Barbie at 50: Where has she taken us?

Barbie celebrates her 50th anniversary this year, but you wouldn't know it from her looks. She's forever young and forever thin -- impossibly thin as a matter of fact. If Barbie were translated into a real woman her measurements would be 38-18-34. What real woman can compete with the Barbie bod? What little girl ever wanted to before Barbie?

But Barbie wasn't developed (pardon the pun) for little girls. She was modeled after a German prostitute doll named Bild Lilli (after an adult cartoon character) who was sold to men in bars and tobacco shops as a novelty item.

It's interesting to think that Barbie, Mattel's billion dollar baby, entered the scene about the same time as "the pill." She's part of the sexual revolution. Girls went from playing Mom cuddling baby dolls to playing sex object and consumer playgirls for playboy Ken. The only thing lacking to create the ultimate sex object model was what "the pill" and, later, abortion provided. Now girls could be groomed as the ultimate recyclable sex object - nothing to mess up the playgirl townhouse and Barbie cruise to the Riviera in her skimpy bikini with fashion cover-up and Vera Bradley beach tote.

Barbie is everything the Christian woman is not. Obsessed with her looks, obsessed with lifestyle, obsessed with stuff. There is nothing modest about Barbie. Just saunter through the doll section at any toy store or do an internet search on Barbie and Mattel. The toy manufacturer will tell you: "from urban teen to fantasy queen, she's every girl." Not hardly! Barbie may fit the consumer lifestyle of a Paris Hilton, but how many families could keep their girls' closets in the style to which Barbie is accustomed?

With three dolls sold every second, Mattel has made Barbie the most influential doll, not to mention the most lucrative, to ever hit the toy market. What impact she's had on the lives of little girls is a question that deserves more research. Some psychological studies indicate a negative impact on girls' body images. Those shown pictures of Barbie as compared to no photos were more likely to have a negative attitude toward their own bodies. Maybe Mattel should develop anorexic Barbie or bulimic Barbie since the dolls' figures are more typical of those with eating disorders than normal women.

As for myself, I have pledged never to buy one of my granddaughters (or any other little girl) a Barbie doll or Barbie lookalike. Give them baby dolls and little girl dolls whose bodies look like theirs. If they want to feel the softness of real women they can cuddle with their mommies whose breasts make great pillows for little heads. And while parents are urging their children to play mommy with their baby dolls (most will one day fill that role), they might also consider giving them nun dolls in full habit. I had one with a rosary on her belt. While I didn't choose a religious vocation it was a choice I toyed with when I was young.