Barbie Dolls

As I signed off of the computer last night, I realized that I had not said a word about my Christmas shopping experience, and the new Barbie.

Let me start with a disclaimer. I know that some parents do not wish for their children to play with Barbie dolls because they are too sexy. I recall a woman on the news some twenty years ago who had a doll made in more realistic proportions so that children would not feel pressured into having the "perfect" but impossible and unhealthy Barbie figure. In a video popular on Facebook a couple of years ago, a woman from Australia, if I remember correctly, took second-hand Barbie and Spice Girl dolls and repainted them with the most beautiful children's faces, and had her mother knit new jumpers for them, making them look like real children instead of dis-proportioned women. Her work was wonderful, and I would have been tickled pink to get hold of one of her remakes. Even more would I have loved to be able to do the same doll makeovers myself.  But I love Barbie myself, from the beautiful hair, clothes and detailed accessories. At least until the hair is undone, and the clothes removed and never easily returned exactly to factory condition. On the sexiness, I think back to my days of playing with Barbie. Yes, we saw her as sexy, and we made our own sexy wedding dresses for her out of Kleenex. On the other hand, I had a little niece describe her as having "things like a mother", and that put a whole new perspective on Barbie. A child's environment does made a difference in attitude.

Swing back to the present. I was looking for Baby Alive dolls for my two  granddaughters for Christmas. After looking on line, I decided to stop at Walmart to see what they had on the shelves. (Now Walmart is a whole blog entry on its own. I far prefer Shopko, but I had already seen their sparse doll aisle.) Walmart had exactly what I needed, a mid-price Baby Alive in dolls with two different hair colors, one for each of the girls. Then I skipped over to the next aisle to get an idea for someone's birthday. All kinds of Barbies. Farm Barbie with plaid shirt, faded jeans and white hen. Teacher Barbie. Veterinarian  Barbie. Camping Barbie. Farm animal veterinarian Barbie. Hair dresser Barbie. Dentist Barbie. Chef Barbie. Fahionista Barbie and Ken. So many choices! When the girls are at our house they like playing with the Stacie high chair which came with a kitchen Barbie, and the little dog which came with a dog walking Barbie, so I zeroed in on sets with kids (Stacy and Chelsea) and sets with animals. I rejected the set with a dog having puppies, which had been my first choice. The way the package showed the movements of the dog was too suggestive and crude, even though the dogs only came out of the stomach. The top on camping Barbie was too low cut for me, and the price for buying all of the separate figures to make a family too pricey. I finally picked a dog washing Barbie.

My shopping left me with some good feelings, and some negative feelings. First, I was very happy to see a young boy doll in the camping series, just as I love to see Ken, Stacie, and Chelsea. In the "olden days", Skipper, and then Stacie and Chelsea were described as Barbie's sisters, but they can just as easily be converted to her children with Ken as her husband rather than boyfriend. A young boy rounds out the family image. Second, I thought that over all, the clothes portrayals of Barbie as professional woman have become much more modest, loosing some of the sexiness that Barbie always represented. The down side was that the clothes seem to be very cheaply made, and they have lost much of the fine detailing which Barbie clothes and accessories used to have. Chalk it up to safety, or cheapened imports, I am not sure which to blame. At any rate, the clothes I saw looked like versions of the clothes we made as children, straight  pieces with holes cut out for the arms, only now, with some serging around the edges instead of pinking! If you have vintage clothes, hang onto them! Their quality was so much better! Also, we had bendable Barbie with smooth legs and skin. The new bend-ables have visible joints such as were on the GI Joe doll of old. Very unsightly! My other complaint was that Barbie and company are now made in different sizes, some quite large, so that I could not tell if the Fashionista Barbie and Ken were in proportion to the Barbies in the other sets. That makes it hard to have purchases which fit together.

After a very long time in the doll aisle, I finally made my choices for our birthday gift. A bit disappointed, but on the other hand, I can't help but think that I will go back at some point and get the rock climbing Barbie for someone else, "just because". It would be a great keep-sake. Had I seen it earlier, it would have made a great surprise Christmas gift.