The makers of the Barbie doll (Mattel) have created an “I Can Be” Academy to inspire pre-teen girls to pursue some of the 125 careers Barbie has held since her debut in 1959. They hope this will give young women the opportunity to explore other careers and feel empowered in the process.
“It’s about showing girls that nothing is impossible,” says Adriana Gut, Barbie’s brand manager. “That’s the goal of our campaign – to empower girls. By role playing with Barbie, girls can explore a world without limits,” she says.
Although, the “I Can Be” line allows girls to explore a wide array of careers some are concerned Barbie is a doll that affects the self-esteem of young women instead of increasing it. As Barbie, has the perfect figure, hair, clothes and careers. Many critics assert you will never see Barbie looking sub-par doing a “regular job.” All of her careers are glamorous and if she has a “real job” she will always appear glamorous doing it with cute accessories to match of course. And many young women find it hard to obtain the perfect life of Barbie. They simply can’t afford her high heels, make-up and wheels.
But Mattel stresses Barbie is a great tool to lead young women to careers they otherwise would never have thought of. They also say Barbie is a wonderful role model and girls everywhere can and will be inspired by her. Until Barbie appears like the average Jane, the Barbie debate will continue for many more years to come.
What do you think about the Barbie ‘I Can Be’ Academy? Is this something to aid or harm the self-esteem of young women? We would be interested in your comments.
*With files from the National Post*
March 23, 2010
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22 responses to “Barbie and you – do you feel empowered?”
Music & Song Lyrics
March 24th, 2010 at 12:55
This is a good post, I stumbled across your article while looking for news updates. Thanks for sharing, I’ll be sure to recommend this site to others.
debt settlement
March 24th, 2010 at 15:38
oh yes most of the girls do because they try to take motivation from barbie and want to be like her
Maneesa
March 24th, 2010 at 18:52
If I were president, the first thing I would do is eliminate barbie dolls. They are worth nothing and corrupting the lives of many girls. All it does is cause insecurities and depression which could possibly lead to death.I say they are a definate harm of the self-esteem of young women and just stick to Hot Wheels or Barney!
Team Because I am a Girl
March 25th, 2010 at 12:27
We love receiving your comments on this issue – please keep them coming!
Sophie
April 5th, 2010 at 15:20
With that perfect (unrealistic) figure and her long shiny hair, I believe that the Barbie Doll IS harmful to a girl’s self esteem. I think girls are better off being motivated by the actions of some LIVE, inspiring women, rather than a pretty plastic doll.
Genevieve
August 4th, 2010 at 02:39
I totally agree! I couldn’t have said it better myself!
kali
August 5th, 2010 at 02:01
No, I don’t agree that a Barbie could be empowering in any way. The body proportions of Barbie are completely unrealistic and only reinforce a manufactured ‘ideal’ for what a girl/woman should look like – what is most beautiful. This societal stereotype does nothing by bring girls down & perpetuate the cycle of poor body image, eating disorders, low self esteem etc.
As a child, I never played with Barbie – didn’t find anything about her whole persona appealing I guess … I was more interested in playing baseball, tennis and riding my horse. To this day, I will NOT buy a Barbie for my daughter nor do I ever buy this for other girls.
Women & girls are dying to be thin, blonde, blue eyed, big breasted – it’s not right. If we look at the entire world population of women, how many actually look like Barbie at all? I don’t know what the stats are but my guess is that the number would be less than 10%. So of (assuming) 90% of all the women in the world are non-caucasian, non-blonde and are bigger than a size 1 or 2, why does Mattel still make MILLIONS from the sales of Barbie?? Why are we allowing this & continuing this ridiculous cycle?
BTW… I am blonde, caucasian and blue eyed and I still can’t stand the concept of Barbie.
LIly
December 11th, 2010 at 03:37
i agree
i am blonde hair blue eyed caucasion and a size two… and i still don’t look like barbie… even the girl barbie was based on didn’t look like her. Did you ever notice that the non-white barbie dolls are always the ones on sale or last left on the shelves? what does this say about our society???
Jill
August 10th, 2010 at 14:49
I don’t believe that Barbie is empowering any young girls. I remember growing up, playing with my many Barbie Dolls, thinking “When i grow up, i want to be just like Barbie!”. It amazes me that Mattel could even think they’re fooling anyone by basically saying Barbie is helping children. It isn’t. Barbies jobs are always glamorous jobs like movie star, singer, artist, or a fashionista. If she does ever have a normal job, like teacher for example, it’s done while wearing high heels and heavy make-up. I have a Teacher Barbie from my childhood, and she is also very stereotypical. The Alphabet is printed on her shirt, she has an apple on her desk, and she is carrying a ruler. None of my teachers EVER looked like that. I do not feel empowered by Barbie at all. She makes me feel bad about my own body.
Filzah
October 4th, 2010 at 22:26
Personally, I feel people really need to reexamine where there criticism of Barbie is coming from. As a little girl, I used to love playing with my Barbie dolls and I can assure you that Barbie did not negatively affect my self esteem in any way. Not only is Barbie a great toy for little girls that encourages them to use their imagination (something which few modern toys do) she is indeed a great role model. Every career that Barbie holds simply proves to girls that they can do it all. And yes she looks great while doing it but SINCE WHEN IS THAT A CRIME? We need to stop criticizing women who care about their appearance. I agree that the image that the media portrays of how women have to look is negative but this is not related to Barbie. Also if you read about the history of Barbie, it is a great company that was created by a woman who had to work hard to make her way in an industry dominated by men, but she persevered because she strongly believed that Barbie is a doll that holds a special place in every girls life and it definitely does in mine.
Aly
March 18th, 2011 at 23:42
I completely agree. Barbie is a great roll model. I did not know that about the creator, I am glad to hear it. Thanks for the post
LolaFaith
October 11th, 2010 at 23:09
I had barbie dolls until the age of 8. My self esteem has never been affected by Barbie. So I disagree. If anything, Babrie taught me that because I am a girl, I have hundreds of job options waiting for me and that I was in control of my future, and that dreams are important. When you’re a child ( and all my little cousins were addicted to barbie) we just thought, ok Barbie can be a mom, a teacher and barbie has great friends so we should be inspired to pick friends who are kind to us. I have had a Barbie who didn’t have high heels, however ludicrous that might be.
By the way, there isn’t just Babrie with blonde hair blue eyes, they mad brown haired brown eyes Babrie too.
I think it all depends about where everyone comes from with your opinions. But I’m tired of hearing people critizise Barbie now, when they never did when I was younger. My parents wouldn’t have given me her! Also, I think everyone uses Barbie to put the blame on someone else. That’s just my opinion.
Jill
October 12th, 2010 at 15:50
I disagree with the last two opinions, because although Barbie did highlight some job oppurtunites, she only highlighted the ones that were more glamorous. You don’t see a construction worker Barbie or a mechanic Barbie. And although she is made with other hair colors and skin colors, she still has a figure that only the 100 percentile have.
Samar
December 2nd, 2010 at 03:44
What I don’t understand is the fact that the Barbie doll itself has the body of a woman. I’m pretty confident that most grown woman do not play with Barbie dolls, and often the 6-10 year old age group of girls do. These bodies don’t need to be so curvy and stick skinny. These bodies should resemble those of a child! Children are playing with them in the first place, so having such a design is sort of odd. To the careers comment, I tottaly agree. Barbie is always seen having a “cool” job and if she is seen being something that we can relate with, it’s very stereotyped. Her fashion choices are ridiculous if anyone has noticed. I’m sure that any professional vet. won’t walk into work wearing heels and a mini-skirt in the form of a lab-coat. Barbie’s diverse aspect is VERY low. I know that there are African-american dolls now, but they are still seen as the “short skirt, stereotyped” girls and I feel as though Mattel only made coloured Barbies for comic relief. Even all of Barbie’s ads lack in any positive message. The only line I’ve caught in an ad for Barbie is the catchy, “be who you wanna’ be, Barbie girl”. I hope Mattel thinks of some way to empower girls and still make money, positively.
Oh, when will Barbie have personal life issues – I’m guessing never.
joanne caradinna
December 18th, 2010 at 04:12
Since Barbie , in all of her boring stereo -typicalness will always be a part of the marketplace . .. ( Let’s face it …There will unfortunately always tend to be a shallow segment of the population that is going to support Barbie ) , why not create dolls that are personalized representations of each unique girl ? Demonizing Barbie has become a very old and tiresome argument , that is getting us nowhere . Why can’t a girl be her own heroine ?
EmoBarbiedoll
April 4th, 2011 at 16:23
Exactly my thought!Why not make them more like Maplewood Crest/Americain Girl dolls that fit the girl,as opposed to the girl fitting the doll,(despite me being against the $300+ dolls)
When was the last time you saw a Barbie w/Glasses and stringy hair who was heavy?Never.
joanne caradinna
December 18th, 2010 at 04:21
An afterthought to those who have played with Barbie and have expressed not having their self-esteem affected by it … YAY ! Good for you BUT don’t you feel any moral obligation to consider that there are many girls who attest , to the fact , that playing with Barbie has been hard on their self-esteem ? Do you really want to be that self-absorbed and uncaring ?
ellen
December 23rd, 2010 at 19:26
personally i think that mattel is pushing this campaign because it is good publicity, however all little girls love playing with dolls and i have spent hours with barbie. i don’t really see the harm in it, plus girls still playing with barbie probably haven’t hit the “i hate who i am” phase yet..
joanne caradinna
December 24th, 2010 at 22:52
How do you know that playing with Barbie doesn’t lead to the ” I hate who I am ” phase ? You can give Barbie 125 carreers but the message is still unless your waist is an eigth of an inch ( in other words , you are unreasonably porportioned ) , and you are classically beautiful , you aren’t worthy of those carreers …if you were they would make Barbie alot more represenative of women ,as a whloe . It’s disheartening and tiring to observe so many women defend what at worst , is a very mediocre idea of womanhood and at worst , is condoling the idea that a girl/woman must be beautiful ( or at least very pretty ) in order to be successful . Barbies are one thing we can all agree aren’t representative of how We as women want to be represented .
ellen
January 12th, 2011 at 02:42
i don’t feel as if barbie gives little girls a bad image of themselves, they enjoy dressing her up and i’ve even noticed that little girls tend to look up to pretty and sweet women. my five year old cousin loves taylor swift, who i believe is a beautiful person on the outside as much as the inside, and still doesn’t have a bad effect on girls self esteem.
Sarah
April 4th, 2011 at 16:10
barbie dolls in and of themselves aren’t terrible. But the fact that barbie, and toys like her, are all that is really marketed at girls, speaks to serious problem with how our culture views girls and values women. Blonde hair, blue eyed, impossibly thin. She is an icon of a kind of femininity that girls are supposed to look up to and strive to achieve. I do not think there is anything wrong with being concerned with your appearance. I am pretty femme. I enjoy putting on makeup and I take pride in my appearance. But should this be seen as the only model of successful womanhood? Barbie embodies a problem that we see even in the adult world- professional women are valued greatly by their appearance and their femininity. Their conformity to a feminine gender presentation is often treated as more important than their intelligence, their compassion, their work, their labour. Female politicians are continually denegrated for not looking feminine enough, or for dressing too feminine and looking too sexy. How many discussions of Hilary Clinton’s clothing did you hear in the last US election? How many discussions of Barack Obama’s?
When I look at Barbie dolls, and Bratz dolls, and even Make-up kits marketed at girls, I see that what they are selling girls the idea that they are first and foremost judged by their beauty. When I see interactive toy race car sets and lego marketed at boys, I see that they are selling boys the idea that they are first and foremost judged by their creativity and intelligence. And, in the case of some boys toys and the way they are marketed, by their difference from girls, or their “innate” aggression.
Sorry for the essay, but, yeah, I think Barbie is useless for empowering girls. Want to empower girls? Give them toys they can interact with AS WELL AS dolls they can play with. Let them meet real like role models who they can look up to, FIrewomen, and Lawyers, and Engineers and Activists. Let them actually SEE that they can grow up to be anyone and look any way.
John F
April 9th, 2011 at 15:14
I think the whole barbie thing is ridiculous. Not only can I see this being harmful for girls self esteem, the effect is working on boys too. So the image of this “perfect” women is marketed to girls, but guess what? Boys also see this marketing and strive to have a “barbiedoll” gf. Which, in turns leads to them shunning some of the beautiful wonderful non barbie doll girls.
I should know, I was a teenager once, that was the epitomy (sp?) of my existance, finding that barbiedoll that could be my gf.
I grew up though, and realised that there were more then babrbiedolls in life.
The point of my post: barbie dolls are very detrimental to girls selfesteem. But alos detrimental to a boys self esteem when they appraoch a real life blonde hair bombshell and get denied because they are not a Ken doll.
Barbie = evil marketing
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