All About Baby Dolls

“All the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl treasured,” stated nine year old Claudia MacTeer in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Her and her sister Frieda were upset at the fact that they always received little white dolls for gifts. They figured that society saw the white dolls as being beautiful, and since they themselves were not white, Claudia and Frieda thought that they also were not considered to be beautiful. This is one of the reasons they despised the white dolls. The dolls looked nothing like them, so they could not relate to the toy. Little girls, for a long time, had no choice but to play with white dolls, with the most popular choice being the Barbie Doll. This toy was thought of being the “ideal” model girls would want to look and be like when they grew up.
This theory seemed to hold true for about thirty years after the story took place until Barbies of different races came out. In addition, little do the young girls know, as they dream of being like Barbie as a child, the odds of them every looking like her when they grow up are 1 in 100,000 (Portanier). This caused a great deal of controversy or the toy’s manufacturer, Mattel. Thus, the Barbie Doll is an unrealistic, unattainable model for young children to play with and want to duplicate. The history of the Barbie Doll began back in 1959 when Ruth Handler, the toy’s creator, was on vacation in Switzerland. She came upon a doll named Lilli one day while shopping with her 16-year-old daughter. Even though her daughter had grown out of playing with dolls, she was still compelled by this one and wanted it.
This gave Ruth an idea, to create a doll herself. As of then, the only dolls in America were mostly made of paper. Ruth wanted to design a doll that was three-dimensional “that could serve as a roll model for young girls” (Barbie). She did so, and named it after her daughter, Barbara. This new doll looked nothing at all like Barbara. Her daughter had dark hair and was over weight compared to this anorexic, blonde beauty of a doll. In addition, this doll grew to be so popular for several reasons. First off, it was the first doll created to have an adult body (History of Barbie). She had sex appeal compared to other dolls that were usually cloned to look like babies or young girls. Secondly, she has what society has envisioned as a “perfect female body.” She had blonde hair, sparkling blue eyes, long legs, a voluptuous chest, slender waist, and flawless skin. What woman wouldn’t want to have features like that?
This brings up my next point. Although Barbie has these incredible features, her measurements are very unrealistic. If Barbie were scaled to the size of an actual woman, she would be 5′9″, 110 pounds, and her measurements would be 39-18-33 (Barbies). “It’s not that she has an unusually large chest, but only one that is perceived as such in its comparison to her waist” (Portanier). If a real woman had a chest this large compared to the rest of her, it would be physically impossible for her body to support it with such a small waist and feet.
Moreover, the Barbie Doll was created to look like a Caucasian female. Yet, when it first came out, it was difficult to tell this. The face painter of the doll was Japanese which “caused the first Barbie to have an Oriental appearance” (Barbies). Mattel slowly changed and modified her features through the following few years until she looked more American. Even though she appeared more American, she only looked like those in the white population. Additionally, Barbie has always had friends of other races since 1966. But it wasn’t until 1980, when the first African American and Hispanic Barbie came out. (This would have made Claudia in The Bluest Eye very happy.) They even produced African-American Barbie with different skin tones to reflect the actual variations amongst people of the race (Barbie). I think this is quite an advancement in the toy industry, being that the Caucasian Barbie was only produced with one skin tone even though it too varies among white people. Changing her skin tone wasn’t the only innovation done to Barbie’s body. Through the years: her skin tone was softened, hair texture changed, given a rotating waist, bendable legs and arms, eyelashes added, eye stare was modified, smile was added, and her head was tiltable. “In early 1998, eight of the 24 new Barbie lines for the year were released with a modified body shape” (Portanier). This included a smaller chest, wider waist, and slender hips. This was to make her appear like she has a more teenage body. The Barbie Doll’s feet were also made flatter, the makeup more pastel, hair texture was made softer, the smile more natural. The newer dolls also have white panties painted on them. (It’s about time; the Ken dolls always had permanent underwear.) Mattel still sticks to their story that they tailored her body to “appear more youthful and more contemporary” not because of complaints about her outrageous proportions (Portanier).
Furthermore, Barbie does have some worthy qualities aside from all the bad publicity the toy receives. She sets a fine example, career-wise, for the little girls to look up to. Barbie has had a variety of jobs over the years including: Dentist, Astronaut, Teacher, Veterinarian, Soldier, Rock Star, Flight Attendant, Model, Doctor, Ballerina, Olympic Athlete, and Environmentalist. This is a great representation to show young girls that women can work any job they want, even jobs that use to be more male dominated. Over the past 42 years, 90% of America’s girls have played with Mattel’s famous doll named Barbie and her numerous friends (Barbie Dolls). Children from all ethnic groups now have a doll that they can identify with racially. If Frieda and Claudia MacTeer, from the story by Toni Morrison, were around in this day and age, they would have a higher appreciation for their dolls because they could relate to them easier. The girls no longer would have to play with only “blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned” dolls. Even though they may be able to see themselves in the doll racially, the girls will never have a body like Barbie’s. The doll’s unattainable proportions have received much criticism over time. Mattel has modified the body in numerous ways over the past few years to make it seem more realistic. In addition, Barbie has had some positive influences on young girls by having high-ranking careers over her duration. This helps inspire children to set high career goals for themselves.

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