An image of a plus-size Barbie doll posted on Facebook has sparked a major debate over the doll's impact on female body image, according to the Huffington Post.
The Facebook group Plus Size Modeling poised the question: "'Should toy companies start making plus-sized Barbie dolls?" The post has generated nearly 40,000 likes and over 1,600 shares. A number of comments stated the doll did not represent what a plus women would look like, while others agreed the Barbie shows an "average" or "healthier" doll.
"Portraying Barbie as a realistic Women with real curves is a very good idea and would send the right message to young girls about self esteem. Making a morbidly obese Barbie is BAD," one wrote.
"More curve, less chins," another person wrote.
Other people commented that the doll should not be either skinny nor plus size and should represent the average size of the American woman, which is a 14 or 16.
"[The] average [dress] size these days is 14-16. A doll that shows real life perspective, rather than the ideal unhealthy weight like 0 or unhealthy negative display of obese is a better more healthy approach [sic]," Lindsay Keg-leg Kahlig wrote.
The image was created by artist Nickolay Lamm of MyDeals.com, who used the measurements of an average 19-year-old woman to create a 3-D model. The doll was a little shorter and wider than a normal Barbie doll.
"If we criticize skinny models, we should at least be open to the possibility that Barbie may negatively influence young girls as well," Lamm told The Huffington Post. "Furthermore, a realistically proportioned Barbie actually looks pretty good.
"If there's even a small chance of Barbie in its present form negatively influencing girls, and if Barbie looks good as an average-sized woman in America, what's stopping Mattel from making one?" he said.
