Come On Barbie! Let’s Go Party… 
Celebrating 50 years in 2009, Barbie’s famous face and head-turning style have made Barbie way more than the most popular doll in the world. Today Barbie is a worldwide fashion icon, pop culture princess and a global brand powerhouse.
For five decades, Barbie has inspired girls of all ages to dream, discover, and celebrate their girl hood- from fashion to fantasy- all in a world without limits. With her blonde hair, missile breasts, and tiny waist, Barbie epitomized the American ideal of beauty way before Pamela Anderson and Angelina Jolie came along.
This past Saturday, February 14, 2009, life-size Barbie dolls (and even a Ken doll) strutted down the runway at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York. To celebrate this iconic doll with her fantastical wardrobe, Mattel teamed up with the Council of Fashion Designers of America to bring 50 designer fantasies to the runway for the first time since Barbie’s creation. Big name designers like Tommy Hilfiger, Vera Wang, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Michael Kors, were among them.
Wide-eyed celebrities including Heidi Klum and Kelly Pickler along with little girls clutching their own Barbie dolls, packed the seats as they watched their little girl fantasies come to life in cat-eye sunglasses, retro one-piece bathing suits, glamorous gowns, hot pink mini-dresses, skin-tight leggings, fuzzy wraps, and bubble-gum pink high heels. Barbie's wardrobe was a retrospective of American fashion.
Barbie herself - projected in a splendid array of batting eyelashes, luscious pink lips and bouncing ponytail, and with perfect accessories in a shiny car or with handsome Ken - absolutely stole the show.
"Barbie is everything that an all-American gal should be - sporty, smart, sophisticated and sexy," said Michael Kors. Tommy Hilfiger agreed, calling Barbie the “quintessential American icon.”
Carol Ockman, an art professor at Williams College, in an interview with Economist magazine, discussed people’s enduring fascination with Barbie stating, “Barbie is a modern have-it-all woman, with an array of powerful careers, a closet full of couture, a doting metrosexual boyfriend and very little pressure to marry and procreate (though she can always choose the domestic route, complete with apple-cheeked baby and a "dream house" kitted out in Pepto Bismol-pink accessories).”
But this fresh-faced plastic fantastic, has come under criticism since its start for offering girls unrealistic expectations of womanhood, and even for inspiring eating disorders and related pathologies. Barbie has played a major role in our distorted perceptions of the “ideal” body.
Studies have shown that Barbie’s proportions, when rendered in the flesh, are impossible to achieve. If Barbie were life-size, her measurements--at 36-18-38, would make it impossible for her to stand, or even live.
A study conducted by Brownell and Napolitano compared women, aged 22 to 32 years, of normal weight and average height to Barbie’s proportions. They found that in order to achieve the Barbie ideal, these women would have to increase their height by 24 inches, increase their bust size 5 inches, lengthen their neck 2 to 3 inches, reduce their waist by 6 inches, and their neck circumference by 0.2 inches.
(Brownell, K., & Napolitano, M.A. (1995). Distorting reality for children: Body size proportions for Barbie and Ken Dolls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18, 295-298.)
Although the “Barbie ideal” is truly unrealistic and unattainable, that doesn’t discourage women from trying to attain this physique. With the popularity of cosmetic surgery, studies are showing that more and more people are carving out physiques that can only be obtained by going under the knife. Not only have our ideals been distorted, but our bodies are now beginning to morph into the unnatural physiques of plastic dolls and cartoon characters through unnecessary and sometimes, very dangerous, means.
But is this really any different from years past? For centuries, women have undergone pretty scary and torturous treatments in the name of beauty. Corsets and girdles were used in the olden days to cinch the waist, resulting in numerous health problems, including displacing organs and broken ribs. Although “shapewear” is making a big comeback, the options available today are often much more humane.
The Pa Dong Long Neck people, part of the larger Karen tribal group that lives along the Thai and Burmese border, use rings to “elongate” their necks beginning at the age of six. A few rings may be added every year, up to a limit of 20. The women's necks aren't actually stretched. Rather, the weight of the rings gradually crushes the women's collar bones, producing the illusion of long necks.
These are only a few examples of the “crazy” things women will do in the name of beauty. What is considered “ideal” continues to change but what remains clear, is that good old-fashioned diet and exercise can work “wonders” in creating a sleek, sexy, and near-perfect physique, regardless of genetics.
While I believe that plastic surgery and other cosmetic procedures can have their place, nothing beats a proper diet and training regimen. There is no magic pill. No “quick fix”. No miracle potion. But we’ve definitely come a long way in understanding how our body functions and how we can contour our curves and create head-turning, jaw-dropping physiques with the smartest training strategies and optimal nutrition. And we can accomplish this through a philosophy of “training smarter, not harder”.
Want to learn more about how to create a million dollar figure? Subscribe to my blog to be on the cutting-edge and stay up-to-date with the latest training and nutrition strategies to help you carve out an attention-grabbing, jaw-dropping physique.
Stay tuned for my next blog post: Play Boy Bunnies Take on Anime Cartoons….
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