Donut Blame Barbie

During the years when my age still fell in the single digits, I lived by one rule and one rule alone--never, ever utter the horrendous three Ps--pretty, pink, and princess. I grew up playing with my brother's toys: legos, bionicles, pokemon, and beyblades. I would ride my hotwheels tricycle around the neighborhood, awaiting the day that I could graduate from such childish whims and inherit the big kid transformers themed bicycle and its matching training wheels. A family friend once blessed me with the ever-so-popular Barbie, but my mother quickly learned from her mistake and stuck with giving me my brother's old toys after I continuously stripped Barbie and left her stark naked on the kitchen floor.

Today, tons of sources are attacking the Barbie company for forcing an unattainable goal for body image among young girls. They say that Barbie is the reason that girls are self-conscious, have eating disorders, and are bullied.

However, what about the millions of girls around the word that grew up like me? Never did I ever set foot in that "atrociously" pink isle at my local Toys R Us voluntarily, so, according to the logic of these people who blame the societal flaw of body image on a children's toy, I should have no problem with what I should look like. Wrong.

I do not attain to be Barbie. I do not long for her life, her body, or her lifestyle, but that does not prevent me or any other human being from idealizing what one's body should look like. It's easy for people to put all the blame on one source, especially on sources focused around children and teenagers, simply because our minds are more malleable and easier to manipulate. "Serial killers exist because all the video games are about fighting", or "Girls are prioritizing outer beauty over inner beauty because chick flicks and dolls taught them so" are constantly headers of articles all over the internet. What many don't understand is that correlation does not imply causation (yay stats)--removing Barbie from a child's equation may reduce the rate at which young girls feel the desire to be tall, skinny, and alluring, but it will not eradicate the objectification of women or the desire to meet beauty standards.