For the majority of girls growing up, they are handed a barbie doll at a very young age. Personally, i cannot remember when i got my first barbie, they were always a part of my childhood- it was probably my parents or some relative that first introduced them to me. The impacts this seemingly innocent toy can do to your child -to the surprise of many- is magnified as they grow up.
Last night i was babysitting my six year old sister, when I stumbled upon the picture of the original barbie and the proportional barbie that i had saved on my laptop a couple of weeks back. I was curious as to what her response would be. However the outcomes, sadly, did not surprise me.
I asked her which one she preferred, so she instantly pointed to the barbie on the left. I pushed it further and asked her why, the first thing that she brought to attention was her face. She claimed that the original barbie was prettier because she had 'more make up' and implied her face was more slender. My innocent six year old sister, who has not yet been introduced to the world of make up, has already been wired to think that make up means you are pretty. The next thing she pointed out was her height, the original barbie was prettier because she was taller. This shocked me a little bit, as in our household we had never talked about height and had never related it to beauty, so she must have picked it up from outside sources such as friends and school. Dreadfully, the last thing she pointed out was her weight. What hurt most was when my little sister called the proportional barbie doll 'fat'. She expects girls bodies to look like barbie's, anything more is 'fat' and unappealing. Gesturing with her hand, she pointed out the difference in waist, showing how curvy and small the original was. With only six years of her life behind her, she already has expectations as to what her waist should look like.
The innocence of my sisters expectations of a girls body is already shattered. At the tender age of six she already knows society's views on what a woman's body has to be to look pretty. When she goes through her transitions from barbie dolls to lipstick, she will have already set herself unrealistic expectations. When she does not meet these expectations she will get frustrated and start hating herself... Doesn't that sound familiar?
Barbie dolls are only a small fragment of the bigger picture. My sister has been exposed to other influential factors such as media and friends. She has already flicked through millions of my mums magazines which have photoshopped skinny models with flawless skin and perfect hair. She's watched hours of TV with actresses that have faces caked with make up, and tiny waists from starving themselves. She has already interacted with her friends that have also been exposed to society's ideas of beauty, she's experienced girls calling other girls 'fat' and 'weird', and boys not wanting to 'go out' with them because they are 'ugly'.
Society teaches children from an extremely young age what they have to be to be considered beautiful. How sickening is the fact that children can already picture beauty at the innocent age of six? How sickening is the fact that children already worry about being pretty at the innocent age of six? How sickening is the fact that children already worry about what they eat so they don't become too 'fat' at the innocent age of six?!
What can we do to make the younger generation feel more comfortable with themselves? It can be disheartening knowing that however hard we try, our little bundles of joy will always be exposed to these expectations. So there's no use trying to create a border between your child and society. What we need to do is make them accept that society's idea's are written around people who are fake and photoshopped, they are unrealistic and people do not look like that- and that's okay! What children need to grasp is the concept of real beauty- which is a lot asking from a child, seeing as even adults can't do this. We need to teach that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, our bodies are all different and our bodies are all beautiful. Beauty also comes from when you are healthy, as long as we are healthy so are our bodies, if we love our bodies, our bodies will love us back. Beauty comes from within; it comes from our happiness, our passions, our hopes, our dreams, the way that our eyes light up when we hear our favourite song on the radio, the way that our hearts warm when we see our best friend smile, the way that we have empathy and compassion for other people, the way that we are not judgemental and are willing to go past the surface to look deeper.
Teach children real beauty.
