What do you think of Barbie? Would you let your children play with Barbies?

[AnimationFan94]

What do you think of Barbies? Would you let your children play with them? Do they send a bad message?

I have noticed many of Barbie's clothing styles now look cheap and tacky nowadays.

With those styles I can't believe Barbie ever dressed this classy a decade ago!

What happened? Did Mattel want to save money? Did they want to follow current fashion trends? Do today's parents approve of these styles?

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[DisneyOma]

Looks a lot like the clothing sold for barbies 20 years ago, IMO. My girls played with them, had furniture and accessories, bins and bins of dolls of all sizes (Kelly, Stacie, Skipper, Ken, etc) and some racial diversity as well - but at the time Mattel was just starting to figure out that they needed more diversity.

Both girls played with the dolls, and still had healthy attitudes about their bodies, intellect, and imagination. One daughter is getting her PhD in Bioinformatics next year, after graduating from MIT a few years ago, and the other is working to become a science teacher, and is an amazing artist and musician as well.

The dolls are what you make of them - my kids' were full of adventure and stories and creativity.

 

[EMom]

I loved Barbies when I was little, and loved playing with them with DD. I have bins of them and their accessories, in case I have a granddaughter. My daughter is in college now, and doing just fine. She doesn’t feel she has to look like Barbie.

 

[jackilvsmath]

Barbie has been banned from my house since before my kids were even born. There was a Barbie that was released that said “math is hard”. As a math teacher, I refuse to have that in my home.

 

[scrhsa]

All three of my girls played with them. I hated the clothes. But, shoot, half the time they had them with the clothes came off I did notice that my girls really did want the full, flowy dresses but they also did like the fun looking(so they thought) tighter modern clothes. It didn't affect them at all. They knew they were dolls and not role models. My youngest did like the superhero versions better than the regular Barbies though. My girls also had lots of hotwheels, dinosaurs, baby dolls, remote control cars, beanie babies. They had a well rounded view of things. They were such an amalgamation of" lets hunt for dinosaurs but in our spakly princess dresses" And my most tomboy--sandals with spiders on them, dino/dragon shirts etc--is the now most girly girl I have ever seen but who still loves Godzilla And my most girly, girl dd is now the least girly, girl of all three of mine!

 

[Disneylover99]

I loved Barbies in the 70’s! I played with them all the time. My daughter is 12 and she played with all of her Barbies too. I don’t really notice much difference from the styles throughout the years. I know my Barbies wore lots of mini skirts.

Barbie has a pleasant face. That’s why I like her. She looks happy, confident and kind. It’s the Monster High dolls that I avoided buying when my daughter was growing up. Most of them looked like mean, nasty, trashy, hookers.

 

[Meriweather]

I played with them. My aunt made a lot of the clothes. I had a lot of different dolls and accessories. Loved them

My DD played with them and had all mine plus a lot of her own. She loved them too.

We'll see about DGD, so far she only likes them if they go in the water.

I think a lot of the clothes above are very cute.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Barbie has been banned from my house since before my kids were even born. There was a Barbie that was released that said “math is hard”. As a math teacher, I refuse to have that in my home.

I remember hearing something about that years ago. Don't blame you for banning it.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Barbie is fine. All kids use some kind of toy to role-play with.

Besides, when you compare Barbie to the present trendy toys of playing with poop (YES! Gross but it's a Thing right now!) or any of the 5 billion toys that require batteries every 20 minutes....

 

[ronandannette]

All three of my girls played with them. I hated the clothes. But, shoot, half the time they had them with the clothes came off I did notice that my girls really did want the full, flowy dresses but they also did like the fun looking(so they thought) tighter modern clothes. It didn't affect them at all. They knew they were dolls and not role models. My youngest did like the superhero versions better than the regular Barbies though. My girls also had lots of hotwheels, dinosaurs, baby dolls, remote control cars, beanie babies. They had a well rounded view of things. They were such an amalgamation of" lets hunt for dinosaurs but in our spakly princess dresses" And my most tomboy--sandals with spiders on them, dino/dragon shirts etc--is the now most girly girl I have ever seen but who still loves Godzilla And my most girly, girl dd is now the least girly, girl of all three of mine!

Exactly!! I grew up with Barbie in an era where there were far fewer "influences" on kids than there are today. All of my friends had them; we were quite competitive actually with the clothes, cars, houses and whatnot. We played typical make-believe with them; setting up house, going shopping, having tea parties or whatever - shockingly stereotypical to today's sensibilities but here's the thing: We played like that because we were mimicking our mothers and the other important women in our lives. The play wasn't inspired by the pieces of plastic we were using. I'd imagine today's children are similar and of course the world has completely changed for most women since the '70s.

 

[Floridaman999]

I heard Mattel was in talks with Netflix to create a space opera with Ken and Barbie in a bright pink space ship.

 

[ronandannette]

I heard Mattel was in talks with Netflix to create a space opera with Ken and Barbie in a bright pink space ship.

Well finally!! It's about time somebody somewhere started taking our need for quality space opera seriously...

 

[minnie4ever]

Oh for heavens sake. I am a senior now and played with Barbie dolls. It was also a very different time when Barbie dolls first came out. Back then they had beautifully made clothes. My Barbie had a camel coat with matching hat and leather purse, beautiful gowns with real zippers, cashmere sweaters with tiny pearl buttons, real straw hats, gloves, glasses, and lots of accessories. I had no aspirations to look like her (though I loved her outfits) My mother taught me to sew so I could make clothes for my dolls. I also played with Hotwheels, my brother and I shared our huge load of Legos etc. we did science experiments together and used our imaginations. I consider myself a fairly well adjusted modern women and I don't think twice about my Barbie's now adays. If I had daughters I would probably buy them Barbie dolls if they wanted and gently teach them that Barbie, and my daughters can be anyone they want to be. So that is my 2 cents...take it or leave it.

 

[disneychrista]

I am anti Barbie.

 

[minnie4ever]

Barbie has been banned from my house since before my kids were even born. There was a Barbie that was released that said “math is hard”. As a math teacher, I refuse to have that in my home.

Sorry, but for me, Math was hard! I barely passed but I have a great job now, that isn't math related.

 

[jackilvsmath]

Sorry, but for me, Math was hard! I barely passed but I have a great job now, that isn't math related.

I sorry for that, but we don’t need girls to have the mindset that it is hard before they even have a chance at it.

 

[minnie4ever]

I remember hearing something about that years ago. Don't blame you for banning it.

Barbie has been banned from my house since before my kids were even born. There was a Barbie that was released that said “math is hard”. As a math teacher, I refuse to have that in my home.

But Math was hard!!! I barely passed, even with extra help. I now have a great job that is not math related thank heavens!

 

[L&Lfan]

I adored Barbie and her friends, especially Midge and Francie. I only wish in my era (‘60s and ‘70s), it had been “ok” for boys to play with them . I do have the complete collection of Mattel I Love Lucy dolls, never out of the box.

 

[Jennasis]

Barbie has been banned from my house since before my kids were even born. There was a Barbie that was released that said “math is hard”. As a math teacher, I refuse to have that in my home.

Technically she said "Math class is tough"...IIRC it was Lisa Simpson's Malibu Stacy doll on an episode of The Simpsons who said "Math is hard". I agree with both dolls LOL.

 

[tcufrog]

The only thing I remember about Barbie is my older sister taking my favorite Barbie, who had floor-length hair, and giving her a buzz cut. She then took apart a Bic pen and unsuccessfully tried to dye its hair with the blue ink.