Barbie's Dumbest "Controversies"
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ค. 2024
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*"This version of Midge is clearly an adult. Just look at her sensible button up shirt and receeding hairline."* This quote will live rent free in my head forever now thanks lol
Her forehead is out of control!
I wasn't sure if he was gonna mention her huge ass forehead, but he went for it and I am grateful for that lol
9:39 Why is her forehead huge? Lol
Nah i think she's the future version of midge but that joke is funny
That part there
Most people rejected her message.
“Math class is tough!”
They hated Barbie because she told them the truth.
The math thing is so stupid I had a really hard time with math as a kid due to my adhd and I was really incecure about it I probably would’ve felt better about myself if one of my favorite dolls agreed with me
I 100% agree.
If one of my dolls said “math class is tough” I would’ve been like “omg yes thank u everyone keeps telling me I’ll get it but I’m not and I feel dumb”. I felt so stupid as a kid and even as a teenager for not being able to do math (not due to ADHD, I just suck at math/science). If my Barbie agreed I would’ve felt like I had a little friend who was hyping me up
@@1712ki yeah like teenagers hate school and hate math so saying “ math class is tough “ is just realistic teen talk … you know for a doll called Teen Talk Barbie math is hard for everyone
Literally this
Same with my dyscalculia, math is after some point of difficulty basically impossible for me, my brain just stops and no matter how hard I try or what tricks I use I just can't do anything. Also not everyone wants to work in STEM, I mean I'm a nail tech and I want ro be a housewife at some point, those are two very feminine seen jobs for which Barbie would be in hot water again.
I had the pregnant Midge doll, and she ended up being one of my most used dolls for the storytelling drama potential that she could add to the soap operas I was putting on for myself lol
Omg same!
There was always some kind of drama when playing with dolls, no matter what lol
Ken you can't can't leave you're so-n
I had the black Midge and the White Ryan, so I had a cute mixed couple
Lmao we lost the actual midge so we just used her belly on other dolls 😭😭😭
Barbie does so much more good but everyone decides to just go with the “dumb controversial blonde” narrative. Like if people just looked at even modern Barbie with her vlogs that discuss mental health, being a girl, and even racism (There is one with Reneé talking about her experience as a Chinese American and Nikki who is African American and her experience) and even having a canonically black Barbie Roberts. I wished people would dig a little deeper into the fashion doll lore and not just go with the surface level “fashion doll is bad; dumb blonde” idea.
She's done so much awesome things over the years!
Weren't there also vlogs with Barbie and a friend who was a black girl named Barbie or am I misremembering that?
@@talithacrow7530 Yes, her name is also Barbie Roberts. She is a recent edition to the Barbie cast and is one of the two main characters in “Big City Big Dreams”, the vlogs, and the Netflix show “It Takes Two” (along with white Barbie) She also goes by the nickname “Brooklyn” as she is from Brooklyn New York and white Barbie goes by the nickname “Malibu”. Darling Dolls actually did a whole video on the history of black Barbie from the first black friend to Barbie all the way to Barbie “Brooklyn” Roberts that I definitely recommend if you haven’t seen it 😊
@@rosequeen900 I thought so, I used to watch the vlogs all the time, I just couldn't remember
@@DarlingDollz I guess it did, but I was never into girly toys like Barbie as a kid, so I never got any of these claimed benefits.
Wait, if people assumed midge was a teenager, how would barbie be a doctor if they are the same age? How was no one questioning that or taking that into account? Lol
Excuse you, I was definitely a doctor at the age of 16 and a half, thank you very much (joking)
Am i the only person here that think happy family takes place in the future
I don't think kids really see it like that they are more like "OH PRETTY DOLL" but the parents have no excuse
@@kelsyebillman8694 exactly! I remember seeing pregnant midge dolls as a kid and I just thought she was gorgeous. Never did I think I should go get pregnant as soon as possible.
@@kelsyebillman8694 yah i know these parents are stupid besides doesn't the mom once have preanacty
Wait, the infamous "I'm too dumb to do math" Barbie's actual line was "Math class is tough"?? In that "golly geez" light-hearted delivery? You're joking. I was only vaguely aware of that one through like 6th hand re-tellings of the controversy. You're telling me people were scandalized that there were a handful of Barbies who acknowledged one specific class was kinda hard? Incredible. Maybe these advocacy groups should re-focus their energy towards how badly math is taught in American schools instead of getting mad that sometimes children's media acknowledges that some subjects are difficult to learn.
i first learnt it as im too dumb to do math too!! id understand that for controversy but damn
Maybe those parents should try doing that math homework themselves. Then they'll see Barbie's point!
Barbie struggles with math but STILL worked hard to qualify for her many careers, and people really wanna say she's a dumb blonde stereotype? Pure slander tbh.
you made me feel better. I struggle with math hard and knowing that it just isn't taught well in my country makes me feel less stupid
agreed, I mean most kids will not like math very much because it is hard, how is being aware of that yes it can be hard bad?
I think people immediately assume that that asian Olympic doll isn't asian because the stereotype is that ALL asians should have black hair
literally
witch is racist in itself if you ask me. thinking "all asians look alike" kinda deal. people who try to be "woke" when they are offensive themselves just hilarious to me. but sad and maddening at the same time since people fall for this shit and it can be quite dangerous.
I feel like the general public always forgets that adult collectors exist. Especially when companies like Barbie have a dedicated line for adult collectors- the general public wants them to keep their products kid friendly.
On some level, I can understand wanting to keep those lines as separate as possible, but if you pick out a doll clearly intended for adult audiences and give it to a young child, that's entirely on you
Like yeah sure there should be like, a separate page on the barbie site for dolls made for adult collectors. However, I'm not gonna say Neil Gaiman can't write books for adults jsut because he's written some children's books too.
its because of this belief that adults are not allowed to enjoy anything. Its sad
Yes, the girl who is:
- A doctor
- A vet
- An optometrist
- A nurse
- A surgeon
- A dentist
- An army medic
- The president
- The German chancellor
- A judge
- An architect
- An astrophysicist
- An engineer
- An astronaut
- A teacher for every subject and grade out there
- A paleontologist
- A geologist
- A biologist
- A pilot
- A film director
- A musician
- A business exec
- AND MUCH MUCH MORE! ALL AT ONCE! (I only listed a small fraction of what shows up on her wikipedia page)
...is totally promoting the "dumb blonde" stereotype. The people who claim this are the ones promoting the soft-brained human stereotype.
That Black Canary doll looks kinda sick tho ngl, I love her dark lipstick.
Agreed. That doll looks pretty good
right?!
I wish I had the black canary doll growing up bro. The poison ivy one looked pretty sick too
@@keribere244 right?!
As a girl who never liked math growing up, I can confirm that Barbie saying math is hard is not sexist. It just means that not everyone likes math. Get over it
The origin of Barbie being based on a 'sex toy' confused me even back then. Like, was it a vibrator? The articles never explained that.
I think it's the German "BILD Lilli" and while she wasn't a sex toy she was considered as a sex symbol of some sort if I remember correctly
@@otaking3582 nipples aren't sexual
@@grellimichaelis6844 watch the video it explains the BILD Lili character in full.
@@yourresume373 yeah I noticed that xD
people so overestimate the “psychological” impact of barbies (and fashion dolls in general) on kids. its like they think girls aren’t smart enough to realise shes a hunk of plastic, not a real human role model.
But when these messages are compounded over time it does create culture. Maybe Barbie isn’t solely responsible but it is part of the culture of idealizing thin bodies at a young age. Seeing thin dolls, magazines, movie stars etc. perpetuates and reinforces societal beauty standards. It’s not that young girls are stupid it’s that they are developing children and learning how the world works through media, play, and societal interactions. A lot of these controversies are stupid but the scale/weight loss one is not okay. I’m not trying to argue I’m just saying.
@@alyssagangi5341 oh dont get me wrong girl i totally agree with you, but i do feel like there is a specific keenness to blame every problem girls have on a third party product, as opposed to the million other, arguably more impactful, way we reinforce culture.
like think about it, when was the last time you heard anyone worrying about the impact certain toys have on boys? take action figures, they’re just as unrealistic physically and most of the time they represent an explicitly violent character. i know i’ve never seen it, and certainly not from the same people that clutch their pearls about barbie having a tattoo.
it feels to me like there is an implicit idea that boys are smart enough to figure out whats real and whats a good idea even if their toys/shows/movies don’t show it, but girls aren’t.
theres an insane protectiveness over “influences” of girls, but somehow that only ever extends towards protecting them from the things that they enjoy, and never from the far more impactful influences of society at large. its just another form of control.
@@nuggman4896 Yeah I agree it’s a fine line when critiquing girls media and toys because if there is a valid complaint it’s overtaken by the modesty/misogyny. The only thing I see that is criticized for young boys is video games and violence (rightfully so imo). Violence and imperialism that is portrayed in stuff like call of duty for instance are far worse topics for children than trivial complaints that girls have to deal with like tattoos. If anything we should be more critical of boys media and toys, it’s just I am hypersensitive to female representation as a feminist. I think we should critically analyze and discuss stuff we enjoy.
@@alyssagangi5341 rather than be more critical of boy's toys i think society needs to stop criticizing what kids play with in general and just let them be themselves
Going by my own experiences I thought I already looked like the doll. Its people that pointed out I don't.
Idk why but people calling Barbie “Barbra” is hilarious to me
It’s because her full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts
It's because it's her full name, "Barbara" 💖
@@pigsisters4869 I know, it's just funny to hear people call her anything other than "Barbie"
Like people calling Jerry "Gerald" or Minnie "Minerva"
The math thing is unbelievably dumb, like I actually had a psychologist say that the attention parts of my disability make math much harder for me. Yet being diagnosed with being bad at math doesn't mean I'm dumb or worthless, I made an entire TTRPG System with smaller numbers and focused on accessibility, it means I use the calculator on my phone fairly often.
I think the doll from the Simpsons that parodied this scandal was more harmful to young girls' psyche.
The ttrpg thing is cool!
I loved the pregnant doll as a kid. It was super interesting and kind of fun to play out with my doctor Barbie especially since my sister was about 3 at the time and I was there for all of the sonograms and helped pick out baby stuff for her and even named her. So pregnancy wasn’t this nebulous mystery to me as a kid. It was just a thing that happened to a lot of people and was just part of every day pretend like playing house
My daughter and her cousin like to play pregnancy lately. Because her cousins mom had a baby little over a year ago and I'm getting ready to have another baby myself.
I loved the Midge doll too! I had the whole family set except the grandparents and I never once thought she was a teenager, on the contrary she looked like an adult woman I personally knew. Her clothes are very motherly too and for some reason I really loved how her dress was so soft and stretchy- I think it was because it made sense for her to wear something like that? My favorite way to play with her was pushing the belly down to simulate actual birth lmao.
I was a little old for Barbies when the pregnant one came out (I was like sixteen; usually girls that age still into Barbies are collectors buying those “black label” ones) and only really saw it when the commercials would come on. I questioned the controversy even back then. It was clear to me that she was a grown, married woman. Did they not see the male doll that was clearly their husband, and the little boy doll that was clearly the child they’d already had? I was made aware of a lot of the goings-on of my sister’s development while my mother was pregnant, and viewed pregnancy as just another part of the human life cycle. Maybe these parents should view the doll as a potential educational tool rather than something girls will emulate. Who knows, it could’ve PREVENTED pregnancies!
@@erinbrown3744 omg this^ ^ ^
Man, I remember the math one. I was so angry, I was always like "What, girls aren't allowed to dislike math now? We all have to be amazing at every STEM subject or we aren't good girls anymore?" Everyone complaining seemed so pretentious.
I think my favorite dumb Barbie controversy was the supposedly gay Ken. Crazy religious groups wanted to drum up outrage and all that happened was that Ken sold out really fast. Although that controversy about the "lack" of an Asian Olympiad is really funny too, might be a new favorite.
Yes reminds me of when a Chinese animation was called racist or something because it looked “too Asian” smh
YEAH, GOSH
I was just thinking of this when I first heard of this controversy on the internet. Like, since when it's a crime to express your dislike against a certain school subject?? Im a guy, and I've always been ostracized at school for not liking Soccer (which sadly, was the main and only sport they taught in Physical Ed. in my country) and yes, I hated math. Not because I couldn't do it.. but because it REALLY WAS DIFFICULT for me, and I preferred other Subjects like Arts, Literature or even Language. But we're forced as kids to fit in a bare minimum threshold of skills rather than expanding on the things that we're good at.
And let's not talk about that mom on the video: "...the last thing I want her to get is that for some reason, math is anymore challenging than any other subject she's studying.." Poor kid that had to struggle with a probably obsessed about Complying-with-society mother, that also probably ignored her other skills. "Nope, being good at fashion and design won't make u a good girl. You have to be a doctor" lol
@@darioflores804 Would not be surprised if that woman's daughter heard the phrase "No daughter of mine will ever . . ." many times in her life.
That's not it. Whether we go into STEM or not, we still need to pass math class. In the UK, we need to get a C in maths and English to even get a job working as a retail manager. I hated math but still studied to get my grade. This doll is suggesting 'math class is tough, I'll chat on the phone instead'.
Anyway, the most hated class is gym, not math. Especially during our periods.
@@Ri57490 I got A's in advanced classes on math in school, and I still say math is hard.
The body image argument rubs me the wrong way. You know what gives me body image issues? Seeing real women photoshopped to hell and back, plus getting so much plastic surgery they don't look human anymore. (It's an issue with men too, but I'm a woman so I'm talking about women lol) I never really saw dolls as humans when I was a kid. They looked like people, but they weren't real people and I knew that. On a lighter note, I think the "math is hard" controversy is my favorite lol. I actually have one of the dolls who says that, and she's so gorgeous! I have the one with brown wavy hair, and every time I look at her I have a little giggle because the whole thing is just so silly.
Edit: Def not trying to come off condescending about the body image thing! Obviously you're valid if dolls did mess up the way you see yourself and I'm so sorry about that, but a lot of the time I think people just want to crap on anything and everything that's made for girls and women.
That's what bugs me about the Barbie=body image issue thing too: children know that Barbie is fictional, and just like Sailor Moon or G.I Joe, you literally can't look like her because she isn't real. Now, Barbie is absolutely a REFLECTION of Eurocentric Western beauty ideals - which is why having diverse Barbie dolls is important - but the articles about how Barbie can't menstruate or walk upright because of her proportions are just fucking stupid.
Imagine if we looked up to dolls that much that we wanted to be exactly like them XD
I'd be Asian and have purple hair by now 🙄
But it's really stupid, I think there's like less than 1% that actually thinks they have to look like their doll
@@Nocturne22 I think it's more America-centric instead of Eurocentric because she's still mostly targeted to North-America. Just one little thing I don't agree with in your comment, the rest is true of course
@@myra0224 Eurocentric beauty standards means beauty based on white features, predominately anglo-saxon people (Pale skin, light hair and eyes, certain facial features, etc.) in this specific context, not based around Europe as a continent. America-centric would mean it was based off of the facial features of people indigenous to the americas.
@@Letcharlieplay2545 but the meanings have shifted nowadays though, because beauty isn't the same here in Europe as it is in North-America anymore
The Midge that preceded the Happy Family line was a massive wedding set, with Midge and Alan as the bride and groom, and a full line of dolls to make up the wedding party. The wedding ring was present on Midge from that point on. Mattel likely felt the natural next step for them was a family. This is what was entirely baffling about the backlash. Mattel was promoting traditional family values, and the outraged mums decided it was some sort of attack on the very thing Mattel was trying to get behind. The whole thing was ridiculous.
The outrage over the pregnancy doll is the dumbest imo. When I wasn't forcing them to be Pokémon trainers, I sorted my Barbies into families (most of them were single mothers due to a tragic Ken population gap) and I used tiny plastic dolls to pretend they were having babies.
I didn't know anything about how babies were _made,_ but I did know what pregnancy was. Most kids do! As long as you don't freak out and explain it calmly to them, kids can handle that! I would have loved a doll with a pregnancy bump.
if that "math is tough" barbie was more popular we could live in a world without mathematics.... why do parents have to ruin everything for us!!!!
😂
Math class is tough, especially during high school. I can't belived parents complained something so dumb
😂
As a girl screw math 🤣
I love that the first adult fashion doll was basically an anime figurine.
Imagine if one day someone makes an doll based of some random anime girl figure, and it just becomes an hit, one that lasts for decades
Okay, controversies aside, I think we're ignoring the most important thing here:
How pretty the animated version of Barbie in the tattoo Barbie doll commercial is. Like, look at the hair, and those eyelashes!
In all seriousness though, the uproar about the Black Canary doll is kinda frustrating to me. Putting the fact that she was meant for adult collectors aside, her clothes are perfectly fine. Impractical for fighting crime? Probably. But no more scandalous than the Halle Berry Catwoman doll that came out a couple of years before her. I personally think it's a lot like how parents thought Bratz were somehow gonna encourage kids to become sex workers or whatever; The kinds of clothes or makeup somebody chooses to wear doesn't indicate their value as a person, nor should it influence how people treat them. Same for tattoos, piercings, unusual hair colors, and any other form of body modification.
I like the fashion of the teen talk barbie dolls.
It always confuses me when people suddenly pretend to care about realism in superheroes 💀 like dudes, most of them are running around in _spandex leotards._ It actually helps with suspension of disbelief for the characters to look cool and flashy.
the ironic part is that action figure in the picture he showed was dressed even worse herself, exposing her midrift in a bra and panties, looking like straight up underwear. The barbie on the other hand was fully covered, she wore a leotard!! But nope, if its in a pink box it should be as Vanilla as possible!! smh
I look at the DC Comics themed Barbie dolls and they did made one for Halle Berry's Catwoman. Which let me think of the following: People where fine with a Barbie doll wearing a sprap bra but a Barbie doll wearing a black leotard, jacket and leggings was apparently too much for them? What?
ask MOST teens about math and they'd probably say it's tough, even the ones who are passing! math is THE class to complain about in high school!
I really enjoyed it until I got hospitalized for 2+ weeks and my teacher didn't want to help me catch up at all so I fell behind... Yeah, I'd say blame teachers for math, not poor Barbara
yes I have pretty high grades and I still think is pretty tough
@@myra0224 the way we had the same experience 💀
I was good at math until this year and it did not help that I was borderline insulted for not understanding it
@@jinx8627 I'm sorry that happened to you too 😞
Fr tho! I used to love math until I got into highschool. Algebra 1 and Geometry are tolerable, sometimes hard, but can be fun. Anything after geometry you will be screaming and crying on the floor.
The simple truth is that nearly every single Barbie controversy can be water down to Society / media being extremely sexist to hype feminine things
Edit : forgot to mention when the controversy does not lie in misogyny like when it’s misappropriating culture racism and A bunch of other ugly things
And the idea women can't be smart and pretty at the same time tbh.
Literally. I remember in my honor history class in Uni, my prof talked about how revolutional it was for women to go shopping. Products, actually made with women in mind and not for the family. Women spending money for enjoyment, not caretakers. It was huge! That's why Barbie was so important as a shopaholic.
But you know why have that when we can have "Barbie is a gold-digger" attitude about it. Barbie bad for shopping and buying things for her enjoyment!
not when it’s totally misrepresenting an entire culture tho, like the somewhat older Native American dolls
I feel like it is a bit of a stretch (with the math it is the opposite, and tbh black canary barbie does look like adult figurine in children alley if you don't know black canary) but ok
I usually just see people say that their barbies/dolls didn't cause any body issues but personally they did for me. I was a chubby girl and I lived vicariously through my barbies and bratz. I thought and hoped that when I grew up I'd look like them all tall and pretty and skinny. I would have loved to have a chubbier doll as a kid to relate to and I'm glad this next generation has more representation.
Oh my god, same!! When I was little, around when I was first getting body hair, I got the Dead Tired Clawdeen set and said set comes with a razor so Clawdeen can shave (Because body hair is gross on women {Sarcasm}). When I (And others) first started noticing my body hair, even before it got thick, dark, and everywhere, I felt a lot of shame and that set really reinforced those feelings. I was so ashamed that I'd cut the hair with scissors just to get rid of it. It took me until high school to stop feeling bad when I didn't shave (Even though I hated it) and years after that to actually appreciate my body with it.
I've also always hated how all teen/adult female dolls have makeup, no room for variation unless you are a child (And even then)- combine it with the fact that women in media are not allowed to go bare faced and you get the perfect recipe for kids who feel ugly with their natural face and see a lack of makeup as disgusting and shameful.
for me math controversy is so stupid because i never ever thought that math class was hard but i definitely had classmates who would burst into tears because they didn't understood the assignments in math class and on top of that teachers would always yell at them for being stupid girls or something like that
i mean that i guess that phrase is kinda semi-harmful stereotype
@@linalina1534 but like anyone shouldn’t really have to push the idea that girls are good at everything or like every stem subject just for the sake of making a point, it’s pretty human to think certain classes are hard or even hate certain classes. It’s pretty normal to hate school even and still turn out successful if they played their cards right. And as the video said one of the lines were “I’m studying to be a doctor” so it’s not all bad actually I have a aunt who is a surgeon who said she doesn’t like math LMAO. Either way people looked way too deep into it
@@NoName-dx1no i kinda agree but i think this particular phrase is a bad stereotype and a bit problematic. it's like if a Russian doll would say "i love vodka and im homophobic". is there some Russians who love vodka and who are homophobic? yes, sure. but is this a good look? no, this is a harmful stereotype. sorry for weird comparison, i couldn't think of any stereotype that wouldn't be offensive if coming from my mouth lol
@@linalina1534 do you know how it sounds to compare *homophobia and alcoholism* to *struggling with math* ?
@@linalina1534 so barbie isnt allowed to be bad at math? shes a character, not a list of traits women are supposed to have
I remember the math controversy, too. I also remember it being misreported as Barbie saying "Math is tough!" Which, either way, for some of us it is. And why can't Barbie find math class tough as a high schooler? I wasn't into Barbie at the time, but I remember people freaking out.
I was worried there would be some kind of "Life in the Dreamhouse" controversy you'd bring up when I saw the clips and the dolls from that line. I ADORE the Life in the Dreamhouse series for how meta it is - it is comfort viewing for me (even if Netflix shows it all out of order) because of its self-awareness and ability to poke fun at itself. Hopefully there weren't any controversies over that.
Not that I know of! I just put it in because Midge was there, but of course that was after she abandoned her husband and kids to live with Barbie in Malibu.
(fully agreed though! LitD is my all-time favorite Barbie media)
i didn't even know about the "math class is tough!" thing until now. but of course i did fail multiple math classes, obviously because this barbie existed and not because of a poor knowledge of long division. i don't think anyone would be dropping out of their valedictorian math and physics classes because a barbie variant that was only 1.5% of that doll made said math was hard. that's got to be my favorite one.
13:45 THATS NOT EVEN THE SAME DOLL!!! The doll on the picture is actually the 2007 surfs up beach Barbie doll. Not sure who did the Ken tattoo, or took the picture. But yeah... They were complaining about a doll while using the picture of an entirely different doll...
Same thing with the bootleg doll at 9:20 with the pregnant Midge controversy
My girl Barbie got cancelled for saying something objectively true. Math is tough. For most people, boys and girls, even if they're inclined to the subject, learning math is challenging. This was probably added in as a relatable phrase for young people. Pretty much everyone I knew growing up struggled with math at some points in their life. It's not sexist it's just the truth.
I loved the happy family line as a kid, I had the pregnant Midge and the 1st birthday set too with the grandparents. I loved it, new stories to try out and a little bit more diverse looking elderly dolls were great
Let’s not forget that the Happy Family toy line was what sparked The Happy Family Show (Which is basically a show about a bunch of barbies going on shenanigans)
I loved the doll line too and was super jealous of my friends who had them.
Me too! I still have my Midge, she's seen better days but she was truly one of my favorite dolls as a kid.
@@talaedgefangstudios9524 I remember watching that when I was younger
@@talaedgefangstudios9524 convinced myself that was a shared delusion me and my brother had, we loved The Happy Family Show in elementary school
i had the pregnant midge doll, and now i'm a man
but seriously she was one of my favorite dolls and her purple dress was worn by every doll it could fit on
She was my favourite as well and I'm also transmasc!
i swear a lot of people grow up and forget what it was like to play with a toy as a kid -- kids rarely care about the body measurements of a doll, they care about having clothes and accessories to mix and match with while they put them in a plethora of imaginary scenarios!
i watch my kid siblings play with dolls and like...i don't think my brother cares about his ken dolls' abs when he's ripping their legs off! my sister barely registers that some of her dolls are different body shapes, so long as the clothes fit that's all that matters!
like, i understand that childhood play is very important in shaping young minds, but i think adults often apply their own, more mature views, to their kids who haven't even learned about these things yet. and in that vein, they force their own prejudices onto their kids, which they might be fine with, but in doing so they're doing the exact thing they criticize Barbie/Mattel for: painting women in a negative light.
like, maybe talk about the fact barbie the character cannot be divorced from being a product and all that entails. talk about how she's a rich girl in malibu and can afford to switch from job to job, that it takes work to get to the careers she has. how being an ablebodied white woman, a lot of people feel alienated by her, even with the attempts at diversity over the years. talk about cost and availability to kids, how some parents can only afford knockoffs or can't afford playsets and extra outfits.
(sorry i'm super passionate about all this, my mom being the type like the parents and article authors in the video, super judgemental but over trivial aspects)
No matter what barbie/barbara does the parents who act like karens are still gonna complain about it barbie has gone into road of diverse dolls but parents complain about it
The ”Barbie causes body image issues” is so stupid imo. Playing with Barbie dolls isn’t what causes body image issues, it’s society as a whole. Seeing thin women on tv all the time, fat people constantly being insulted for being fat, all the adverts everywhere that’s about helping you lose weight, etc, THAT’S what’s casuses body image issues. The only reason we’ve gotten curvy Barbie dolls is because it’s gotten more socially acceptable to not be stick thin.
The article title I showed in the video did actually come to the conclusion that Barbies don't cause any significant body image issues on a systematic level. A lot of these experiments more or less conclude the same, but it's nuanced and difficult to properly study, as you can imagine
I feel like a lack of diversity in dolls less causes the issues and more reinforces them. If the only dolls a kid plays with are skinny, and all the 'pretty' people in magazines are skinny, all the good characters on tv are skinny (While bad characters are fat or overall big) that kid is probably going to associate being fat with being a bad person and ugly. Its the same thing with not portraying other kinds of diversity between people like race, disabilities, or even just not being conventionally attractive. (Seriously, would it kill doll makers to make a female doll without makeup? Or hairy legs?)
Agreed. I think a lot of parents project onto Barbie…also I never seem to hear anyone talk about GI Joes body & how it affects young boys body image 🧐. It’s so rare to see toys targeted at young boys get the same negative attention that Barbie unfortunately gets. I love Barbie and I had so much fun with her when I was a kid
@@nooraldaimalani8811 I wish more people would advocate for better body image representation for guys, both in toys and media. It sucks that only women get their opinions on the matter heard and respected while men often get ignored or sometimes mocked for bringing it up.
@@Letcharlieplay2545 IDK I rarely ever see men get ostracized for being fat you're most likely to see a fat guy ridicule a woman for being over the size he prefers
The pregnant Midge doll was used to explain the concept of pregnancy to me when I was really little and my mom was having my sister...
I miss that doll lol
You know that one kid in your class who was basically good at everything and was taken out of regular class twice a week to go do harder work in a different part of the school and all the teachers treated them like a small adult and basically none of the other kids could stand them because they though that kid was getting special treatment? I was that kid. I had one problem though. One subject that was substantially harder than any other. Math. No matter what they tried, I would regularly displace numbers, or write them backwards. One of my fourth grade teachers once actually shouted at me (not hyperbole, actually shouting) about what a disappointment I was, because when it came to math I simply wasn't "trying hard enough".
Turns out I have dyscalculia. There is no amount of "trying" that changes that. Barbie saying, "Math is tough!" was relatable and when the furor over that line came out it helped reinforce the idea in my head that something about me was bad. (I was 10 and in the fourth grade when that doll came out). I wasn't diagnosed until I was 30. Unless you had "global learning deficiencies" no one even bothered to check for problems back then. The parents insisting there was a problem with that phrase did more damage than the phrase itself ever did.
I had (or even I think “borrowed” from my sister lol) the temporary tattoo Barbie and she was so FUN!!! and I can confirm that ken tramp stamp was just edited to cause people to clutch their pearls,, or maybe those people were right to be outraged, im now a grown lesbian adult planning on what tattoos and piercings to get all thanks to this contraband Barbie B)
The history of Lilli reminds me a lot of a Hungarian comic from the 50s named Jucika: similar premise with a secretary who is flirty and not as "demure" as other woman of the time were ideally meant to be and her various adventures with male suitors. Sadly, no dolls were made of Jucika that I know of.
the “math class is tough” controversy is so pointless. a girl who wants to be a mathematician isnt gonna stop doing so because a doll thought math was hard.
Exactly
As a POC the constant talks about Barbie being "too white/eurocentric" and claims that Bratz is more diverse is baffling. I can understand the old black dolls being forgotten, but let me list the Bratz POC main characters (excluding side characters): 1 Chinese girl, Jade, 1 Latina, Yasmin, 1 black girl, Sasha. Literally it. In the 2000s, when Bratz was popular, Barbie had many more POC recurring/main characters: Teresa is Latina, Nikki, TWO Asians: Kira who was Vietnamese, and Lea who was Macanese (who existed side by side for a while until Kira was cut from the franchise) But after being cut for a while, Lea even made a comeback in the 2010s, albeit nameless so we can't really say it's her, until "her" replacement with Renee. Neither of which are commonly usedalso nationalities for Asians. Then there was Kayla who ranged from white to black to any tanned POC. Then there was the My Scene line which featured POCs Nolee, Madison, and later Nia. How is that "less diverse than Bratz" at the time?
Also the "blonde, eurocentric bimbo" complaints have little merit because the line is called "Barbie" not "Nikki" or "Teresa", of course the main character will get focused on the most. Bratz could do everyone equally because it's not named after a specific character, the franchise focused on all of them, there was no main character.
And that's not even touching on the POC in the 80s and 90s:
Nia from Western Fun was native american
Dana/Becky and Dee Dee/Belinda from Rockers and Sensastions were Korean and black
Devon from dance club was black
Miko was native Hawaiian
Mariko Nakano, Ana Suarez, and Nichelle Williams were japanese, mexican and black
Many other various Barbie spinoff doll lines like the "Benetton", "Generation Girl", "Marvelous World of Shani", "SIS", and "Isla Filipina" dolls featured POC (Benetton, Generation Girl) or focused entirely on them (SIS, Shani, Isla Filipina)
Then there were all the POC in movies (i will only talk about dolls based on movies before 2015:
Courtney and Tia from barbie diaries were japanese and black
carrie from fairy secret
fairy queen from swan lake is latina
rayla from magic of pegasus is latina
janessa from thumbelina is filipina
hadley from charm school is latina
alexa from diamond castleis latina
renee and viveca from three musketeersare black and latina
yada yada yada there were even more that i couldn't think of now but you get my drift
i thought Teresa was Italian
@@nonmorto3563 nope she's latina. Confirmed and her surname is Rivera.
i’m surprised he didn’t talk about the puberty skipper doll
Oh, Growning Up Skipper
I got the pregnant Midge doll in 2005, so I'm guessing Australia didn't recall the product like other places? In any case, I loved the doll and I still think it was a great idea, especially since it was given to me just before my sister was born. It's a conversation that needs to be had with kids with a sibling on the way, even if it isn't the most accurate depiction of pregnancy. But really, I don't think I'd want it to be
Yeah; they really did do it the most practical way possible.
i think the main thing that causes these controversies is that people expect barbie to be a "perfect token." any time she tries to have some nuance, some overprotective parent is going to act like it's an issue about gender. so many people who push so hard for better representation expect more out of women than anyone else
As someone who grew up w undiagnosed adhd, asd and dyscalculia, if I had a toy that also struggled w math I'd been stoked, or at the very least, felt a lot less stupid.
Never thought Bild Lili was a sex toy. She was a sex symbol and a gag gift for men.
It would bother me if kids knew that reference when she came out as a toy...but they didn't.
It's kinda creepy if you reflect as an adult...yeah... But little kids weren't thinking that.
The scale and book....those bug me. Barbie's unrealistic figure didn't affect my body image as a kid. I had 80s barbies with the anatomically unrealistic figure. I was anorexic as a teen, but it was SO NOT Barbie's fault. HOWEVER, I know if I had haf a Barbie scale that said 110 and a Barbie toy book that said "Don't eat." It WOULD have affected my thoughts about my body. I was worried about my weight when I was young enough to still be playing Barbies.
Does nobody notice that the scale and book didn't last???? They were problematic, but they didn't follow Barbie into the future... And I'm glad they didn't!
i’ve always been a big dc fan, and i had all the dc barbies as a kid, including black canary. i was able to understand that she was an adult and i was not. she could dress like that, but it never even occurred to me to try and find fishnets or leather bodysuits. also it’s so weird that the poison ivy doll sold with minimal controversy but black canary was so heavily shamed?? despite them wearing basically the same outfit in different colors?? honestly black canary is more covered up than the poison ivy doll.
Black Canary probably caused controversy because she wears a black leather jacket
What's really funny about talking Barbie is that the talking GIJoes were the talking battle Commanders and one of the lines for them was "Buzz them!" Wich means they swapped Barbie complaining about her homework with Barbie shooting up the school.
School Shooter Barbie™️
I literally choked laughing
I failed math, so I find the "math is hard" controversy so ridiculous aksksjsjsds.
Omg I remember the Barbie/GI Joe voice box switch thing and I thought I dreamed that lmao
Does anyone remember Lamily? The “I’m not like other girls” doll.
I've just googled it and I feel like it was made _entirely_ for insecure, faux-progressive parents who hate imagination rather than children lmao 💀
They even had a YT channel with a video with a girl dancing with vintage toys. Very NLOG, especially with that cheesy end message from the dancing kid
The thing that makes parents complaining about the pregnant doll ridiculous is, that girls playing family with barbies would simulate pregnancy anyways. Does anyone remember stuffing barbies shirt with other clothes or something else so she would look pregnant? I sure do and I for sure wasn't the only one. Would have loved that doll when I was little.
The math one is dumb or at least the outrage over it is. Girls can find math to be hard the same way boys can. I never had major problems with math and was actually pretty good at it, but I had friends in many stages of my education that thought math was hard. I found physics to be difficult but that did not mean other girls did as well.
The black canary doll box literally says 14+ on the box, My cousin is a doll collector and has it.
that math one bothers me a lil too much like the concept of struggling with math means your less positive of an influence or less valid like kids struggle with math why is this a Hot Take lmao
parents act like their little kids would even catch on to outfits being sexualized, and even then it’s the parents sexualizing barbie not the company 🙄
At least Lisa vs Malibu Stacy gave us the iconic "but she's got a new hat" meme
Don’t forget “it’s awful being a little girl no one listens to me” “it’s awful being old, no one listens to me!” …”I’m a straight white male, age 18-49, EVERYONE listens to me (no matter how dumb my ideas are).”
I remember as a little girl when they had the Barbie: I Can Be Anything advertising campaign going. I loved doing playing dolls, and if I wanted to play as a Queen ruling a land of toys, then I could. Dolls are simply an extension of a child's imagination. I feel like in general, some people will simple yell at children's toys when they have nothing better to do.
From what I got from your video, it seems that news articles or tv news take it a little too far from what they're reporting. If I had like the Black Canary Barbie doll at a young age I'd think that she's a cool doll or if I had the talking Barbie that said that "Math is tough" I'd think "Yeah, it is" then move on and probably have another doll help her with math (even though I was terrible at math as a child). The thing is, it felt like the concerned adults are trying to make children look away from what already exists or pin point negatives that weren't even intentional. Children will learn one way or another since it's inevitable to avoid it. And with the math is tough contraversy, I get why they were mad, but it could've possibly be a motivation for maybe kids to teach Barbie math or something.
9:40 “ just look at her sensible button up shirt and receding hairline” , the way i died laughing at this 😭😂
I’m so upset I’m JUST finding out about the TokiDoki Barbies THEY ARE GORGEOUS!!! So artsy and fun, even as a kid I would’ve loved them and literally thought nothing of it. The idea that dolls wearing certain things would turn your child into a delinquent is always so funny to me because kids were absolutely destroying these dolls with markers. In any case these tattoo dolls allowed children to explore their creativity in a less…destructive manner lol
Plus Tokidoki isn't even for adults, it's for children who like kawaii stuff. Wouldn't be shocked if some people hated them because they were Japanese.
That Black Canary controversy is so SO stupid, first off, if you don’t know the character, the doll doesn’t even look that bad, and it is clearly meant to be an adult collectible, plus, as mentioned in the video, the boy toys aisle probably had “worse” actually marketed towards kids…
Stupid parents, ohh. The stupidity...I wanna say three things to these overly sensitive parents...
1) The box says it's for ages *14 AND UP* The doll is for ADULT COLLECTORS, not young girls
2) Attack DC themselves, it's not Mattel's fault for having Barbie cosplay one of *IT'S CHARACTER who wears this clothing*
3) Poison Ivy also wears a leotard and nobody complianed about her Barbie doll
Really stupid controversy because that Black Canary Barbie doll looks freaking badass!
I had no idea there was a Black canary barbie. She looks so cool, would've loved to have that as a kid. Hell, I'd love to have one now. Black Canary is one my favorite DC comics characters.
It makes me so mad that stores pulled the family set with the pregnant doll off shelves. That was highkey my *favorite* set, for a lot of reasons. Pregnancy is neither gross nor taboo -- it's a natural part of life that kids are going to be curious and excited about. And like -- for me, as a little qu*er kid who didn't understand gender roles and just wanted to do all the girly things and all the tomboy things, it meant so much to me that the family set had boys who weren't just "someone's boyfriend." I wanted to explore the boys' lives as much as I wanted to explore the girls'. Not to mention, my family had boys and men in it, and I wanted to play family stories with my Barbies. Idk. That set was just my favorite as a kid and it's annoying that stores would pull it over such inane controversy.
Exactly! If those people are offended by it, *THEN THEY DON'T HAVE TO BUY IT!* But they shouldn't be allowed to control what toy stores sell, or what other people buy for their kids
Control Freak Karens! 😡
I mostly played with dinosaurs as a kid but I never understood how 99% of toy drama is always directed at girls toys. Like do that many people out there really think girls are this sensitive, vulnerable, and harmed by a plastic toy?
...Yes, I know those people do exist I just don't understand how they function.
Hell yeah, dinosaurs! While people complained about dolls being too slim and promoting harmful stereotypes, I was playing with my dinosaurs, making them devour each other, painting them with red paint to symbolise blood and playing gory dino videos on the background for a better atmosphere. Children are tougher than people think they are, and I'm pretty sure girls will handle thin waists and long legs on a hunk of plastic.
@@soyjoyy Yep!
It bothers me to no end when people talk about pop culture controversies using blatantly fake information. I've seen so many articles/etc. saying Disney's Snow White is 14 and like, I feel weird to correct them because I don't want to seem like I'm defending that, but if you do even the quickest Google search it's obviously just an urban legend. There really needs to be more fact checking for those kinds of things!
Oh really? Which articles disprove this?
But she literally is
There’s this book about the history of Disney animation that interviews some of the animators who worked on the film, it’s stated that Snow White and the prince are in their teens, so snow white might be 14, but the prince definitely isn’t 30 like some claim
@@Claire-bz8mq
Oh thank god!!!
She was tho, she's based off the actual book, disney didn't create her
Society - “She wears too much makeup and her waist is too thin!”
Barbie - “The highlights female toy with the highest sales in many toxic male dominant society around the world! And she accomplished it in pink heals!” 👠
Side note! As a small blonde who’s also a lot of men’s favorite toy! Math is hard! 🤷🏼♂️
Math class can be hard though. Some people are good at it, some people aren't, and if Barbie happens to fall into the latter category that's fine, she accomplishes a lot anyways, Wikipedia has a list of her careers ranging from doctor to astrophysicist.
I never felt inadequate as a female because of Barbie.
I did however feel inadequate because of the way female characters in my comic books were portrayed.
XMen, Witchbalde, tombraider ………….
My sister and I used to strap Barbie bicycle helmets to dolls to simulate pregnancy.
Now is this why Barbie’s sisters were introduced? Is so they can keep Barbie as an adult/late teens within her doll lines?
I had the Happy Family set when it first came out and was devastated when they cancelled it
"oreo barbie" is the wildest one i remember hearing about lol
There are only two reasons I hold a bit of a grudge against Mattel:
1. In the Barbie Slumber Party set from 1965, there was a scale and a dieting book included. I don't mind the scale, weight is something a lot of girls do care about. But I have some issues with the dieting book, especially the back of the book because it literally said "Don't Eat!"
Then again, this set *is* from 1965 and Barbie has improved very much regarding body image stuff.
2. That they simplified the Monster High and Ever After High dolls. They looked fine before! These newer dolls look so childish they won't even have much collector's value in 20 years. That one Apple White doll I got as a simple Christmas present from back when the dolls were highly detailed, though...I think I could get a nice price for that on eBay if I tried.
Oh and ofcourse ending the whole Ever After High show, I loved that series. Couldn't get enough of it. I was ecstatic when Ashlynn Ella was introduced in one of the early episodes, since my own name is Ella. And I was even more ecstatic to hear that the original name of Cinderella is Ella. (You wouldn't be able to get "Ella" out of the Cinderella translation I grew up with if you tried)
I appreciate this vid and your perspective and mythbusting. The below comment is a bunch of tl;dr about the math thing.
Going into this, I think it's important to acknowledge that for a long time, Barbie was not just a fashion doll but was seen by adults and kids alike as the primary way that young girls would interact with societal expectations of an adult woman. With great power comes great responsibility etc. I think that idea alone is key to understanding why people get SO buckwild over fashion dolls. A kid who isn't old enough to understand language is still able to learn from their toys. I don't think these ideas are 100% unwarranted either - a lot of the Barbie backlash has roots in people who were outspoke about their own experiences growing up with Barbies and how that contributed to their understanding of body image and women's roles in society. Barbie shouldn't have this amount of importance, but she does.
All that said, I think that the systemic issues you mention at 7:10 are exactly what critics of Barbie were addressing. Recognizing that children's toys shape adult perception is probably taken for granted now but that was exactly what they were addressing - the system of many different influences that could subtly discourage young girls from STEM fields. I think the randomness (which I learned about from this vid) could have been part of what made this doll transgressive in all the wrong ways. If a doll said both "I'm studying to be a doctor" and "Math class is tough," that may be as well-rounded of a portrayal as you can hope for from something like this. But if she only says that she enjoys shopping and that "Math class is tough," that is a vastly different message being communicated. That the manufacturers weren't intentional about this is part of what probably a factor that sparked the controversy.
I want to clarify that this isn't a 100% clear-cut issue and obviously is relying on binary ideas of gender. But I am not upset that people caused a controversy over it tbh. Maybe I am just remembering the emotional impact of the Simpsons episode. But I feel like it would be hard to enjoy fashion dolls as an adult without acknowledging the harm, real and/or perceived, that the industry has done over the years. I know your vids are great at addressing this. I guess also the controversies listed are usually against how socially progressive Barbie is being perceived as, while the math one is the opposite, so I dunno, I feel like they are vastly different reactions. Maybe I am being hypocritical about it. The math thing wasn't about how the doll looked or the line of work she was in or anything about her character design, but about a statement on women in STEM that she was being a literal mouthpiece for.
100% agree. It’s important to have discussions about how women/girls are portrayed.
Yes, you worded it so well!
That Totally Hair Barbie ad playing in the background of the intro fascinated me so much I had to rewind the video to hear what you were actually saying. Man, people had such a different sense of style back then haha
I’m not Asian so I can’t really touch on the topic of the missing Asian Barbie doll but I do want to say just because you slant a dolls eyes doesn’t make them “Asian”. A lot of ethnicities can develop slanted eyes. I think it was lazily done and there was no attention to detail. Again I hope I don’t offend anyone but I think Barbie has been given multiple passes because she’s Barbie.
I don’t have much experience with dolls, so I’m ignorant on how detailed they should and could be, but I’m East Asian myself, and she definitely looks Asian to me. (Asian is too broad of a category anyway, really.) Another detail we could give credit too are her brows! They definitely evoke the straight brows that have been all the rage for quite a while now in East Asia. I’m not saying you’re wrong though, you bring up a good point.
The tattoo one is so frustrating. I feel pike the hate for it also plays into the idea that some people have that women arent feminine if they have a lot of tattoos 🙄
Fun fact: My Great Grandma was the owner of Barbie’s assistant and was her close friend !
Hey, math class IS tough. If anything, it's refreshing to hear that other people struggle with it too, and that doesn't mean you can't do it either. It just takes a lot of work to be able to do it
This was great! Thanks for addressing and explaining these so well!
here in germany pregnant barbie dolls are very normal and popular. i had one when i was a kid. We even had barbie cats and dogs of witch you could open the belly to get the babys out. i just think its a good early reprentation of pragnancy without the mature details.
Pregnant midge doll was my absolute favorite. I loved having a doll that could represent something as beautiful as pregnancy and birth. I don’t understand why that would even be controversial. People love acting like children are dumber than they actually are.
Barbie as a franchise is probably one of the most inclusive franchises I've ever encountered. Barbie loves fashion and looks pretty, but that's not what's important to her. She studies and works hard to achieve her dreams. Whether that's as an actress, fashion designer, doctor, vet, astronaut or whatever else she wants to be, she works hard and inspires a lot of people. Even the fantasy side of the franchise, which does focus a little more on fairytale tropes etc, does this. Mariposa putting her life on the line to save her home because she believes it's the right thing to do? Elina, despite being disabled (not having wings), going on a perilous quest to find a cure for the sickness everyone at home is having? Liana and Alexa, two best friends, going on a journey to return Melody home? Even stories that put a spin on classic fairytales such as Rapunzel or Swan Lake have a profound and inspiring message.
Barbie is a strong female character and while there are plenty of males in the franchise, they're not the focus.
Omg that Black Canary doll - I’ve had her on my wish list for years lol
Man that black Canary barbie looks so good, she's a character I really love and I would love to get my hands on one of those. Great video!
The one good thing out of that talking Barbie controversy is that it gave us the Talking Malibu Stacy episode of The Simpsons.
I hate when media put the focus on silly details instead of seeing the big picture: she is literally one of the most empowered female characters out there.
Seriously, she was an astronaut, a president, a doctor, a super hero, a scientist, a pilot but nah, let's focus on that she had a nose piercing one time.
Awesome video.
I always love watching your videos, your voice is so nice and calming and I always love the topics you choose and how well-researched they are, and how funny they are too! it's such a nice mix of doll history with humor and I just love the whole vibe
I dunno, if I heard my doll say "Math class is tough!" I'd say "It sure is! More tea?"
Ok but math class WAS really hard for me in high school. I had an A,A- average in my other subjects, but often a C or D in math :( Teen talk Barbie had alot common w me as a teen 😭😅
Same I had to take the Algebra class twice
Happy family midge pregnancy doll, was my absolute favorite. I loved the magnetic belly. And the itty bitty babys, the were perfect for the doll sizes, other Barbie babies were huge. I wish they would bring them back. Kids become obsessed with pregnancy and babies, it happens at like 3 years old, especially if their parents are having babies.
I don’t think Barbie effects peoples body images, unless their parents already fucked them up. I grew up with Barbie’s since I was literally born (my older sisters had them first) and the only body images I have is because I’m trans. And Barbie definitely did cause that. Though people may start blaming the new Lavern Cox Barbie for making kids trans even though I just came out
My parents got me the happy family Midge doll when my mom was pregnant with my sister as an age-appropriate way to explain what was happening (because I was 3 and didn't know what pregnancy was). Looking back I think it was super smart so I'm sad that so many people complained about that doll as "promoting teen pregnancy".
The parents complaining about how a doll wearing fishnets is making "kids grow up too fast" are the same people buying their 5 year old daughters baby dolls and encouraging them to pretend to be the doll's mother through toy strollers and what not. Who's making who grow up too fast?
I remember the tokidoki barbie and I remember wanting the set so bad but because of the controversy in my area the dolls actually got pulled from shelves. And like now a days if your lucky enough to spot one on ebay or something, they're like $1000 or more. People get upset over the stupidest stuff. Like if there was an abortion Babie, then I would understand why people would get upset but some of the stuff that's happened over the years is like your just picking on girl toys because boys toys could do some of this stuff and would never be talked about.
Great video so informative- you’ve inspired me to make longer videos like this now! 🙏🏼
I missed out on the Midge Happy Family line.
Maths class is hard. I agree with that maths was hard for me, we had a rubbish maths teacher in secondary school and we didn’t learn anything.
I was never a doll kid growing up, but my partner absolutely loved them. Now as an adult, I’m stepping into the world with them and I remember talking about all these controversies in elementary school and making jokes about them. Now as an adult, I don’t even understand half of what my child brain even thought was going on :’
I can no longer not see Midge's receding hairline.
People were mad about the math thing but we all carry around calculators in our pockets anyway.