American researcher and artist Nickolay Lamm created a Barbie doll using the measurements of an average 19 year old woman.
3D Printed model is shorter and wider than a real Barbie doll. It represents American girls and women with regular bodies.
Do you think young girls should play with normal looking Barbies or do you want them to aspire to be better than average?
Also check out: Barbie Jewelry and Realistic Disney Princesses
jacklyn
Great work.
Jul 4th, 2013
Arie Willard
Where is Ken?
Jul 5th, 2013
Anita
How do you mean, aspire to be better then average? Barbies figure doesnt represent a healthy weight. (even though the average woman might need to lose a pound or two. Skinny doesnt per definition equal better.
Suggesting that is just wrong
Jul 5th, 2013
Megan
Being overweight is not healthy. Being too skinny is not healthy.
Every person should eat good food and workout regularly.
Americans (on average) are the fattest people in the world.
Sending a message that all girls should be skinny is dangerous, but saying that it is OK to be overweight is even more dangerous.
Jul 5th, 2013
Mapache
Barbie isn’t suppoused to be an standard of beauty for adult women.
She is a form of escapism for little girls. So if her proprotions aren’t realistic, I don’t see how that’s an issue.
And neither shoud it be the fact that little girls want to be pretty. C’mmon. This doesn’t really prove a point.
Jul 5th, 2013
amit
they both look bad :(
Jul 5th, 2013
Francisco Fo
neck looks weird…
Jul 5th, 2013
Silvia
Barbie isn’t “skinny”. She’s not “busty” either. If you look her from the waist up, she’s pretty much normal; the problem is that her hips just aren’t female. She has a female torso mounted on boy’s hips.
That said, giving girls a “realistic” doll to play with and thinking this will solve their self-esteem issues, is semplicistic and a bit hypocritical IMHO. Ofc it takes more effort to educate them into telling truth and fantasy apart…
Jul 5th, 2013
Philip
I don’t get all this hype over barbie. Its a doll its not meant to be realistic. No resonably intellectually minded person looks at it and thinks it represents a idealistic woman, in the same way a cabbage patch kid or a gi joe or transformer doesn’t lead any other kid to think “gosh when I grow up I’m going to be big 2 story piece of metal and transform, etc etc”
Jul 5th, 2013
Ahmet
Little girls are brainwashed by the skinny Barbie into thinking that an ideal body should be like hers.
This is a good effort to wipe that effect.
Jul 5th, 2013
Gert
Mapache, couldn’t say it better. Barbi isn’t causing anorexia, mom obsessing about her weight and being controlling is. Remember when we let kids be kids and none of us were fat or obsessed with our weight or overly worried about becoming adults because we were too busy having fun?
Jul 5th, 2013
yui
Megan — the “new” barbie is not overweight, she’s average. The idea is that Barbie should embrace a realistic figure or “average” body rather than an unattainable model figure.
Personally I was never into Barbies as a child, and will probably avoid them for my children. There are plenty of other toys that do not send any sort of body message (like legos).
Jul 5th, 2013
Michele
I’m with Amit. They both do look bad. I grew up playing with Barbi and I have never thought that this is what an adult female is supposed to look like and the “realistic” one looks just as bad.
Jul 5th, 2013
Romall Smith
sure tell little girls its ok to be fat, thats is worst than telling hem they should aspire to me skinny/fit. Lets just complete the set and make bodybuilder barbie
Jul 7th, 2013
Brianna Baldwin
I belive you should do it i have gained some wait and when i look at the Barbie i belive that to be that skinny os not right i like the new one better
Jul 7th, 2013
Brenda
Let me just say one thing ,lets put the emphasis on where it it belongs Self esteem if it ain’t broke don’t fix it! …. How Old is Barbie today? I can say the population of girls growing up are well adjusted females . weither petite or Average …….. No Issues
Jul 7th, 2013
Kayla
I’m aware that this was intended to show the difference between reality and the Barbie Fantasy Land, however, this is kind of disturbing to me.. The Average Girl doll seems incredibly dumpy compared to Barbie. How are we supposed to live up to that?
Jul 7th, 2013
Jon
And all boy superhero toys should stop having unrealistic giant muscles too I guess? They are just toys for playtime…. not something to aspire to. Go ahead and make them, but don’t say one is better than the other because you want to play psychologist.
Also, there isn’t anything average about the new Barbie’s butt. SIR MIX-A-LOT will come out of retirement to rap about “Dat Barbie Booty”
Jul 7th, 2013
@
I don’t think that Barbies are “brainwashing” little girls into wanting better bodies. Like Mapache said, they’re just toys. There’s no “deeper” meaning. Barbies are not causing kids to want to be anorexic or convincing them that the average woman looks like that.
Jul 7th, 2013
Grace
“Better than average”
And what makes being extremely thin any better than an average woman.
By calling people who are built smaller better, we are endangering girls. We are telling them that being thinner is better.
I think the new Barbie is beautiful, and should be widely manufactured, so girls will know they don’t have to be perfect.
Jul 7th, 2013
Andy
So, reading from the Artists homepage all he did was do display the average Women… that’s pretty much all. Nothing about the average healthy or fit women… My thoughts on this project is: First, a 19 year old women is not exactly a women quite yet… maybe a 22-26 year old would of have been better. Second, an average Female or Male (in proportions) is also not necessarily the ideal standard of a healthy person… Third, it’s a doll. What is there to compare anyways?
Jul 8th, 2013
Barbie Man
Dat ass!
Jul 8th, 2013
Heewy
Finally a lot healthy looking Barbie! Bigger and more rounder face, almost twice size of panty, back is wider, arms wider, thighs wider, legs shorter and thicker, face is bigger, shorter neck, and bigger foot. It’s realistic and definitely more human looking for sure! Now little girls don’t have to get stressed out trying to look like Batbie with anorexia! My sis grew up with Barbie and she is skinny as hell! I don’t think the new Barbie is over weight. People are just not used to seeing this new Barbie.
Jul 9th, 2013
Jade
Why is realistic Barbie’s feet so big?
Jul 10th, 2013
@Jade
Because normally the length of each foot is almost the same as the length of one’s forearm. The original Barbie is not only underweight but in this respect completely impossible (or has some kind of congenital disorder). A child should just put (mounted) both on a rotating table and see how little (if any) torque is needed to tip the skinny barbie.
Jul 13th, 2013
Meh
‘Realistic’ barbie looks weird. Kinda short…idk. Also with her stance looks like shes about to fight skinny barbie!
Aug 31st, 2014
Sara
The new Barbie is awesome. It is unhealthy for little girls!
GO,GO,GO! New barbie.
Oct 8th, 2014
Gert
If you think the reason girls have low self esteem is due to a doll you don’t spend much time in a class room.
Nov 9th, 2014