How do you feel about the new "plus size" (curvy) Barbie Doll? Was that a good move by Mattel or bad and why?

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fazer1k · 56-60, M

I didn't know there was a plus size Barbie but it seems rather silly to me. Promoting the idea of being overweight isn't really helpful to society's health, overall. Acceptance of people being overweight is one thing but promotion of the idea, not so good in my opinion.

[i]Edit: this comment was made without seeing examples and I thought plus-size might include representations of unhealthy weight ranges. [/i]

Fulcrum · 31-35, F

@fazer1k I guess in 68 when they introduced the first black barbie it was to promote interracial dating.

fazer1k · 56-60, M

@Fulcrum No. Why interracial? It was to promote the idea that dolls were not just for the white community and that the toy manufacturers who made them were racially sensitive.

bijouxbroussard · F

@Fulcrum No, there was a Christie and a Brad doll who were also black. Interracial dating had nothing to do with it. It was about offering an option in Barbie world to little black girls. 🤔

Fulcrum · 31-35, F

@bijouxbroussard Brad doll didn't come out till 1970. Anyway shouldn't this be seen as alternative to girls who aren't shaped like a barbie?

bijouxbroussard · F

@Fulcrum 1968. I had all three of them. The plus-sized ones, yes. That’s a good idea. There are women who are considered plus-sized because they’re not size 6, but aren’t [b]fat[/b], either.

Fernie · F

@fazer1k A curvy Barbie represents real live women in the world...not that anorexic blonde they've been peddling for decades...it does NOT promote being overwieght

fazer1k · 56-60, M

@Fernie I agree, so long as they keep them within healthy weight ranges.

Fulcrum · 31-35, F

@bijouxbroussard That is weird the doll was made from 1970 to 1973. Did you own a prototype?

ScrewThisImDone · 26-30, F

@Fulcrum Wasn't there another doll around that time that would go through "puberty" if you rotated her arm or something?

bijouxbroussard · F

@Fulcrum No, I had Brad and Christie. In 1970 I was in junior high school and no longer playing with dolls.

Fulcrum · 31-35, F

@bijouxbroussard So what are you saying?

bijouxbroussard · F

@Fulcrum What don’t you understand ?

Fernie · F

@bijouxbroussard people were always giving me dolls when I was a kid....I was more interested in being a cowboy so I would lasso Barbie, tie her hands behind her back and lynch her on the closet bar

bijouxbroussard · F

@Fernie I had [b]all[/b] of them back then, Barbie to Tutti. And my mother made a point of getting me all of the black dolls as soon as they were available, including the Julia doll—remember that show with Diahann Carroll ? That was the only one I kept, and I gave it to my niece.

Fulcrum · 31-35, F

@bijouxbroussard How did you own a doll two years before it was manufactured.

bijouxbroussard · F

@Fulcrum I don’t know what to tell you. I checked wiki to be sure and it says, Christie came out in 1967, Brad in 1968, which fits my recollection and there were not many black dolls back then. I see where it says a Talking Brad came out in 1970, but that’s not the one I had.