Barbie Nails It With Their New Commerical
A beautiful thing happened today! Barbie released their newest commericial, and it breaks so many barriers and takes so many strides forward when it comes to being a girl in our society.
So cute and awesome and all the words that I can't find! I want to be these little girls. These headstrong little girls that have clear visions of girl power and dreams and all things awesome are all of us at 12 years old. And it's just so great that Mattell has finally recognized that and has come forward in saying, "Yeah, Girl Power! Girls can be anything that they really really want!"
My husband has always been one of those that keeps our daughter away from the Barbie aisle. And I guess I could understand...at the time at least. We don't necessarily feel Barbie is empowering, because she's blonde, and wears alot of pink, and she's unnaturally "shaped" and gives young girls false ideas of what beauty is.
I definitely see the issue, believe me. I definitely see where the perversion that barbie dolls can be especially when it comes to beauty standards. But it would just be self defeating to put all the blame on this, especially when Mattel is working on improving their message. And fine, maybe they're doing it to make money...but does that have to be a terrible thing?
But then at the same time, we don't bat an eye when movies, television shows, and music videos depict unnaturally thin women. Lately, the issues have been brought up for sure, and it's awesome we're having these conversations about diversity. But it's not like my husband bans my kids from watching televsion the way he bans us from walking through the Barbie aisle.
I've always played with Barbies. I had a huge pink box full of Barbies, and my parents kept that box. Unfortunately, my daughter doesn't really appreciate Barbies considering she's been pushed to the My Little Pony aisle and the Avengers aisle. But none the less, I looked at my husband one day, and I said, "What exactly do you have against Barbie?"
And he looked at me like...
He couldn't really give me a solid statement. He knew there reasons to hate Barbie, and there are, for sure, but there's also reasons to hate The Avengers. There's reasons to hate My Little Pony. Don't even get me started on Little Princess (uuugh!).
But Barbie, at least was anything little girls wanted her to be. And God forbid she looked good doing it! But I think this is what the issue was for alot of people. She was unnaturally pretty, and made little girls grow up feeling like they weren't good enough.
That's not necessarily the case. I can't really pinpoint when my self esteem was really effected. Maybe it was the moment I picked up my first Barbie doll. But it also could have been when I was bombarded with imagery of what was ideally beautiful. Maybe it was when my mother put me on a Sugar Busters diet in 6th grade. Maybe it was the kids yelling "Earthquake" as I walked by them. Maybe it was the little boy I had a crush on that would walk behind me like a sumo wrestler.
Y'all see what I'm trying to say. It's not necessarily fair to blame ONE thing, that had many other positive traits, let's be honest, on something society as a whole has done. Yes, Barbie was unnaturally "beautiful." But she was also independent. She was also many many many professions, some of which men did not find suitable for girls to be. She dated Ken for quite some time and has still chosen to stay single. She made her own rules.
I commend Barbie and Mattel for taking steps forward throughout the years, which is more than I can say for many other areas in pop culture. I commend them for considering other body types. And there's always room for improvement, of course! But let's just appreciate for now, what Barbie has done for little girls everywhere, in choosing to become diverse and in choosing to keep her independent. And I look forward to seeing what they will be doing in the future for a younger generation of kids everywhere!
Great job, Mattel!
