According to Time Magazine, Ken will still love Barbie when she obtains more “realistic” proportions. Thank goodness! I was really worried about that one! I am not sure that I feel that Barbie really needs to obtain more realistic proportions. I think of toys the same way that I think of books. They shouldn’t be real. Children need to dream. They need a fantasy life. It is important in children’s development. I mean if they want realism they have their mom who lives in sweatpants and jeans and doesn’t have one quarter of Barbie’s wardrobe. Not to mention dad is no Ken doll. They both have real lives and real things. Their possessions are small and worrisome, not mortgage free or replaceable like Barbie’s. They are people with complex hard to understand relationships. Dolls are simple things with whatever life that we choose to give them. I think it is adults who have problems with a child’s fantasy world. I can understand wanting to get rid of stereotypes, but I don’t know how much realism we need to add. Are children really judging the way they look based on Barbie. If they are I think that is more of a failure of society and parents then it is Mattel. There is more than enough realism for every child out there. My biggest hope is that every child gets the opportunity to avoid it as long as possible. G. K. Chesterton said that “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Besides as Ken said in the Times article, would you like to be the one to tell Barbie that she’s fat?
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