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Your Opinion on Plus Size Barbie

What do you think of plus-size barbie?


  • Total voters
    48
Victoria's Secret wasn't around when Barbie hit the market. Barbie never had panties, but Ken always did.

There ya go. They would've had to give her some unappealing underwear which didn't fit her MO at the time.
 
I just want to know why Barbie didn't have panties while Ken's drawers were built in. Briefs to be specific.

Barbie dolls always came with panties when their outfit was a short skirt. :)

And you can buy panties for them at about a buck a pair.

baun1.jpg
 
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The only people that ever seem to bitch about Barbie being attractive is unattractive feminists. That should tell you all you need to know.
 
Victoria's Secret wasn't around when Barbie hit the market. Barbie never had panties, but Ken always did.

I don't remember my Ken doll having any underwear. I don't think Barbies need panties because they really don't have anything to show. :lol:
 
I think fat acceptance is dangerous for the health of our youth. Just as dangerous as telling them that being anorexic is bad, so is telling them that being fat is ok. I think the whole barby thing is way overblown PC bullcrap by feminists. I don't see anything wrong with aspiring to a healthy body image.
 
I just can't bring myself to care, sorry.
 
That's not really the point. The point is, that Barbie's shape is anatomically impossible, and young girls can have lots of problems trying to live up to unrealistic expectations of what they should look like.

When did healthy become unattractive?

I believe Barbie's shape is a product of factors having to do with scaling. If you take a normal, healthy woman with an attractive, figure, and make a scale model of her that is about a foot tall, it won't look right. Scale a barbie doll up to life-sized, and it will look freakish. The same proportions don't look the same in different sizes.

I believe the shape of the Barbie doll is a product of objective research to determine that shape which, at the size of a Barbie doll, will most look to a young girl the way she thinks an attractive woman should look.

We do, of course, then have the idea that this presents an unrealistic and unhealthy example for that girl to try to aspire to as far as her own figure; but I believe there are worse influences than this at work.

The fashion industry, as a whole, tends to gravitate toward models who are thin to the point of being unhealthy—occasionally to absurd extremes. I have only ever watched one instance of Victoria's Secret's annual fashion show, and that was the first, many years ago. There was one model that they used that was simply grotesque—tempting me to suppose that they obtained this model by going to Ethiopia, digging up the rotting corpse of some poor young woman who starved to death in the great famine that occurred there about a decade before, got a witch-doctor to animate that corpse into a zombie, dressed it up in lingerie, and paraded it around on the stage with the other models. It was really rather disgusting, I thought.

I later determined that the horrid skeletal undead thing that they used is named “Alek Wek”, and is actually from Sudan, rather than Ethiopia, and is allegedly a living human being, rather than—as it certainly appears—an undead zombie created from the corpse of a long-dead famine victim.

Here are a few pictures from the IMDB of this creature:

MV5BMTg4OTcwMTQzMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMDQ2Mjkz._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg MV5BMTkxNjgzNDMwM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNjA4NDA0._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg MV5BMTMyNjUxMzIyM15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwNzExNzg0._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg MV5BODkwMTg0NjU1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMDU2NzA1._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg

It doesn't look nearly as grotesque in these pictures as it did in the Victoria's Secret show. Being more fully-dressed, you don't see how freakishly and sickly emaciated it is as well as you could seeing it wearing only skimpy underwear.

This creature is considered one of the top fashion models; being put forth as an image of what a beautiful woman should look like. I have no idea how it is even alive; there does not appear to be nearly enough flesh to sustain a living organism of its size. In any event, I am sure you can image the harm that any young girl would do to herself trying to conform to this notion of “beauty”. However it is that this creature has achieved this figure without starving to death, it should be obvious that most who attempt to do so would not succeed; and would die well before they achieved this degree of gauntness.
 
Amen to that. More than a handful is just a waste, IMO.

That's what I keep telling my wife. Of all things, she's insecure about her breasts, and wishes they were larger. But they fit my hands perfectly, and I can think of no better criterion on which to judge whether they are too big, too small, or just right.
 
I believe Barbie's shape is a product of factors having to do with scaling. If you take a normal, healthy woman with an attractive, figure, and make a scale model of her that is about a foot tall, it won't look right. Scale a barbie doll up to life-sized, and it will look freakish. The same proportions don't look the same in different sizes.

I believe the shape of the Barbie doll is a product of objective research to determine that shape which, at the size of a Barbie doll, will most look to a young girl the way she thinks an attractive woman should look.

We do, of course, then have the idea that this presents an unrealistic and unhealthy example for that girl to try to aspire to as far as her own figure; but I believe there are worse influences than this at work.

The fashion industry, as a whole, tends to gravitate toward models who are thin to the point of being unhealthy—occasionally to absurd extremes. I have only ever watched one instance of Victoria's Secret's annual fashion show, and that was the first, many years ago. There was one model that they used that was simply grotesque—tempting me to suppose that they obtained this model by going to Ethiopia, digging up the rotting corpse of some poor young woman who starved to death in the great famine that occurred there about a decade before, got a witch-doctor to animate that corpse into a zombie, dressed it up in lingerie, and paraded it around on the stage with the other models. It was really rather disgusting, I thought.

I later determined that the horrid skeletal undead thing that they used is named “Alek Wek”, and is actually from Sudan, rather than Ethiopia, and is allegedly a living human being, rather than—as it certainly appears—an undead zombie created from the corpse of a long-dead famine victim.

Here are a few pictures from the IMDB of this creature:

View attachment 67158935 View attachment 67158936 View attachment 67158937 View attachment 67158938

It doesn't look nearly as grotesque in these pictures as it did in the Victoria's Secret show. Being more fully-dressed, you don't see how freakishly and sickly emaciated it is as well as you could seeing it wearing only skimpy underwear.

This creature is considered one of the top fashion models; being put forth as an image of what a beautiful woman should look like. I have no idea how it is even alive; there does not appear to be nearly enough flesh to sustain a living organism of its size. In any event, I am sure you can image the harm that any young girl would do to herself trying to conform to this notion of “beauty”. However it is that this creature has achieved this figure without starving to death, it should be obvious that most who attempt to do so would not succeed; and would die well before they achieved this degree of gauntness.

I don't really think any regular person would consider a runway model to be the ideal woman. They are more like coat hangers for the clothing. They want the models thin like that because they don't want people to pay attention to the bodies, they want people to look at the clothing.

Of course, I agree that it is unhealthy and sickening looking when they are that thin and bony. It's sad that its the status quo for runway models. There are much worse looking models than even her too. Sad.

Edit* Now that I look at her, she is probably even a little chubby compared to a lot of runway models believe it or not.
 
Take a look at these girls.

super_skinny_models+1.jpg
 
I don't really think any regular person would consider a runway model to be the ideal woman. They are more like coat hangers for the clothing. They want the models thin like that because they don't want people to pay attention to the bodies, they want people to look at the clothing.

Of course, I agree that it is unhealthy and sickening looking when they are that thin and bony. It's sad that its the status quo for runway models. There are much worse looking models than even her too. Sad.

Edit* Now that I look at her, she is probably even a little chubby compared to a lot of runway models believe it or not.

As I said, where I first saw Ms. Wek was on a Victoria's Secret show. Other that it, the other models in that show were the regular Victoria's Secret Models, the same ones you see in their advertisements on TV, and in the catalogs, and elsewhere. And usually they are quite attractive. For some reason, on this show, they never deigned to smile, all having their faces locked into a very unappealing, angry “DON'T YOU DARE LOOK AT ME, YOU DISGUSTING SEXIST PIG!!!” expression, which rather ruined the appeal that they otherwise would have had. Ms. Wek was the only one that seemed unreasonably thin, as I saw them on that show. Perhaps the point in including Ms. Wek was to make the others appear more healthy and attractive by comparison; and if Ms. Wek wasn't there, perhaps I might have thought that the others looked a bit on the thin side.
 
As I said, where I first saw Ms. Wek was on a Victoria's Secret show. Other that it, the other models in that show were the regular Victoria's Secret Models, the same ones you see in their advertisements on TV, and in the catalogs, and elsewhere. And usually they are quite attractive. For some reason, on this show, they never deigned to smile, all having their faces locked into a very unappealing, angry “DON'T YOU DARE LOOK AT ME, YOU DISGUSTING SEXIST PIG!!!” expression, which rather ruined the appeal that they otherwise would have had. Ms. Wek was the only one that seemed unreasonably thin, as I saw them on that show. Perhaps the point in including Ms. Wek was to make the others appear more healthy and attractive by comparison; and if Ms. Wek wasn't there, perhaps I might have thought that the others looked a bit on the thin side.

Yes, the Victoria's Secret models tend to have more of a body because they have to be able to fill out the lingerie they are modeling, and they aren't usually as thin as your typical runway models. The runway models are modeling high end designer clothing, and the designers don't want people to look at the models bodies, just at their "new spring clothing line" or whatever they're trying to sell at the moment. These are usually clothing lines that regular women cannot afford and would not wear and are geared towards more uber wealthy people, so a little different than Victoria's Secret models.
 
The only people that ever seem to bitch about Barbie being attractive is unattractive feminists. That should tell you all you need to know.

Maybe some but they aren't the only ones who are critical of Barbie. There are parents who have concerns about the doll as it epitomizes an unrealistically thin body ideal which they have concerns it may damage girls’ body image later on. With an increase of 8-9 year olds who now claim they diet, and 1 in 10 young ladies reported to have anorexia and/or bulimia compounded with the huge increase in teens/young women seeking cosmetic surgery, you got to wonder if the first step toward all this is introducing your child to a Barbie doll and maybe it sends the wrong message. Barbie could still be "attractive" if she was portrayed in a "normal" size.
 
I still prefer regular Barbie.
 
Maybe some but they aren't the only ones who are critical of Barbie. There are parents who have concerns about the doll as it epitomizes an unrealistically thin body ideal which they have concerns it may damage girls’ body image later on. With an increase of 8-9 year olds who now claim they diet, and 1 in 10 young ladies reported to have anorexia and/or bulimia compounded with the huge increase in teens/young women seeking cosmetic surgery, you got to wonder if the first step toward all this is introducing your child to a Barbie doll and maybe it sends the wrong message. Barbie could still be "attractive" if she was portrayed in a "normal" size.

When I was a young girl, it was never Barbie dolls which made me feel like I should be thin- it was teen and young adult female models in magazines. Playing with Barbie dolls never made me think about my weight at all.
 
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


The posts in this thread have just solidified my opinion that men have a very difficult time understanding the pressures young girls face surrounding the issue of body image. I get that, it is more challenging for me to understand the pressures that men feel. It drives many young girls to drastic measures (ie: anorexia, multiple plastic surgeries).

Seems like a more realistic approach to this issue would be to reinforce the positive message of accepting yourself and making the most of what you have; there will always be people who think you are fine just the way you are, find those people and be yourself with them.

I do think that we would all better off if beauty products and toy industry, fashion mags, etc broadened their definition of female beauty but that is not likely to happen.
 
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