A beloved pop group some years back produced a hit entitled Barbie Girl. In the song, the pop group didn't paint a good picture of Barbie, portraying Barbie as a real person with low morals and a superficial personality.
This less than obvious view of Barbie and Barbie dolls came to fore after extra interest groups decided to tackle the seeming bodily form of Barbie that they claimed caused the microscopic girls that idolized the image of Barbie to have a false self image.
Kid Barbie Dolls
A Barbie girl was portrayed to have the perfect face, figure, clothes and accessories. Barbie girl accessories did not only comprise items like shoes and bags but extended to items like fur, furniture and even a car and a Malibu House.
Perhaps they were right about the image of a Barbie girl having adverse effects on children. Barbie has been a hit since it was launched in 1959 and has enslaved children and adult alike with her charm. Perhaps, not a single buyer exists without being aware of who or what a Barbie girl is, even though it has been over 50 years since the first Barbie was produced.
Now the issue of body image and unbridled consumerism continue to plague our society. It no longer is a moral issue but has become a pressing matter that has an immediate consequent on health and the environment. However, possibly it was short sighted for interest groups to blame the Barbie girl and her manufacturers. After all, possibly Barbie and her image and persona were a symptom of the underlying human faults rather than the cause.
Whatever the case, the popularity and success of the Barbie girl image have surpassed any other toy ever invented. More than dolls, the Barbie girl image has branched out into other areas like actual fashion for girls. It is like the Barbie girl image was too much to be contained and has spread on to areas like printed materials in the form of books, movies, games and life sized accessories like notebooks and such.
Despite other dolls advent into the scene and competitive for the concentration of girls, the brand of Barbie still caries clout and her image continue to be something that people aspire to. either that is a good or bad thing is something now that is beside the point. After all, even if all Barbie girl items were recalled and no new Barbie items were produced, the image of the Barbie girl has permeated some generations already and it will take some time for the image to be forgotten if that is possible.
Barbie and little Girls