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Your Opinion on Plus Size Barbie

What do you think of plus-size barbie?

  • Total voters
    48
Peter Grimm said:
Good point. I think you're right, it's tough as a guy to understand the whole picture. Myself, I don't think a doll can, by itself, give a girl body-image issues. I think it's more up to the parents communicating with their kids.

I think it's up to the parents to teach their daughters to live a healthy lifestyle in terms of proper diet and exercise, and then within that to teach them that they're perfect just the way they are.
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The problem is that mainstream, pop or commercial culture has a much stronger influence over our kids now then it has in the past. I agree that it is a parents obligation to provide their kids that message but against all those outside forces a parent can do their best but it just isn't enough to combat that bombardment of bad influence.
 
ChrisL said:
I agree, but she's a doll and doesn't have to be life like. Kind of an important aspect to playing with dolls is pretending. I just don't believe that a doll would have nearly the impact on body image as Hollywood does.
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My kids play with all sorts of toys... dino's with clothes and big heads, teddy bears of different sizes and some with little stuffing so they flop about, doll house toys... almost all of it is for their make believe world where the toys are as real as they are. Toys are for imaginative play. If people actually think that Barbie messes with girls self-image then they either should get them some other toys to balance things out or go and see a ****ing psychologist because they need help and shouldn't be parents in the first place.
 
I wonder if cabbage patch kids are proportionate to babies? Their cheek size may cause children to feel insignificant.
 
opendebate said:
The problem is that mainstream, pop or commercial culture has a much stronger influence over our kids now then it has in the past. I agree that it is a parents obligation to provide their kids that message but against all those outside forces a parent can do their best but it just isn't enough to combat that bombardment of bad influence.
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Don't let them watch so much TV.
 
The German said:
Should I ever have kids, videogames will probably have completly replaced toys by then.
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A lot of videogames have come and gone since Atari began replacing pinball machines with Pong units in 1972. Meanwhile, Barbie's still here.
 
Peter Grimm said:
There is currently a debate raging over at the Huffington Post whether Mattel should make a plus-size Barbie doll for children.

On the one hand, people are arguing that the original (skinny) Barbie promotes an unhealthy body image, and that little girls should have more realistic dolls to play with.

On the other hand, people are arguing that the plus-size Barbie promotes unhealthy eating habits, and they are saying it's political correctness gone wild.

Then, of course, you have the middle-of-the-roaders, who think they should make a Barbie somewhat in between the two dolls shown below.

What do you think?

View attachment 67158892
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In between dolls are not "Barbie". Sheesh. The nanny-like "promotes poor body image" crowd is getting a bit weenie-ish.
 
Bodhisattva said:
Don't let them watch so much TV.
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My kids are grown (19 and 22) When they were young I did edit what they were allowed to watch to some extent but for the most part I chose to let them be exposed to alot and direct them on what to do with what they were seeing instead. I felt like this stuff will reach them no matter what I do so it makes more sense to let them see it (to some extent) and talk with them about it or guide them.
 
ChrisL said:
You cannot use actresses and models and compare them to your average person though. You also can't make an accurate assessment of an actress or model based upon pictures of them online. There are all KINDS of tricks they use.
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True, still I think it's amazing she's able to look that good at age 50. She plays a stripper in the film The Wrestler (surprisingly a good movie).

I guess that's what having great genes, a good plastic surgeon, a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and an airbrush artist will do.

I don't usually go for women 20 years older than me but she looks good.
 
opendebate said:
The problem is that mainstream, pop or commercial culture has a much stronger influence over our kids now then it has in the past. I agree that it is a parents obligation to provide their kids that message but against all those outside forces a parent can do their best but it just isn't enough to combat that bombardment of bad influence.
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Which partially explains why so many girls are crazy.
 
Bodhisattva said:
My kids play with all sorts of toys... dino's with clothes and big heads, teddy bears of different sizes and some with little stuffing so they flop about, doll house toys... almost all of it is for their make believe world where the toys are as real as they are. Toys are for imaginative play. If people actually think that Barbie messes with girls self-image then they either should get them some other toys to balance things out or go and see a ****ing psychologist because they need help and shouldn't be parents in the first place.
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If you use Google Scholar, you can find any number of articles on body image dissatisfaction and its relationship to eating disorders and etc. Just as a casual example, here is an abstract of one article with a bibliography beneath it. Take a look:

http://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/jscp.2009.28.1.43
 
Peter Grimm said:
There is currently a debate raging over at the Huffington Post whether Mattel should make a plus-size Barbie doll for children.

On the one hand, people are arguing that the original (skinny) Barbie promotes an unhealthy body image, and that little girls should have more realistic dolls to play with.

On the other hand, people are arguing that the plus-size Barbie promotes unhealthy eating habits, and they are saying it's political correctness gone wild.

Then, of course, you have the middle-of-the-roaders, who think they should make a Barbie somewhat in between the two dolls shown below.

What do you think?

View attachment 67158892
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WTF?

Since when is Oprah Winfrey a blonde?
 
its a disgrace, if was in charge we would only make clothes up to a certain size and after that you would have to make your own or pay a tailor to make them for you. You would be either shamed into losing weight or you would be broke from all the tailor fees.
 
Being a father, uncle and grandparent of girls I've noticed when the real little ones pick out baby dolls they always go for the ugliest, baldest ones. Most newborns have some hair, so is this over representation of chemo babies wrong or anti-baby somehow? No. Young girls aren't going to buy/ask for a fat Barbie on their own (without prompting).

Besides, my daughter and my granddaughters need to have rocks in their socks so a stiff wind won't blow them away (my daughter never weighed over a hundred pounds, even in pregnacy, nor did her mother). What does that say to their self-image having a fat Barbie?
 
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I don't think a double-chinned Barbie is a healthy idea, but I do think that a normal-looking Barbie would be terrific.
 
Higgins86 said:
its a disgrace, if was in charge we would only make clothes up to a certain size and after that you would have to make your own or pay a tailor to make them for you. You would be either shamed into losing weight or you would be broke from all the tailor fees.
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as always it's an issue people take to extremes: while there is legitimate blowback on how "beauty" and social ideals are pushed in the media, people have taken it to the point where they try to justify being 400lb pieces of **** who think eating healthy is holding the gravy at KFC. And that being fat is something they can never actually influence.
 
nota bene said:
I don't think a double-chinned Barbie is a healthy idea, but I do think that a normal-looking Barbie would be terrific.
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They already have the no hips, no boobs bleh barbie.
 
Peter Grimm said:
True, still I think it's amazing she's able to look that good at age 50. She plays a stripper in the film The Wrestler (surprisingly a good movie).

I guess that's what having great genes, a good plastic surgeon, a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and an airbrush artist will do.

I don't usually go for women 20 years older than me but she looks good.
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She's a beautiful lady. I'm just saying that she probably has had help and it's not all due to genes.
 
Peter Grimm said:
Big breasts are better on younger women, but medium to small breasts age better. That's because gravity is not your friend. That's my perspective.

You want to see an older woman with perfect breasts, google Marisa Tomei Topless. A younger woman looks better with bigger boobs than that because they haven't had time to sag yet, so they can pull it off.

In fact, big boobs that don't sag at all are a sign of youth and that's probably why they're attractive in the first place.
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She's 49 and it doesn't really hit you until about 54.
 
Henrin said:
They already have the no hips, no boobs bleh barbie.
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I think you are thinking about Skipper. Skipper is Barbie's younger sister. But the last few years she has grown up now. Not as tall as Barbie and probably more proportionately accurate.
Barbie also has a little sister named Chelsea. But the rumor is when she broke up with Ken in 2004 she had a fling with an Australian surfer named Blaine and Chelsea isn't Barbie's "sister" but her "love child" from Blaine.
blaine.jpg


:lol:
 
vesper said:
I think you are thinking about Skipper. Skipper is Barbie's younger sister. But the last few years she has grown up now. Not as tall as Barbie and probably more proportionately accurate.
Barbie also has a little sister named Chelsea. But the rumor is when she broke up with Ken in 200r she had a fling with an Australian surfer named Blaine and Chelsea isn't Barbie's "sister" but her "love child" from Blaine.
blaine.jpg


:lol:
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I am truly mortified you know this much about the barbie family:mrgreen:
 
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