Body by Barbie

Rehabs.com, a site dedicated to drug, alcohol, and eating disorder treatment facilities, posted an amazing study about Barbie. The study shows how impossible it would be for someone with Barbie’s measurements to be able to function in life.

Barbie’s neck would be twice as long and six inches thinner than a normal neck and incapable of holding up her large head. Her waist would only be 16 inches and only be able to contain half a liver and a little bit of intestines. With wrists that are only 3.5 inches and 6 inch ankles Barbie wouldn’t be able to lift anything heavy or carry her own weight. Actually according to the study, Barbie wouldn’t be able to walk at all she would only be able to crawl around on all fours. The study even goes on to compare the average woman to the Barbie Body. They say that to reach a similar waist as Barbie’s, for an average woman is one in 2.5 billion and for an anorexic is one and five. The study even compared men to the Ken doll and discovered that the measurements were much more realistic compared to Barbie, even though the size of her waist increased and her bust size decreased in 1998.

I grew up playing with Barbies. I had hundreds of them and to be honest the only thing I envied about my Barbies were their fantastic clothing and shoes. I was much too young to care about what my body looked like at that point. I understand that children today are exposed to body image issues much earlier than I was. I think the media, mothers who criticize their bodies in front of their daughters, and overly Photoshopped ads are all to blame. As a mother you can encourage a positive body image outlook to your daughter and explain how ads and the media falsify things. The most important thing is to stop trying to be anyone but yourself. Everyone has a different body type, it’s beautiful. We also need to stop paying attention to people like Valeria Lukyanova, who surgically made herself into a real life Barbie. By paying attention to people like this, it only encourages others to act in a similar fashion or go down the dark path of an eating disorder. No one should look like a Barbie but Barbie, a piece of plastic that should have no impression on our lives. Barbie is also something we should all grow out of not hold on to hoping to achieve that body type.