Barbie

I was just cleaning off my bookcase and found one of my old Barbies. My sister and I spent hours of our childhood playing with these dolls. I never really understood why my dad disliked them so until just now, when I suddenly realized how fake Barbie looks. And I don't mean in the sense that she's made of plastic.


Everything about her is impossibly "perfect." Impossibly thick and perfect hair, flawless skin, a completely impossible figure (which the dress disguises as more believable) and ridiculously long legs considering her that they are almost 2/3's of her entire height.

This is to show how ridiculously small her waist is.

Her eyes are freakishly huge with a permanent sparkle, her nose too small to allow adequate breath, and her mouth is set off by one perfect tooth. And you can't see it in this picture, but in each cheek she has one perfect, delicate dimple.

This was my "me" doll. Given the unvarying face and figure, what made her "look like" me was the green eyes and red hair. I didn't consciously think it, but somewhere inside, I always thought I'd grow up to look exactly like her, from the large green eyes, nearly invisible nose and perfect dimples to the tiny waist. But certainly minus the plastic lines.

Never mind that as a child I was short, pudgy and had the crookedest teeth ever. Not to mention no sign of dimples (my brother Joel got them). Oh, and did I mention my freckles?

With a role-model like Barbie, it's no wonder there are so many girls who are starving themselves and getting plastic surgery to try and achieve a Barbie-like "perfection." I'm not sure if Barbies are still popular. It's been a long time since I've meandered down the sparkly pink toy aisle at Wal-Mart. But I hope that little girls aren't still being inundated with this false view of beauty. Barbie should at least have room in her tiny torso for internal organs.

~Lizzie