more likely to experience body dissatisfaction<\/a> than those who played with what the research calls full-figured dolls. And now, the once-inanimate doll has come to life in the form of a living, breathing, human being.<\/p>\n<p>Again, though the film itself and Robbie\u2019s portrayal of Barbie reportedly aims to be progressive, in the lead-up to the premiere, the attention given to her resemblance of the original iteration of the doll is unignorable. To no fault of Robbie\u2019s, the fanfare associated with the movie has brought the doll\u2019s impossible beauty standards out of Barbieland and into the real world, which has paved the way for Barbiemania to mess with our heads in an entirely new way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it\u2019s just a plastic doll, we can look at the doll and say, \u2018That\u2019s made in a factory, that\u2019s not attainable. It\u2019s 12 inches tall, its measurements are ridiculous, I couldn\u2019t look like that.\u2019 While we might still feel an emotional desire to look perfect, we know it\u2019s a doll,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/drcarlamanly.com\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/drcarlamanly.com\/\">Carla Marie Manly<\/a>, PhD, author of <em>Joy From Fear<\/em>. \u201cHowever, when Hollywood makes a human being into the doll, it\u2019s not a human-to-doll comparison any longer\u2014it\u2019s human-to-human. Our brains don\u2019t go through the steps of thinking that it took perfect lighting, great costuming, an entire crew, and many hours of work to achieve that look. They immediately think, \u2018If another human looks that good, I should be able to look that good, too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Manly calls the phenomenon that this evokes \u201ctoxic comparison,\u201d which causes us to stop focusing on becoming the best versions of ourselves in favor of trying to be like someone else. \u201cThe minute we start comparing ourselves to any other human being is the minute we go down the slippery slope of worsening our self-esteem and our ability to really embrace self-love,\u201d she says. \u201cInstead of using your energy to evolve into a better version of <em>you<\/em>, that energy is going toward thinking \u2018What can I buy? What can I do to myself to look like this other person?\u2019 So you\u2019re inherently giving yourself the message that you\u2019re not good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Beauty brands have capitalized on Barbiemania in a way that feels\u2026 icky<\/h2>\n<p>As images of \u201cStereotypical Barbie\u201d have become ubiquitous, many brands have capitalized on the potential insecurities they bring to light by offering products and services that will make you look more like a classic Barbie.<\/p>\n<p>In the past week alone, I\u2019ve received emails about \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tga.gov.au\/news\/news\/beware-barbie-drug-dangers-using-melanotan\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.tga.gov.au\/news\/news\/beware-barbie-drug-dangers-using-melanotan\">The Barbie Drug<\/a>\u201d (aka Melanotan, a nasal spray that makes you look tan and that doctors absolutely advise against using), a \u201cBarbie Butt lift,\u201d a lip plumper to make you \u201dpout like Barbie,\u201d and a slew of \u201clast minute beauty buys to turn you into the Barbie of your dreams.\u201d A plastic surgeon on Long Island is even offering a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/07\/14\/i-can-turn-you-into-barbie-with-a-120k-plastic-package\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/07\/14\/i-can-turn-you-into-barbie-with-a-120k-plastic-package\/\">Barbie Makeover<\/a>\u201d\u2014complete with a breast augmentation, liposuction, facial reconstruction, and whatever other custom cosmetic services you may need to transform into Barbie\u2014for $120,000.\u00a0 \u201cIf advertisers or the media can convince us that we need to be a certain type of individual, especially one that is unattainable, then they not only have our attention, but they also have our discretionary income,\u201d says Dr. Manly. \u201cThe more they can make us feel as though we are imperfect in negative ways, the more they have grabbed us for a lifetime of wanting to be something that is not only unhealthy to achieve, but impossible.\u201d\u00a0 None of these products or services are related to the movie in any official capacity\u2014the film\u2019s <em>actual<\/em> beauty partnerships (with brands like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyxcosmetics.com\/barbiemovie-collection\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.nyxcosmetics.com\/barbiemovie-collection\/\">NYX<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opi.com\/collections\/opi-barbie-collection\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.opi.com\/collections\/opi-barbie-collection\">OPI<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mykitsch.com\/pages\/barbie\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.mykitsch.com\/pages\/barbie\">Kitsch<\/a>) are cute, fun, and overwhelmingly pink. But there\u2019s a stark difference between getting a #barbiecore manicure and engaging in questionable cosmetic practices meant to make you look like a doll.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy most accounts, the new <em>Barbie<\/em> movie will be a feminist take on the character, but the film still embraces the look of an archetypal Barbie\u2014with her non-functional feet and tiny, flat, ski-slope nose\u2026I worry about reintroducing these ideals, even in the context of a modern story,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facialplasticsnyc.com\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.facialplasticsnyc.com\/\">Dara Liotta, MD<\/a>, a facial plastic surgeon in Manhattan. \u201cRomancing Barbie may not be not good for [people\u2019s] mental health,\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>It\u2019s time we move beyond the old-school version of Barbie beauty<\/h2>\n<p>I love\u2014and have always loved\u2014Barbie, and am genuinely excited to see how Robbie, Gerwig, and everyone else involved in the project will contribute to shifting her narrative onscreen. But for all of the feminist strides the film promises to make, it\u2019s a real disappointment to see the beauty world using the opportunity as an excuse to peddle the same tired beauty standards. Barbie herself has moved beyond\u2014in a spaceship, on a motorcycle, and in her iconic pink Corvette\u2014so why can\u2019t we?<\/p>\n<p>And for those of us who <em>are<\/em> feeling insecure in bodies that don\u2019t fit into the Stereotypical Barbie level of perfection, remember: \u201cShe\u2019s factory-formed, and we are human,\u201d says Dr. Manly. \u201cWe want to celebrate and honor the uniqueness of the ordinary human form, the everyday beauty of a woman who knows and loves and feels good about herself regardless of her physical appearance\u2014who loves herself from the inside out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1675549\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up collecting Barbies that looked nothing like the chubby, acne-prone-by-age-10, frizzy-haired little girl I saw in the mirror ever would\u2014and I say that as a white woman without disabilities or any other intersectional layers of marginalized identity. Even now, the aesthetic that Barbie embodied left me questioning how I look and present in &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}