Barbie Doll

Did anyone know this fun fact? If Barbie was a real person, she would be 5 foot 9 and would have a 36 inch chest, 18 inch waist, and 33 inch hips. She would topple over due to these measurements. It is just physically impossible for women.

With these measurements, Barbie would she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate. In 1965, Slumber Party Barbie came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight which advised: "Don't eat." The doll also came with pink bathroom scales reading 110lb, which would be around 35lbs underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall. (All information from a University Central Hospital study posted in Wikipedia.)

Weird huh?

Barbies are ever-so-popular too, even though they can create an unrealistic body image for children, their target audience. Three Barbie dolls are sold every three seconds. Woa! They are sold to over 150 countries too. Talk about exposure to a wide audience.

For some more fun facts, her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. She is from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. More information from Wikipedia: "Barbie has been said to attend Willows High School and Manhattan International High School in New York City, based on the real-life Stuyvesant High School. She has an on-off romantic relationship with her beau Ken (Ken Carson), who first appeared in 1961. Like Barbie, Ken shares his name with one of Ruth Handler's children. A news release from Mattel in February 2004 announced that Barbie and Ken had decided to split up, but in February 2006 they were back together again.

Barbie has had over forty pets including cats and dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra. She has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink convertibles, trailers and jeeps. She also holds a pilot's license, and operates commercial airliners in addition to serving as a flight attendant. Barbie's careers are designed to show that women can take on a variety of roles in life, and the doll has been sold with a wide range of titles including Miss Astronaut Barbie, Doctor Barbie and Nascar Barbie."

Do you think Barbie Dolls are cop-outs for girls who have poor self images? Or do you think they really attribute to female image problems?

And, what do you think of these statistics?