After thoroughly making it clear to everyone on Earth that just about any present was fair game for our child so long as it wasn’t a Barbie, my in-laws came with just that for our daughter’s fourth birthday.
Big surprise.
To give them the benefit of the doubt—which is probably a mistake, as I’m sure they did this just to spite me, as they do with plenty of other things—it wasn’t a Barbie Barbie. It was a little girl Barbie (one of Barbie’s so-called friends, I suppose) with a horse covered in enough glitter to make our house look like a confetti factory.
They also smoothed it over by saying that my daughter’s young cousin, age five, selected the gift. (Sure, pin it on the kid.) That said, I found it hard to object. For one thing, it had a horse—and my kid really, really, really digs horses right now. She’s going through her equine phase which, I’m hoping, will not last her entire lifetime. (Maybe she’ll be a more small mammal person like her mom…)
For another, it wasn’t an oversexed, half-livered grotesque embodiment of a false female idol to girls everywhere; it was a little kid, in little kid clothes, looking appropriately chunky (or almost so, I guess) and innocent, and decidedly without boobs or a half-inch corset waist. So far, so good.
My question is this—are Barbie’s buddies as evil as she is? I won’t budge on my long-held, research-based belief that Barbie is detrimental to the health of young girls (as well as boys) and shouldn’t be considered an appropriate toy for anyone, ever, except for maybe polar bears or sharks who are extremely bored and masochistic.
Though I think Barbie didn’t have much bearing on me (then again, I used to tear her head off and throw her in the trees—or dye her hair and make her into a monster), I am well aware of the damage she has caused—and continues to inflict—on developing minds.
All of that said, I cannot deny being drawn to the Barbie fairies. They are just so damn cute, and it’s not like there are a ton of fairy toys out there for kids these days. Sure, you can order them from Waldorf suppliers—and get really great quality ones, too—but they are usually pretty costly. And what about when you’re in a pinch for a party, or you know you won’t have the funds until payday? You won’t be able to wait for that mail order fairy—especially not if you have to pay extra for faster shipping.
Recently I also conceded that maybe a Barbie mermaid is OK. It’s not a human, after all, and by stressing that point we can show our kids that they are by no means supposed to look like them—except perhaps in a fantasy world in which they might also look like an alien life form or a minotaur.
Could this explanation hold with other Barbie…creatures? And if so, where would you draw the line?