Barre with Justine

It has certainly been the summer of Barbie, with bubblegum pink and sparkly new songs to celebrate the new film. The trend has also hit fitness and I fully embraced it, adding Barbie songs to my classes and filming a core track to Dua Lipa’s “Dance the night away”. Fun fact – according to PopSugar, the Barbie cast did Pilates to shape up for the filming.

The new Barbie film has given the summer of 2023 the lightness and fun that seems to have been missing in recent years. The film does address some deeper questions and the ambiguous feelings that many people have about Barbie dolls. In his review for Forbes, Erik Kain notes: “while it’s a celebration of the Barbie doll, it’s also a critique of the society that made such an unrealistic, idealized version of the female form so popular.”

I loved playing with Barbies as a child and never felt that my girls shouldn’t play with them. I actually enjoy playing Barbies now with my littlest, remembering the fun of brushing the hair and watching her play with my old Barbies like Peaches’n’Cream, with her dreamy chiffon gown!

Barbies & Wellnesss

A few years ago I bought “Breathe with me” Barbie for my daughter. This is a Barbie who teaches meditation by pressing a necklace to choose one of five guided breathing practices. The doll is now discontinued but I remember thinking this would help my oldest daughter de stress and hopefully spark an interest in yoga. It was one of the wellness Barbies released in 2020 to “introduce girls to the benefits of self-care through play.” There was also a Barbie fitness doll (with an adorable little yoga mat, gym bag and weights) and a spa night Barbie.

I couldn’t remember if there had been a fitness Barbie when I was little but it turns out there have been several over the years. Even in my prime Barbie years (1984), a Barbie workout centre was released. It captures that 1980s aerobics vibe of Jane Fonda and Kathi Smith:

There was also a Barbie workout video produced on DVD in 1992, along with countless other sports-themed Barbies over the years.

I’m curious as to what kind of effect these wellness-inspired Barbies had on girls. Did they encourage girls to exercise? To SEE themselves in the fitness world? Did Barbie’s steps into fitness counter the criticism that the doll negatively impacts girls’ body image?

I don’t have any answers to this but a recent study examined how college students were affected by seeing either Barbie fashionista dolls in passive poses, Barbie “Made to Move” dolls in active poses, or Lego friends dolls. The authors note that “Made to Move” dolls essentially combine “thinspiration” with the traditional body image effects of Barbie: “It is also plausible that viewing images of dolls in advanced yoga poses may have reminded participants of their own perceived or actual physical limitations.” (Webb et al.)

My personal feeling is that health & wellness inspired Barbies can have a positive impact on kids if it opens a conversation about the benefits of exercise for physical and mental health. Barbie’s tagline is “you can be anything” and, while I know it’s a corporate slogan, it isn’t a negative one. If kids can learn breathing exercises with Barbie isn’t it better than never learning them at all?

I think we OVERTHINK the influence dolls have on children and UNDERESTIMATE the effect that we have, as the adults in their lives.

Children learn by watching the adults around them. My own kids often imitate my workouts when they are little, and my oldest daughter is beginning group fitness classes next month at the gym where I teach. There are some things that my mum (bless her) said to me about food that I wouldn’t say to my daughter, but I’m grateful that my parents set a great example when it came to healthy eating and movement.

At the end of the day, I think wellness Barbies are a good addition to the lineup. With one exception – the Slumber Party Barbie doll (1965) that came with (shudder) a tiny pink scale set to 110lbs and a diet book with the rule “don’t eat!”. Let’s never go down that product development road again!

Resources

“How Did Barbie Go from a Problematic Toy to a Feminist Icon?” Stylist.Co.Uk, http://www.stylist.co.uk/entertainment/film/barbie-problematic-toy-feminist-icon-film/801097. Accessed 23 July 2023. 

Smith, Stacey Vanek. “Barbie’s Big Makeover.” NPR, 27 Apr. 2021, http://www.npr.org/2021/04/26/991013395/barbies-big-makeover.

Webb, Jennifer B., Nataya M. Ford, and Meagan P. Padro. “Fashion Versus Fitspo: The Effect of Viewing Images of Contemporary Barbie® Dolls in Passive Versus Active Poses on College Women’s Body Image and Affect.” Body image 45 (2023): 201–209. Web.