Nah I think in this day and age there are much more realistic role models than a plastic doll.

as a child i never thought Barbie was the perfect woman. What i did know is that if they made a real woman look just like a Barbie doll she would look completely out of proportion. my mama told me that.

aujah! my older sister told me she'd fall flat on her face!!!!

Yeah, I was very aware as a child that Barbie was as unrealistic as they come. I know I had much better parents than a lot of girls out there, but I really don't see Barbie as a bad role model. Her body is crazy, yes, but Barbie has many careers, a steady boyfriend, and is a good big sister. Bratz dolls are slutty children. The values behind Barbie seem more substantial to me than those attached to a lot of new toys on the market. Wasn't Bratz making padded bras for girls as small as size 6 a few years ago?

What Acorn's mama said!

Barbies and mannequins both are not realistic.

It's been scientifically proven (sounds cliche, but it's true) that the human organs of an average person wouldn't fit into a mannequin-sized body.

But, I admit. I LOVED Barbies. Had tons of em!
Not so much for positive self-image though.
I always thought the blonde ones were prettiest and ended up rejecting all the brunette/black-haired ones :/

Swen's Bratz = slutty children comment LOL
padded bras for tiny tots... REALLY??!!! What the hell has the world come to!

I never wanted to look like Barbie, she always looked funny to me, and sometimes it was hard to get her outfits on her!! Ken was obsolete to me, my Barbie was always a lawyer and paid for her BMW convertible and her 3 story dream house on her own. Then I would get bored and chop all her hair off and have to throw her away.

Personally I would think that Barbie is not as big of an influence now as she used to be. With Bratz and Hannah Montana all over the media, I would be more concerned about that producing a negative self-image in little girls.

My parents didn't let me have barbies. They said they would make me materialistic...(unfortunately that backfired on them).

I remember my parents generation having the same argument about Barbie that we have with Bratz and HM. I find the Bratz dolls to be very sexual in comparison to Barbie, but it is down to the parents if they want to let their child be bombarded with these goods. It is no use blaming the companies if we keep buying it!

i chopped off my friends barbies hair AND she hasnt gotten over it yet
HAHA

I always liked Barbies. I have a Barbie fold and fun house.

i cannot believe that a mother would rather buy a Bratz Doll over a Barbie doll, while Barbie may be unattainable I would never allow my child play with a Bratz doll with their overly made faces and questionable clothing horrifies me well beyond my daughter playing with a Vet Barbie.

Barbie was and still is lame.

I loved Barbie as a kid and I had many many dolls and accessories. I never once worried that I didn't look like Barbie. I think dolls are better than video games, etc. because they encourage kids to come up with their own stories rather than follow one someone else wrote.

I agree completely with Swen. No, it wouldn't be terribly if Barbie became obsolete, but the only really bad thing about Barbie is her proportions. Compared to the Bratz dolls, for instance, the values presented are phenomenal. I mean, Barbie could do it all, Doctor, teacher, mommy, on and on. Like Swen said, Bratz are slutty kids. Not Good. I haven't had any Barbie dolls recently, but I can tell you that all the outfits covered quite a bit more of the doll than those of the Bratz dolls.

So.... you could make a more realistic-looking Barbie, and I would roll with that. I mean... other than image, what bad message does Barbie send? The one I got was that women came in every profession and didn't grow their hair back, though you COULD put their heads back on after you popped them off.

Barbie was nothing but fun. I don't think she ever caused me to have image issues because she was just a toy. I wasn't going to be envious of a six inch plastic doll. Plus, she's a better role model than Hannah Montana. I mean, that girl Miley Cyrus gets around, and at least Barbie had a wedding ring before she popped out kids, and she also had a career. Such a shame. Of course, if kids are busy being active rather than sitting at home playing with dolls, that's obviously very good news.

No, I don't think it would be a bad thing if Barbies were obsolete, then whatever Barbies I do have would quadruple in value!

Not a big fan of the message that Barbie sends to our more impressionable and vulnerable young folk, but I will take her over the Bratz dolls -- the whole Stripper/Prosti-Tot look is very disturbing. Did a pedophile come up this line?!
Also freaky is how their shoes come off and take their feet with them, leaving them with little stumps

I loved Barbie as a child because I loved the dress up and the make believe, it had nothing to do with her being my idol or worshipping her body. I always saw Barbie as a rather innocent toy, even my mom played with it, I never thought that Barbie had a hidden "slutty" agenda. Bratz on the other hand, I shudder when I see their outfits and their sass. I mean, they are supposed to be little girls. I think it would be very sad if Barbies became obsolete because I personally see them as iconic.

I have to disagree about Barbie being a better role model than Hannah Montana -- for one, you can't equally compare a plastic doll to a real live tween singing sensation.

And as I hold my breath, it seems that Miley Cyrus is actually a refreshing change from the Brit Pack our daughters have been unwittingly exposed to. I actually like Miley and hope that she stays on the path that she's on, instead of the Lohan one.

I loved Barbie growing up and I see nothing wrong with little girls playing with it. I DO see a problem with the Bratz dolls. I enjoyed dressing up my barbie and coming up with different stories for her. I never compared myself to Barbie and never even thought about her body since I was about 4-8 when I was playing with them. I didn't start thinking about my body until I was about 14. SOOO I say they keep Barbie around. Why not? It's not just the toys that children are influenced by it is SOOO many other things and I don't think playing with one doll will traumatize a child and make her have body image issues.

I wouldn't care at all if Barbies were obsolete, nor do I think my (future) children will care. If it's not Barbies, there will be other trendy toys out there. Many will be worse, like Bratz.

Honestly, I played with Barbies as a child, I didn't have a dainty body, and I never remember thinking "I want to be thin and big-breasted like Barbie!" It wasn't until I was in middle school and done playing with Barbies that everyone started talking about how awful they were for my body image and I thought "Well, she does have odd proportions."

But as a child, before everyone started chorusing about her poor body image, Barbie was just another doll among many.. with an awesome house and a Corvette!

I feel if any girl wants to have a Barbie, let them. As we get older, we don't role play with Barbie, we instead cheer on the beautiful people that we see on our fave shows and our fave celebrities in life. That doesn't mean that we take them and use them as role models.

Example: I played with Barbies when I was younger, and as I got older, I enjoyed watching (and still do) glamorous shows such as Sex and the City. And although I would love to have a shoe collection rivaling that of Carrie Bradshaw, or want to feel as beautiful like Barbie, that doesn't make them my role models. My role models are those people who work hard to get where they are...mostly my female relatives, because they are women of distiction...ranging from deans of universities to lawyers to even dentists. They have Masters and Doctoral degrees. They have what I truly desire.

Those little material things that we desire will be there no matter if we play with Barbie or if we played playstation. There will always be the dream job, the wardrobe, the hot car, the awesomely gorgeous boyfriend (or girlfriend) that every girl's dreams are made of.

Come on, Barbie is a classic! I understand that she is not very realistic; there are very few girls that grow up to have long blonde hair, tan skin, and a size 2 body. However, I would have to say that Barbie is a better icon for girls than other "dolls" today such as Bratz or Hannah Montana dolls.

I was never a real Barbie fan ("math is hard!") but I seriously want to throw every Bratz doll I see into the path of an oncoming semi.

I loved Barbie growing up and I still turned out pretty liberal and independent-minded...

I know she's not the best role model but look at the current alternatives... Bratz?? If I had to choose between Bratz and Barbie for my little girl to play with, I'd pick Barbie in a heartbeat. At least she's got a dozen respectable professions.

OMG NO!!! I loved Barbie... she was the fashionable lady who could do it all! My Barbie was a teacher, a doctor, a police officer, a lawyer. I think she's a great role model b/c its all about imagination. And who cares if her dress size is small? Maybe they should have different shaped bodies... a short, fatter Barbie? More diversity is always better than just giving up on the Dream!

Honestly yes. I loved playing with barbie dolls when I was a kid. It helped increase my imagination and it was fun. I think it would be terrible for young girls if barbie was no longer around.

Barbie is awesome, and no, she is not obsolete. Every culture has some beauty ideal, be it blonde/blue-eyed/slim or whatnot. As long as a beauty stereotype does not promote any harmful values, why get all hot and bothered? And by no means is Barbie anorectic, so I don't think that should be an issue either. She's just slim and still curvy.

Comment in between: I feel strongly for this because my mom never let me play with Barbies well hardly anywayz. She said she didn't want me to get a wrong idea of women. Well ha, it hasn't worked. I still luv barbies and being girly and pretty and wearing great clothes, so so there! Ah, excuse the rant.

Bratz on the the other hand, I totally agree with some posters above. Now that's a kind of sluttiness that's in your face. Barbie is sophisticated, feminine and subtly sexy. These Bratz? The less said the better. They look exactly like road-side prostitutes. And the real shock is how young and influencable its buyers really are.

(sigh) how about we let plastic dolls be the toys they were meant to be and focus on getting the media to stop air brushing REAL live breathing women in a way that makes other real life breathing women feel like they aren't good enough. and maybe get a grip on things like fake boobs, fake tans, fake teeth, fake hair, etc. and let REAL women look like real women. personally i've never been bothered by barbie. i have been bothered by the fake boobs exposed on the cover of magazines when i'm in the checkout line with my kids.

My dolls were never my role models. I was too young at the time to even consider the fact that Barbie was unrealistically proportioned. I was only concerned about what outfits Barbie and her friends should wear to the ball, and then to the beach moments later. It was all in good, innocent fun. I don't think it had any negative impact on me, unlike the airbrushed models and manufactured women mentioned above. And there's the fact that kids these days are much more exposed to these images (I didn't have the internet that young). Implants and injections seem to be more and more commonplace and acceptable means of achieving the media's unattainable interpretation of beauty. Barbie is a non issue.

i dont know... yes its true barbie gives that fake idea of perfection .. thats why shes been modified a cuple of times.. but at the end, all of us want to be like her, a woman who is independent who can be wathever she wants to be.. and i think thats better for the little girls instead of looking some of young hollywood like lindsay lohan.

Barbie is considered a role model? She's just a doll!

NO...but not because she's a bad role model...I mean how stupid can you be when you think all women should look like that...thank goodness I knew she was just a doll...

if Barbie becomes obsolete is because she's boring....yeah...BORING...she way behind with the times!

It's comments to posts like this that make me want to leave this network. OK, she's just a doll, but for f*cks sake, wouldn't this world just be a slightly better place without "her"?

I like Barbie! She is just a doll, and plus I think the BRATZ or whatever those gross things are are WAY worse.

I don't have kids, but are Bratz those wh*res in training dolls? If so, I'd run fast away from them and would not want my kids to learn how to dress from them.

Ugh, I always hated Barbies, even when I was little. I wouldn't be sad to see them go.

Of course, I'm biased. I was the nerdy little girl who asked for a telescope every year since I was 7, and always got Barbie dolls instead. So I'm bitter! LOL

I don't really have any pro or con feelings about Barbie, so I would be neutral about her becoming obsolete. EXCEPT that the reason she is becoming obsolete is that she's being replaced by things with much bigger problems than any problem people have with Barbie.

Barbie is so much better than those Bratz dolls. When I have a daughter she will NEVER have those dolls. They're dolls that look like little slutty wh*res... even chollas maybe. As for Barbie, she has always been an icon of beauty what is so wrong with that? Her proportions are little off because you have to be able hold the doll. Barbie also has always been a role model in sense of showing all the different jobs a girl could have, doctor, nurse, teacher, vet, etc. I really just don't understand all the hate for this doll.

I agree with everyone who said that Barbie is still much better than those Bratz dolls. My children will not play with Bratz dolls. They are just wrong.

I'd make sure my girls knew that Barbie isn't realistic looking and let them play with them anyway.

i think barbie should stick around. through the years they gave barbie careers and different personalities which i find have given some young girls ideas of what to become instead of only looking at the people closest to them. those bratz dolls are some of the most repulsive things i have ever had to look at. have you SEEN the amount of makeup they have and the terrible clothing they wear? One doll will not shape a childs mind. its the environment they are in that will. when i was young i never looked at my dolls and thought i needed bigger boobs or a smaller waste. thoughts like that appeared a lot later in life, long after i was done playing with the dolls. i am absolutely not putting down magazines and models and such but the media and entertainment business has much more body image repercussions that a doll will ever have.

Replacing Barbie with Bratz?...now there's a much better role model!

I'd prefer Barbie over those hideous Bratz and Hannah Montana ANY day.

Aw, I grew up playing with Barbie all the time...it would be kind of weird if they stopped making them.

pink_elephant, I hope you were joking...after all, I remember looking for those Bratz dolls for my little cousin, and seeing that they had their "after prom" party pack, which included mini skirts, stilettos, belly tops, and a limo all for the after prom hotel party (as read on the package).

Now why are we teaching little girls to go to prom "after parties"? We all know what really goes on at those parties...

I played with Barbies growing up, and I loved it.

Right now, I have a nice collection of Asian Barbies (Barbie's Asian friend Kira, Asian Dolls of the World, Special Edition Doll from Bob Mackie, etc.). Some of these Asian dolls are vintage. Barbie dolls are ethnic, not just blonde and blue-eyed. And yes, I'm Asian.

Truthfully, I would be dismayed if Barbie became obsolete. I think Barbie is a classy, positive figure. She is ethnic, and she represents many careers, hobbies, and fantasies (princess, fairy, bride, etc.). And she is attractive and fashionable. What is there not to like?

I'm torn on this.

I had a bunch of Barbies, and I liked playing with them, but I always liked my Barbie to be the journalist or something more than the bride. But as a child of the 80's, I really liked my Jem dolls. Yes, they had crazy hair and stuff, but even at 8 years old I liked that they had more realistic bodies and the main character owned her own business (Starlight Music- like I said, I LOVED these dolls and that show). Plus, you could really get into playing with that stuff!

Do I care if Barbie dies out? Sort of- I mean, I have warm fuzzy memories, but there's nothing terribly empowering about her. Who do I have the memories of- her, or pink-haired Jem? Come on Mattel- get with the game.

I think it'd be horrible if Barbie was obsolete. My mom made sure that my sister and I knew that real women didn't look like Barbie. I think we'd decided that the breasts on Barbie were to make sure that her strapless dresses stayed on straight (case in point, when we made clothes for my mom's old barbies, they clothes always spun around).

Through Barbie, I was exposed to all sorts of professions- doctor, astronaut, singer, veterenarian... there's nothing wrong with that. Plus, look at what the Bratz dolls are offering - a line of tarted up teenagers.

But most importantly? If you lose Barbie, you lose out on a blank slate for imagination. She's just a doll, but you could always buy clothes and accessories to make her into who you wanted her to be - which as a kid is usually who you want to be.

Ohpishf*ckinshaw....

COME ON

What kind of messed up society do we live in now a days?

Aren't all dolls unrealistic? I don't recall feeling shock and horror when I realized that real babies aren't made from cloth bodies, plastic heads and yarn hair.. Nor do I remember thinking gee dude why am I not a bean pole with giant tatas...

I never once remember me or any of my friends having conversation about barbie's body.. Well..Other then giggling over the fact that her vagina is plastic.. and ken has just a hint of a bulge

I think that this Hanna Montana slut bomb waiting to go off..And how the hell can you compare BRATZ dolls with barbie? That's like comparing a heroin addicted prostitute with a successful business woman.. And if people would rather get rid of BARBIE then the other sh*tastically awful toys that we have on the market I have officially lost hope for the kids that people are raising

They're all going to be PC snobs who have no concept of reality because their parents won't discipline them and society coddles them...Let your kids get dirty, stop using antibacterial gel it's not good..and let your kids use their imagination with positive role models who make be a stick with boobs but atleast she's had a job that wasn't spreading her legs or the baseball team like bratz dolls do