LOSING
HER EDGE
strong female figures, but Barbie I
just don’t get the same vibe.”
In the past few years, more
complaints have also surfaced
about the doll’s proportions. An
attempt to imagine how a human
with Barbie’s same measurements
would function in real life found
she’d have to walk on all-fours,
couldn’t lift anything with her
HUFFINGTON
03.02.14
he expects things to get worse for
the blond bombshell — not better. As more American kids come
from multicultural backgrounds,
and interest in electronic games
and toys continues to climb, Barbie likely will just become less
attractive, he said.
“It’s hard to think that the
money is going to come back be-
Since allowing Barbie into her home, creating Barbie
stories with her daughter has given them an opportunity
to talk about who her daughter wants to grow up to be.
wrists, and would only have room
for half a liver. But in an interview
with Fast Company earlier this
month, Barbie’s head designer
said there are no plans to change
the doll’s look, saying she “was
never designed to be realistic” and
there’s an “issue of heritage.”
Chidoni, the Mattel spokeswoman, said the recent sales
downtick isn’t evidence that consumers might be changing their
minds about the doll.
“As a 55-year-old brand we see
ups and downs, but Barbie is an
icon and she is a brand that girls
continue to love,” she said.
But Hudak, the toy analyst, said
cause future generations of kids
will have more and more trouble
relating to Barbie,” he said.
NOT SO BAD?
But not all little girls are ready
to throw away their plastic teen
dolls just yet.
Tracy Stewart, a 46-year-old
mom of two, said she always assumed she’d never buy a Barbie
for her kids. “I kind of came up
with a blanket response which
was Barbie equals bad,” she said.
Once her daughter started asking for the doll when she was
about 6 and a half, Stewart said
she decided that too much was
being laid at the Barbie’s petite
feet. “I would watch my son playing Star Wars and making gun