Alexis Dods

COPY EDITOR

Recently, Mattel, the company that produces Barbie dolls, announced that its Barbie will now be available in a multitude of complexions, eye colors and body types. According to the Los Angeles Times article “Barbie breaks the mold with ethnically diverse dolls” by Shan Li, Mattel’s goal is to create Barbie dolls that serve as role models for the 21st century. As someone who played with Barbie dolls as a little girl, I think that Mattel’s move is a step in the right direction given the current racial terrain of this country and the unattainable beauty standards that women are held to in our society.

As a young girl who played with Barbie dolls, I distinctly recall comparing myself to Barbie. She was blonde-haired and blue-eyed, the spitting image of America’s sweetheart. There I was, a half-Asian half-white girl who appeared to be racially ambiguous to everyone, including both sides of my family. I did not look Asian to my Asian family nor did I look Caucasian to my white family. I was often asked if I was Indian, Native American or Mexican. Barbie was beautiful, tall and thin. More than anything, I wanted to be Caucasian, blonde-haired and blue-eyed just like Barbie.

Some may argue that Mattel did not intend to perpetuate the harmful and often unreachable beauty standards that women are held to through their creation of Barbie. I agree with this argument. At the same time, I believe that these unattainable beauty standards are deeply embedded in society, and because of this, the original Barbie doll was merely a reflection of those expectations even if Mattel did not consciously mean to further reinforce them.

Although my desire to be white did not directly stem from the messages that Barbie’s appearance conveyed to young girls like myself at the time, I think that her whiteness was merely a reminder to me that I was a brown girl living in a white supremacist country. Having grown up in a predominantly white community in Washington state, I was often inadvertently reminded that I was different. Even though I never directly experienced racism growing up there, I was highly conscious of how I stood out from my friends and peers in terms of my multiracial background and brown skin tone. I wanted to assimilate to the white culture that I was living in.

I was also an avid fan of Disney princesses. The most popular Disney princesses, of course, were the white ones — Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel and Belle. The summer before my freshman year of college, my family and I went to Disneyland. I recall entering one of their many Disney merchandise stores and asking if they still had Mulan-themed merchandise. To my surprise, they had discontinued her line of merchandise. Meanwhile, throughout the store, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Ariel each had their own sections of merchandise. Pocahontas and Mulan merchandise was no where to be found.

Given all of this, I think that Mattel’s decision to produce Barbie dolls that are more realistic in their appearance in terms of their racial background, eye color and body type is a good choice. I believe that little girls are incredibly aware of the beauty standards that society imposes on them from a young age. The original blonde-haired and blue-eyed Barbie doll was not only a toy, she was also an instrument by which such unattainable beauty standards were imparted on little girls.

The measures that Mattel took to promote racial inclusivity and body positivity through the diverse Barbie dolls they recently introduced will hopefully prevent little girls from experiencing the racial and physical insecurities that I began experiencing at a young age as a result of the impossible beauty standards and racial hierarchy that the original Barbie doll symbolized.