While surfing the web recently, I came across an article on Yahoo about “Normal Barbies.” The new dolls are called “Lammily,” which makes sense, because it also happens to be the name of the company. Creative.

These dolls “promote realistic body standards” with features like the average body size of a 19 year-old American woman, acne, stretch marks, and cellulite. Stickers that resemble scars, scrapes, stitches, mosquito bites, bruises and much more can be purchased to make your Lammily even more “realistic.”

First, let me tell you I played with Barbies my entire childhood. They had perfect blonde hair, perfectly painted blue eyes, flat stomachs, basically, perfect bodies. I had tons of Barbies, and they all looked the same – perfect. They all had cool clothes, cool shoes, cool plastic food. Their legs and arms didn’t bend. They didn’t have belly buttons. They were way cooler than I’ll ever be. But, that’s okay, because they’re TOYS. They’re supposed to be cooler than a normal person, which is why it’s so fun to play with them.

Trying to make Barbies look like normal people defeats the purpose of playing with them. If I wanted to play with a normal person, I would have played with my friend.

I still made my Barbies normal. They had relationship problems, they broke their arms, they got in car crashes, their lives were terrible sometimes. Even though they looked perfect while their worlds were crashing down, I still think they represented people like you and me rather well.

Making something as insignificant as Barbies realistic shows how appearance oriented our culture has become. Body image is an important topic today because we have made it an important topic. Somewhere along the line, someone decided to make the point all women aren’t the same. Congratulations for stating the obvious, but what has that done for anyone?

I think the more attention placed on being an “average sized woman,” the more women are conscious of their body size. The shape, size, and features of a doll should not concern the average American woman. It’s not a matter of Feminism or creating a better world for girls. It’s become this game of changing everything to make sure no one is offended.

I think changing Barbies could hurt girls image problems more than playing with “perfect” ones. By trying to place less emphasis on appearance, we’re actually placing more emphasis on body image. The problems girls have today are not because they saw Victoria Secret models, were told only pretty girls are tall, skinny, and have long straight hair, or played with “perfect” dolls.

Their problems are caused because society constantly tells them something different in relation to how important physical appearance is and how important it should be.

I would like to point out most toys are completely unrealistic.

Pets don’t talk, we don’t smell like strawberry shortcake, I did not grow up with a talking snowman, nor did we have minions at my house. Girls can play with so many other unrealistic toys, and I think playing with a Barbie is the least damaging one of all.

Boys play with action figures that have muscles, can fly, have removable heads, have superpowers, are turtles – the list goes on and on. Why is no one trying to change those?

Here’s the link to this ridiculous doll: https://lammily.com/product/lammily-exclusive-first-edition/

Inspiration for this blog: https://www.yahoo.com/style/normal-barbie-will-have-acne-cellulite-and-stretch-103049254128.html