Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Barbie - the world loves you for who you are on the inside. You don't have to dress that way!

I am a 27 year old mother, and usually I feel young and cool, but today I feel like I sound like a grandma. When I was playing with Barbies, I remember that my Barbie had a briefcase. And a powersuit. I always wanted Dr. Barbie, but alas, we never bought her. Sure, Barbie babysat Skipper on the weekends, and eventually had twins. She pushed the twins around in a stroller in her 80's jumpsuit. It covered her WHOLE BODY. Maybe the Barbie of my youth was a little "conservative", maybe somewhat "traditional", and of course there was always that whole body image debate, but as I stood in Wal-Mart today I was in total shock about where Barbie has gone now.

Abi has three Barbies, and today in Wal-Mart I was fondly recalling the time I spent dressing Barbie in different outfits, which could be bought at the Dollar store or Wal-Mart for pretty cheap. From my obesrvations today, I'm pretty sure that Barbie now reads Cosmo, has recently auditioned for the next " Real World", and considers Britney Spears her life coach and primary role model. The only clothing selection was from a collection known as "party". I only found two outfits that I would even consider letting my four year old put on a Barbie, and they were both tragically covered in glitter. So that leaves me with only one solution: when I go visit my parents next week I'm raiding the stash of Barbies in the shed to get together a complete collection of mom approved Barbie clothes. The 80's are back...right?

1 comment:

Tracy said...

I love this! You are so right...but at least it is still Barbie right? I am not letting my daughters anywhere near Bratz dolls...the whole attitude thing is a horrible idea to put in your child's mind (in my humble opinion anyway). My five year old is REALLY into Barbie right now and got several dolls and DVDs for her birthday recently. She has "Baby Doctor Barbie", "Prima Ballerina Barbie" and "Barbie Mariposa" dolls and those aren't dressed too horribly. :)