Let Kids Be Kids, Give Them Back Their Toys

"My thighs are too big."
"My stomach is too fat."
"I wish my boobs were bigger."

Considering the bombardment of beauty images women are faced with everyday, hearing body image complaints such as these from women really isn't all that surprising. What is shocking is the sad reality that children as young as six years old are saying the same things about their own bodies. Young children in this country are already wired to be dissatisfied with their tiny, undeveloped bodies. They resent their bodies for not looking just like the "perfectly sculpted image of female beauty," before they even have a chance to grow into their adult figures.

It's impossible to pin-point one culprit responsible for poisoning women's minds with the message of body inferiority, there are too many companies out there targeting women's insecurities to determine which one sends the worst messages. The messages are everywhere at all times, and the fact is that children are going to absorb negative body image messages in TV, movies, magazines, and on the Internet. There is just no way to censor everything a child is exposed to.

I can't pick a fight with every marketer that uses women's insecurities to sell them beauty products. That is an endless battle. What I can fight, and will fight, are companies that market body image values to children through their favorite and most cherished toys.

Mattel has been marketing Barbie to little girls since 1959. In fact, the perfect plastic doll recently celebrated her 50th anniversary, while miraculously maintaining the body features of a twenty-something year old supermodel. For 50 years, Barbie has been marketed as a little girl's best friend... someone to look up to. They do a good job convincing parents and children alike that Barbie is a necessary part of a young girl's childhood. Mattel markets this so-called "role model" that has a body type only attainable through countless plastic surgeries, an obsession with shopping and materialism, and exemplifies stereotypical female gender roles.

I implore Richard Dickson, general manager of Barbie and senior vice president of Mattel, to rethink the company's marketing practices of the influential brand, Barbie. It's time to take responsibility for the impact the brand has on children's self-esteem, and stop marketing beauty values to an easily influenced and emotionally malleable target audience. Let kids be kids and create their own perceptions and opinions, and stop telling them what's important to strive for. Stop telling children how to look, what to buy, and stop teaching them that narcissism, fixation on outer appearances, and consumerism equates happiness.