While at work yesterday I overhead the news talking about Barbie influencing young girls to strive for an impossible physique and unhealthy lifestyle habits. I've heard something about this every few weeks and frankly it is getting very old.

Barbie is to blame for women developing body dysmorphic disorder. At least that is what this article claims along with decreasing self-esteem. Apparently by having barbie dolls little girls will want their body to be incredibly disproportional and anorexic. While yes, some kids are easily impressionable, a kid shouldn't be raised in an environment where their world view and self-worth are determined by a plastic doll. So what is their answer to the psychological tyranny of Barbie? Emme is a doll who is scaled to a woman's size 16. YES, size 16. A 5'7” woman who is a size 16 is ~190-210lbs! By a BMI calculation that is obese. Yet this doll is giving young girls a better body image?

So why is it a double standard?

WWE, He-Man, GI Joe, DC Comics, Various video games. The list can go on for days. There is no national outcry for unrealistic physique standards imposed on young boys by their action figures. Nor is there a need, because they're toys. I played with all kinds of buff action figures when I was young, strangely I don't feel inadequate for not looking like Phil Heath.

The woman interviewed in the original article, though having had a breast augmentation, wants her daughters to not play with barbie because she thinks her own lack of self esteem is to be blamed on the toy. Look past her hamster and we see she, along with many women, has found the perfect scapegoat. It isn't her fault, it is that plastic toy. It's Mattel's fault. It's the patriarchy.

Female Hypoagency.