I spend most of Friday afternoon sewing Barbie clothes.
Yes, me… the one who doesn’t like Barbie. I sat for hours making fiddly little dresses and skirts and tops so the Twinadoes six Barbies could attend a party in proper attire.
You can all stop laughing now.
I confess… I am beginning to mellow a little in my Barbie dislike. I no longer hate the freakishly big boobed, small waisted and deformed footed bits of plastic with the passion that I once did.
I still think they give young girls totally unrealistic ideas about body shape and size and I still worry about Barbie’s contribution to the sexualisation of our children. And hello.. she has a freaky plastic face with scary staring eyes and her clothes are a bugger to get on and off….. But Barbie is growing on me…
Thankfully I’m beginning to see some improvements in today’s Barbie. They now come with lots of different hair and skin colours and the focus at the moment seems to be on merchandising for the various Barbie movies. Fairies, mermaids and princess don’t seem grate against my better judgement nearly as much as pink convertibles, hot pants and stiletto heels.
When I watch the girls playing with their Barbies I see a lot of good positive, age appropriate play and I can’t fault that. They role play various situations (Barbie has been to get stitches in her head recently!) and they sing and dance a lot.
The girls love their Barbies – even ‘Dancing Through the Flowers Barbie’ who Zoe bought for $2 at the Daylesford market, complete with her original 1970s floral frock and matted hair. Sadly Dancing Through the Flowers lost her leg shortly after coming home with us.. but she is still loved – a lesson in acceptance of all, no matter how many limbs they have or how gross their hair is.
So perhaps Barbie is a lesson in acceptance for me too. While I still don’t think Barbie is the best choice of toy for a five year old, I accept that it’s also not the worst choice either.
Just in case my girls have magically learned to read over night – just because I say I don’t really really dislike Barbie anymore (because ‘hate’ is not a nice word) it still doesn’t mean I am going to buy you the Alexa and Liana from Diamond Castle… I will however put in a good word for you with a certain Barbie loving Great Aunt!
So what about you? Barbies? Love em or hate… er I mean really really dislike em?
I’m just in the middle of writing a post about peg dollies! No body image issues to contend with there at all! LOL
Hmmm I don’t know. My daughter doesn’t know who Barbie is yet…and whilst on the one hand I wouldn’t mind if she had one, on the other, I just can’t bring myself to go buy her one! (and I reckon her grandma knowing what a freak I am wouldn’t dare either lol)
I loathe barbie but I kind of love that my girls like her. It’s a weird existence.
Barbie, I can deal with… It’s those Bratz ‘things’ that bother me!
I am very impressed that you made clothes for the Barbie’s, and I am thankful that my daughter has yet to discover that Barbie can wear other things apart from her tutu and ballet shoes ;)
It’s the plastic smiles I can’t bear.
I’m a bit like you. I used to really really dislike Barbie but now I’m not so phased by her anymore. I still refuse to buy any for my girls, but I don’t mind that they inevitably receive them from others (except for that one Hooker Barbie G got once – that was confiscated).
I have made a conscious decision not to fight it because I figure it will run its course, but the funny thing is that although G likes watching the movies, she very rarely plays with them, so maybe its not such a big deal anyway. :)