Barbie: Not Just a Little Doll?

Once upon a time, Barbie was considered as one of the most popular toys of all time; in fact, it has sold over one billion since her introduction to the market in 1959, easily becoming one of the most recognizable toys in history. Barbie was seen by everyone as a mainstream harmless play toy for little girls.

Little did they know that this "harmless" Barbie doll was an attack on Feminism.

Today, some argue that Barbie over sexualizes women. Her body features are exaggerated beyond comprehension. It is so bad that "it is a fact of Barbie's design that her [two pink elephants on her chest] are so out of proportion to the rest of her body that if she were a human woman, she'd fall flat on her face" (Prager 2).  The fact that Barbie was designed by a man instead of a woman conveys the fact that Barbie was created as the most attractive and ideal image of a woman that all men would love. In addition, it is almost natural that Barbie's body features were enlarged so much. This is because since Barbie was designed by a man, he would try to make Barbie the polar opposite of a man, due to the opposite genders, by hyperbolizing the features of a woman that men do not have. Also, the fact that Barbie's "sexual equipment" was heavily dramatized while Ken's wasn't conveys the false idea that women all people who gasconade their body to attract males and make love. Also, the ancient origin of this thought suggests that it's almost as if this mentality was set in stone by Jesus and had to be religiously followed. It is "as if we're trapped in Barbie's world and can never escape"(Prager).  All things considered the rhetoric Prager uses boils down to one word: injustice.