If Barbie was an actual woman, she would be 5’9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips and a size 3 shoe.
• Barbie calls this a “full figure” and likes her weight at 110 lbs.
• At 5’9” tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for anorexia. She likely would not menstruate.
• If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.
• Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in 1965 and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs with a book entitled “How to Lose Weight” with directions inside stating simply “Don’t eat.”
Wow..
OKAY WE GET IT. NO WOMAN COULD LOOK LIKE BARBIE. But god damn, she has always been a plastic toy, a play thing, a plastic version of a fashion illustration- which she would actually be “thick” in comparison to. She’s a fantasy, a caricature, a fucking TOY. Sure she represents femininity and beauty, but the same way a drag queen does. I’m so over the thousands of campaigns and ads and shit that pick apart Barbie as if she was ever meant to be a physical model to little girls. I never looked at my barbie and hated myself because I wasn’t 11 heads high with feet as big as my hands, tits as big as my head, and a waist as wide as my eye distance. I played with her like I played with my Small Soldiers action figures, my Betty Spaghetti, my Beanie Babys. And I had a great childhood because of Barbie. Give kids more credit than this, because I don’t think they knowingly look at their toys and think “oh this is how society wants me to look but I can never look like this so I’ll never be pretty.” No. Not all of us were that deep as children. I still love Barbie, I love her for her exagerration, the fantasy, the legacy as a plaything. She’s not a depiction of a real fucking person just like my fashion illustrations are not depicting real fucking people.
^^^
Reblogged from The Grind Haus.
January 16, 2012, 7:01pm
