Controversies
Body image
From the start, some have complained that "the blonde, plastic doll conveyed an unrealistic body image to girls."
Criticisms of Barbie are often centered around concerns that children consider Barbie a role model and will attempt to emulate her. One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that girls who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic. A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches at 1/6 scale. Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate. In 1963, the outfit "Barbie Baby-Sits" came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight which advised: "Don't eat!". The same book was included in another ensemble called "Slumber Party" in 1965 along with a pink bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs., which would be around 35 lbs. underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall. Mattel said that the waist of the Barbie doll was made small because the waistbands of her clothes, along with their seams, snaps, and zippers, added bulk to her figure. In 1997, Barbie's body mold was redesigned and given a wider waist, with Mattel saying that this would make the doll better suited to contemporary fashion designs. In 2016, Mattel introduced a range of new body types: 'tall', 'petite', and 'curvy'. 'Curvy Barbie' received a great deal of media attention and even made the cover of Time magazine with the headline 'Now Can We Stop Talking About My Body?'. Despite the curvy doll's body shape being equivalent to a US size 4 in clothing, many children regard her as 'fat'.
Barbie's waist has been widened in more recent versions of the doll. 
Back cover of the vintage booklet entitled How to Lose Weight, stating "Don't Eat!". 
Bathroom scale from 1965, permanently set at 110 lbs. 
Oreo Fun Barbie from 1997 became controversial after a negative interpretation of the doll's name.
Diversity
Complaints also point to a lack of diversity in the line. Mattel responded to these criticisms. Starting in 1980, it produced Hispanic dolls, and later came models from across the globe. For example, in 2007, it introduced "Cinco de Mayo Barbie" wearing a ruffled red, white, and green dress (echoing the Mexican flag). Hispanic magazine reports that:
One of the most dramatic developments in Barbie's history came when she embraced multi-culturalism and was released in a wide variety of native costumes, hair colors and skin tones to more closely resemble the girls who idolized her. Among these were Cinco De Mayo Barbie, Spanish Barbie, Peruvian Barbie, Mexican Barbie and Puerto Rican Barbie. She also has had close Hispanic friends, such as Teresa.
"Colored Francie" made her debut in 1967, and she is sometimes described as the first African American Barbie doll. However, she was produced using the existing head molds for the white Francie doll and lacked African characteristics other than a dark skin. The first African American doll in the Barbie range is usually regarded as Christie, who made her debut in 1968. Black Barbie was launched in 1980 but still had Caucasian features. In 1990, Mattel created a focus group with African American children and parents, early childhood specialists, and clinical psychologist, Darlene Powell Hudson. Instead of using the same molds for the Caucasian Barbies, new ones were created. In addition, facial features, skin tones, hair texture, and names were all altered. The body shapes looked different, but the proportions were the same to ensure clothing and accessories were interchangeable. In September 2009, Mattel introduced the So In Style range, which was intended to create a more realistic depiction of African American people than previous dolls. In 2016, Mattel expanded this line to include seven skin tones, twenty-two eye colors, and twenty-four hairstyles. Part of the reason for this change was due to declining sales.
Mattel teamed up with Nabisco to launch a cross-promotion of Barbie with Oreo cookies. Oreo Fun Barbie was marketed as someone with whom young girls could play after class and share "America's favorite cookie." As had become the custom, Mattel manufactured both a white and a black version. Critics argued that in the African American community, Oreo is a derogatory term meaning that the person is "black on the outside and white on the inside," like the chocolate sandwich cookie itself. The doll was unsuccessful and Mattel recalled the unsold stock, making it sought after by collectors.
In May 1997, Mattel introduced Share a Smile Becky, a doll in a pink wheelchair. Kjersti Johnson, a 17-year-old high school student in Tacoma, Washington with cerebral palsy, pointed out that the doll would not fit into the elevator of Barbie's $100 Dream House. Mattel announced that it would redesign the house in the future to accommodate the doll.
Bad influence concerns
In July 1992, Mattel released Teen Talk Barbie, which spoke a number of phrases including "Will we ever have enough clothes?", "I love shopping!", and "Wanna have a pizza party?" Each doll was programmed to say four out of 270 possible phrases, so that no two given dolls were likely to be the same (the number of possible combinations is ). One of these 270 phrases was "Math class is tough!". Although only about 1.5% of all the dolls sold said the phrase, it led to criticism from the American Association of University Women. In October 1992, Mattel announced that Teen Talk Barbie would no longer say the phrase, and offered a swap to anyone who owned a doll that did.
In 2002, Mattel introduced a line of pregnant Midge (and baby) dolls, but this Happy Family line was quickly pulled from the market due to complaints that she promoted teen pregnancy, though by that time, Barbie's friend Midge was supposed to be a married adult.
In September 2003, the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbie dolls and franchises, stating that they did not conform to the ideals of Islam. The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice warned, "Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful." The 2003 Saudi ban was temporary. In Muslim-majority nations, there is an alternative doll called Fulla, which was introduced in November 2003 and is equivalent to Barbie, but is designed specifically to represent traditional Islamic values. Fulla is not manufactured by the Mattel Corporation (although Mattel still licenses Fulla dolls and franchises for sale in certain markets), and (as of April 2019) the "Jewish" Barbie brand is still available in other Muslim-majority countries including Egypt and Indonesia. In Iran, the Sara and Dara dolls, which were introduced in March 2002, are available as an alternative to Barbie, even though they have not been as successful.
In November 2014, Mattel received criticism over the book I Can Be a Computer Engineer, which depicted Barbie as being inept at computers and requiring that her two male friends complete all of the necessary tasks to restore two laptops after she accidentally infects her and her sister's laptop with a malware-laced USB flash drive. Critics complained that the book was sexist, as other books in the I Can Be... series depicted Barbie as someone who was competent in those jobs and did not require outside assistance from others. Mattel later removed the book from sale on Amazon in response to the criticism.
Safety concerns
In March 2000, stories appeared in the media claiming that the hard vinyl used in vintage Barbie dolls could leak toxic chemicals, causing danger to children playing with them. The claim was described as an overreaction by Joseph Prohaska, a professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. A modern Barbie doll has a body made from ABS plastic, while the head is made from soft PVC.
In July 2010, Mattel released "Barbie Video Girl", a Barbie doll with a pinhole video camera in its chest, enabling clips of up to 30 minutes to be recorded, viewed, and uploaded to a computer via a USB cable. On November 30, 2010, the FBI issued a warning in a private memo that the doll could be used to produce child pornography, although it stated publicly that there was "no reported evidence that the doll had been used in any way other than intended."
In March 2015, concerns were raised about a version of the doll called "Hello Barbie", which can hold conversations with a child using speech recognition technology. The doll transmits data back to a service called ToyTalk, which according to Forbes, has a terms of service and privacy policy that allow it to “share audio recordings with third party vendors who assist us with speech recognition,” and states that “recordings and photos may also be used for research and development purposes, such as to improve speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence algorithms and create better entertainment experiences.”
Comments
Post a Comment