Were you influenced by Barbie? - YouLookFab Forum

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Were you influenced by Barbie?

ironkurtin

Veteran

Because I wasn't. I wanted one, and a dream house, really badly but mostly for the clothes and accessories. Hours of dressing! Hours of decorating! Hours of soap opera drama in my head! I contented myself with horse stables for my plastic horses, ridden by those clip-on animals that were all the rage in the late 70s. But I remember keenly wanting all those Barberiffic tempting aids to playtime imagination. It never occurred to me that I was supposed to look like her or act like she did on the ads - she was so obviously not human., and those were so obviously not the adventures I'd make for her. Plus the one I really wanted was Castilian Barbie with the sparkly red dress and all that luscious black hair. And the giant GI Joe tanker too. Man, *that* was a dream house of crazy compartments!

Did Barbie form your self-image or expectations? If so, how?

63 replies

Latest reply was from Gaylene

rae

(website)

Veteran

We had Barbies and the Barbie house - but like you said, we mostly arranged the furniture and dressed the Barbies. Not a ton of play-acting. I remember taking random scraps of fabric and "draping" Barbie to create my own dresses... sigh...

I honestly never was aware of the Barbie commercials or movies growing up, so I didn't know she was supposed to act any certain way. Besides demanding all her property be painted pink, of course.

carter

Veteran

Nope. I was a total tomboy. Played with Hot Wheels, climbed trees, built forts, played kickball with the the boys (and won). Barbie never even entered my thoughts.

Sara L.

Veteran

I played with Barbie as a kid but I was always aware that she was a toy. I never wanted to look like her because I didn't see her as a real person. I liked to dress her up and play with her with my friends, not become her. I thought of her the same way I thought of My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake (showing my age now).

Echo

Veteran

Although I had Barbies, I rarely played with them. My friend had a Barbie Dream House and car and all the rest, and we played Barbies at her house. I played with Adventure People. They were smaller action figures and each set came with one or two people and the gear they needed for whatever adventure they were suited for. Favourites included the rafting set, the mountain/rock climbers, the campers and the motorcyclist. My friend and I would take them outside and play with them in puddles and hang the rock climbing people from tree bark. They were much more fun than Barbie.

And it never occurred to me that I should ever look like a Barbie. She was a TOY, not a role model! My DD likes Monster High dolls, and I don't think I'm setting her up to be goth when she gets older!

sarah

Veteran

We had a lot of Barbies in our house, but my older sister made sure they were all extremely independent and successful career women. I remember one Barbie "house" she made that was a marine biologist's laboratory, and another that was a fashion designer's studio. There were no men around, and these Barbies ruled their world. So, yes, in that way I was influenced by Barbie (and by my go-getter role-model big sister!).

deb

Veteran

I had the 1959 Barbie then got Ken and Midge. I learned to sew and knit making clothing for them. I spent hours with them. My imagination was already on overdrive but when they came into my life I was in heaven. No playing with babies. My interest for fashion started with these dolls.

Faith

I think I was most influenced by the couture-level (homemade) clothes that were kept in the family from my mother's and aunts' barbies in the 1950s. If I were ever to have an evening dress custom made, I have just the barbie dress on which to model it!

nancylee

Veteran

Ok, here's my Barbie story: My mother wouldn't let me have Barbies because she thought they gave young girls a poor body image. I'm 52, so this was in the 1960s to early 70s…….long before other mothers were thinking along these lines, so I was embarrassed and didn't tell the other girls the true reason I didn't have any Barbies. I might not have had them at home, but I sure played with them at my friends' houses (the allure of forbidden fruit!) We mostly dressed them up…that was the fun of it. Ken was just a prop.

The story ends at my 12th birthday, when a friend who felt sorry for my Barbie-less existence actually gave me one. But by then, I wasn't really interested in Barbies anymore.

I joke with my mom that my lifelong love of fashion stems from my lack of Barbies as a child.

rae

(website)

Veteran

Tangent: if you think Barbie's physique is distorted, how about Bratz dolls? o_0 At least Barbie wasn't named after a crummy attitude.
https://www.google.com/search?.....8uXCobvoAT

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

Veteran

I wasn't allowed to have Barbies either. Funny, since my mom is a pretty traditional person in many respects, but she did always work outside the home (part time when my brother and I were quite young) and she and my dad always told me I could do anything a boy could do. I played with them a few times at friends' houses, but I don't remember them making a particular impression aside from the excitement of being able to do something I couldn't normally do.

nancylee

Veteran

High five, Laura! It's good to know I wasn't the only one.

Isabel

Veteran

For some weird reason, I was never attracted to Barbie. Coincidentally, I had a small doll named Angie. LOL. I LOVED Angie. But she mostly came out in the summer, put on a bathing suit and dived into large mixing bowls. I think my mom gave her away when I went to college. Luckily, I saved Cubby the pink teddie bear.

Don't even get me started on Bratz and Monster High dolls ! Thankfully, that was an uber short phase with my daughter. She is not a doll girl.

Gaylene

Veteran

I was too much of a tomboy to stay inside to play with dolls. Most of my friends were boys, so my Christmas and birthday presents tended towards science kits and baseball gloves.

My younger sister, however did have a Barbie and I remember helping her create special outfits for hers. Rodeo Barbie, with a lasso and plastercine cowboy boots; Wicked Witch Barbie, with a black cape and witch hat; Music Teacher Barbie (modeled after a rather grouchy real-life one), with floured hair and a baggy sweater made from a bit of knitted fabric and flour/water "glue" that fell apart once it dried; and, last but not least, Baby Barbie in a long white nightgown worn with a diaper. Poor Barbie--I kind of feel sorry for her now.

ETA: Just saw the "realistic" version. I think we would have hesitated to be so--ummm---creative with that version; it would have seemed wrong to deface her. Barbie, on the other hand, seemed more like a prop for whatever took our fancy.

adorkable

Veteran

My mother didn't buy me Barbies or want me to have any, either, but someone gave me one as a gift and I fell madly in love.

However, my mother had a deep and lasting influence -- I had a letter to the editor published in a national newspaper when I was 13 about how bad Barbies are for girls' body image!

unfrumped

Veteran

I had The Visible Woman -- a plastic model with internal organs to be painted and arranged- including pregnant uterus-within a clear exterior!

Seriously in addition I did have a succession of dolls, but my favorite toys were always toy animals of one sort or another, and I had a lot of ( real) pets.

MRL

Veteran

My friends and I played with Barbies all of the time. I loved the clothes (suprise!) but never really gave her body shape much thought. I did think it was funny that her feet were made to always wear heels, though.

LACeleste

Veteran

Yes! Obsessed would be more accurate. I loved the houses, the plane, the car, and of course THE CLOTHES!!!!

A few weeks ago I was browsing antique jewelry at an online antique mall and something caught my eye in the sidebar. I gasped. I clicked. My husband looking over my shoulder said with concern and confusion " Ummm--do you really like that?"

There it was--my favorite Barbie outfit of all time (well--besides the wedding dress. ) My grandmother gave it to me when I was 3. It is so over the top!

Many years later, I still love clothes with a sense of drama and love dressing up. Maybe my party capsule all goes back to Barbie!

I do not think Barbie hurt my self image although I did think blonde hair was glorious and didn't accept my natural color until 26!

My DD never cared about Barbies at all.

Thanks for a fun question IK!
Nostalgia is my middle name!

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ATLynn

Veteran

I loved playing with my Barbies. They let me act out the stories in my head. Soap opera is a good way to describe them. I had hours of fun, alone and with my friends. One of my favorite gifts was a toy wardrobe filled with second hand Barbie clothes that my mother had collected for me at thrift shops, yard sales, etc.

I don't think I aspired to be like Barbie and never compared myself to her. But as a stumpy and "thick" but not (yet) overweight child, I was always envious of the girls in my classes who were longer, leaner, wore clothes better and who were legitimately closer to social beauty norms. I'll never know if Barbie helped play a role in defining that. It's much more likely that nature + media were really setting those standards for me.

celia

Veteran

In a word: no! I never had a Barbie. I had something similar but didn't play a lot with it.

Isabel

Veteran

OMG !!! I found Angie. It brought tears to my eyes. AND she is for sale on Etsy....God I loved her.

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Echo

Veteran

Bratz dolls were sued, weren't they? I thought they weren't made anymore. Regardless, Monster High dolls are ridiculously proportioned, too, with an enormous head and ultra long legs and the teeniest, tiniest knees I've ever seen. I doubt most girls who play with them are going to search for a way to make their heads bigger... The body image thing just doesn't hold water IMO. Dolls are fantasy, and manufacturers have tried making more "average" dolls periodically and they just don't sell. Combine that with the average clothing they are talking about with the new doll, and what fun is that? If the clothes are the fun part, then why have sensible heels and average outfits?

Thistle

Veteran

I must be one of the only ones who played with Barbie. I played the heck out of her! My favorites were Crystal barbie and a Peaches and Cream Barbie. I didn't have too many toys outside of Barbie actually, as she could be anything, and back then, we could get used Barbies cheap at garage sales. I dressed her up as Wonder Woman among many other childhood make believe fantasies. I cared about fashion only as it pertained to my make believe worlds.

I had a few Kens, and lots of my Dad's old G.I. Joes. Not the little ones, but the barbie sized ones.

I turned half of my basement playroom into Barbie land, complete with stables, swimming pool, etc. (all picked up for a song at garage sales) I spent a lotta hours down there.

Karie

(website)

Veteran

I had Barbie, Ken, Skipper, Midge, Tammy, the whole gang! And I had a huge wardrobe to go with - my mother was an excellent seamstress and she made all my Barbie's clothes. Barbie had coats, skirts, dresses, you name it. I was a girly girl but also a tomboy - I'd play with dolls and then go outside and climb trees. Go figure!

Greyscale

Veteran

I wanted to be a boy all through childhood, so no. I mean, I was eventually ok with being a girl, but only a non-girly girl. But despite that, I did play with Barbie a lot. I had a lot of toy horses, and Barbie was the right size to ride them. The clothing was never the interesting part.

Thinking about it more, I did love sewing clothes for my other, larger doll. I sewed outfits based on all of the Little House on the Prairie dresses. I was just a bit before the American Dolls came out but I would have loved them. I guess I just wasn't interested in contemporary/grownup fashion, but I wasn't as anti-"girl stuff" as I thought.

Deborah

Veteran

Not at all:) I never had a barbie and don't recall ever wanting one:)

JAileen

Veteran

I wasn't influenced because I never had one. My closest friends didn't have them either. I guess we were freaks! I never really played with dolls. We spent a lot of time riding our bikes, playing baseball in the street, and board and card games.

Diana

Veteran

I had Barbies and enjoyed playing with them, but I never wanted to BE Barbie. Maybe because Barbie was clearly different from me, being, you know, blonde and Caucasian. Back then there was no Asian Barbie. That did not bother me at all.

Although for a while I DID want to be a horse. Come to think of it, I had a much more elaborate fantasy world built around horses than Barbie. Not that I had ever even ridden a horse.

Emily

Veteran

I had numerous Barbies, and a Barbie convertible, and a Barbie dreamhouse, and lots of shoes and oufits for my Barbies. I also had Legos, a Microscope, and Doctor Dreadful, and Meccano, and shelves of books. I liked dressing up Barbie for dates with Ken, and I liked building things, and exploring and reading and making candy braiiiiins. I don't think Barbie influenced me in any negative way.

Gigi

Veteran

Yes, I had a few Barbies, and my friends and I would play with them on sleepovers. I had a friend who had a pseudo Barbie house that her dad made, and that was loads of fun. One of my friends had a Ken, but he was so boring. He was a little stiff, no? He mainly just sat in the Barbie car and drove Barbie around to places. :^) But I never thought about Barbie as a body image thing. I think that the media and photoshopping do much more harm than Barbie dolls!

The only thing I remember being really obsessed with when it came to Barbie was those little high-heeled shoes. Of course, they broke after about five minutes, but those were so beautiful! I remember getting a knock-off Barbie from someone as a gift one year, and that Barbie had flat-soled tennis shoes on. Man, it was NOT the same! High heels were a must for my Barbies. :^)

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