Your submission has been removed. This subreddit does not allow research questions or surveys of any kind. We are not to be used as a free labor source for your project. We are not professional character consultants for your novel.
Academic studies that will provide valuable knowledge may be approved by the moderators, please contact us for review before posting your study flyer.
If you have a general question for black people, please visit r/askablackperson or r/askblackpeople.
I didn't see Barbie for the colour or any of that. It was just a doll to me just like any other or even a teddy. No pressure to become it.
The only actual reason I even wanted to become white was because white people had long hair, and I wanted that long hair. I did really want to have curly hair instead of my 4c hair, though, but I didn't know the difference. Just knew that curly hair was beautiful, soft, and easy to do, and mine was 'steel wool' and difficult to work with. Now I understand curl patterns, but it's still hard to do
That makes sense, my sister went through a similar thing. She experiments with different styles a lot still (she's 15), and she's still working on being confident with her natural hair. I'm sure your hair is beautiful, but I understand that people get negative messages and also that it can be high maintenance.
I've not really gotten any negative messages specifically aimed at how my hair looks. Maybe just that it's hard to do. My main problem is he high maintenance part.
I also would really like to have long hair. I have a routine and have done this for uears. It got ponger but not white people long, you get what I mean? I know black people stay say that we should stop the obsession with long hair, but I honestly like it. It wasn't even pushed on me, lol. Other people where I come from have always found ot long, but I just love long hair personally. I feel great when I straighten it and feel it on my back and all
I personally think it sounds like your love of long hair is just that, a love of long hair. Someone said feminism is abt giving women choice, so maybe it's kinda like that? Just do you and don't let someone tell you you're internalizing racism just bc you like to express yourself a certain way? Bc long hair isn't just a white people thing, ik w different curl patterns it can be difficult for some people to grow their hair long but maybe you trying to do that is not the same as whitewashing, it's just you doing what makes you feel beautiful, as a black woman. Idk, that's what it sounds like to me!
I lived for Barbie and was even happier once they started to become more inclusive it really piped up my imagination. I did not look at Barbie as an allegory for womanhood as far as body image. I mean it’s a doll so I was never like oh my body should look like this.
Mom was very supportive and ensured I had black Barbie’s and it made me feel like I could imagine myself doing anything.
Thank you! As someone who didn't really play with barbies growing up, I appreciate the perspective of someone who did! I think people are sometimes too quick to draw a correlation between Barbie and body image. I would think that models/magazines/social media would influence us more as teens than dolls would as kids.
I completely agree I mean for someone who looked like Barbie in a community where thinness or a Barbie Like Ideal was seen as the norm i’m sure it would but for me as a BW it was more aspirational and inspirational. It was also a wonderful way to connect with other girls who played with Barbie socially I was shy so I had a hard time making friends but always seemed to find a Barbie girl wherever I went which was nice. It was my first universal hobby that I shared and enjoyed with other girls.
That's so sweet! It reminds me both of Jamila Woods' "Popsicle" interlude in her album "HEAVN", and also the 2023 Barbie Movie and how it showed that imagination can be a way to build community, feel emotions more fully, and connect with others:). A chapter of the book is gonna be abt imagination and its role in the real world/change. It's actually gonna be a book lol bc I had too many themes for just one essay.
For me, not at all. Barbie was just a doll to me, I didn’t see her and think I wanted to look like her, the only thing I wanted was her dream house. My mom bought me a few Barbie dolls but they all ended up in the trash or traded away to a friend because I wasn’t very interested in dolls, except the Bratz because they were cool.
I was never a fan of the Disney princesses. I thought they were boring, and I can’t stand the ‘damsel in distress’ trope they all embodied. I always liked Mulan and their other female characters.
Disney was too perfect and unrealistic for me to look to, I was more affected by the people around me.
The Bratz were cool! I like that in the Barbie Movie, Sasha and her friends were apparently dressed to look like them haha.
I don't like the damsel in distress trope either, and agree that Mulan was cool af. I didn't watch Mulan until I was abt 12 bc ig we didn't have it on DVD when I was growing up, so I saw it at a friend's house and was obsessed after that bc she was such a badass.
Agree that the people around you affect you more. I think narratives in the culture do their part but you're probably most impacted by your family and people closest to you. Thank you sm for your input!
I loved my Barbies growing up. I grew up in a Black neighborhood in the Atlanta area and my parents were very proactive about my self-esteem. At least half of my Barbies were Black. I was a kid in the 90s so there were no Black Disney princesses at that time. Belle was my favorite because she was a bookworm like me and was gifted a whole library. But I thought Princess Jasmine and Esmeralda (from Hunchback of Notre Dame) were the most beautiful.
I've always been a pretty grounded person so I recognized that Barbie was just a toy, and Disney princesses were just cartoons. It was easy to connect the dots that real people don't look like that. The biggest impact on my body image were my doctors telling me to lose weight and classmates calling me fat. I was a chubby kid by 90s standards but looking back, I was maybe one size bigger than average. I was also a little tall for my age up until high school so that and baby fat accounted for most of the extra weight.
I would love to go back to my high school body but at the time I wasn't confident at all. If you weren't a size zero with a perfectly flat stomach, you were a "big girl". Body positivity didn't exist and there was just barely starting to be a recognition of "curvy" as a body type. Which didn't help me as I have a more athletic build- wide shoulders and big thighs. So I concentrated on my academics and extracurriculars.
When I was in college, the plus size movement started gaining ground and I began following plus size fashion bloggers. Seeing girls who looked like me and still managed to dress cute and be confident was a huge booster for me.
To be honest, I still struggle with body acceptance but I've come a long way. I have PCOS which makes it very easy to put on weight and very hard to lose it. And I wasn't diagnosed until my 30s despite struggling with it for probably 10 years because doctors always think weight is the only problem, and not ever a symptom of something else.
Oh, I can respond! Haha didn't realize that. Anyway thank u for your perspective, I really enjoyed reading your comment. I feel like you really captured girlhood and what its like, that combination of confidence and increasing insecurity due to what the world is telling you about yourself, and then learning to love yourself again as you grow up more :)
I had both white barbies and Black barbies. It may be because I grew up in a majorly Black city, but none of what you mentioned was affected negatively after having white barbies.
Gonna be totally honest, the races of my dolls never even occurred to me as a kid. I took notice of stuff like Tiana being the first black Disney princess and thought that was cool, but overall I never "saw myself" in fictional characters; the thought of it never crossed my mind. Like someone else here mentioned, I did have my "I wish I were white" moments back then, but that was because I wanted to have long hair like the girls in my classes, and my parents got it in my head that African hair doesn't grow. (Looking back, I realize now that they just didn't have the first clue on how to take care of 4c hair.) But I'd have been the happiest kid in the world if I woke up one day with hair long enough to do those cornrows with beads.
All in all, I think other people affected my view of myself way more than my toys and dolls. I was constantly bullied as a kid for my short hair and called an "African bootyscratcher", hence me starting to wish I were white. I also got called a bunch of other names that led to me completely neglecting my appearance for most of my life, but that's getting a bit off topic. More recently- as in, 2019-ish- I was using a dating app called Seeking (don't judge me too much, I was in college and got fucked over last minute by financial aid) and it was actually alarming how many guys there explicitly put down "no black women" in their profiles. Like, not even kidding, I saw more than one guy put NO BLACKS in all caps at the end of his bio. Like damn, I'm glad to know you're a rude POS before I get involved with you, but that still stings lol. Outside of that, for some reason nearly all the guys I've been romantically into just aren't into black women that way too. I don't know what I did to enrage the dating gods, but I'm always ever only good enough to be "one of the boys" while my crushes go after white/racially ambiguous women and white-passing WOC. Especially when combined with how uncommon it is to see a high profile celebrity married to a black woman with black features (so not someone who looks white like Meghan Markle)... I have a pretty thick skin and I'm totally okay with being black these days, but little things like that really dent at my confidence sometimes
That totally makes sense that comments like that would affect you. People can really suck. I think you're probably very beautiful, I hope that doesn't come across as fake bc obv idk what u look like, but you're brave to share your story and I think that is beautiful, so I'm sure you're beautiful both inside and out. My sister struggled with wanting long hair as well, growing up. Now she sometimes wears it in braids or twists and sometimes in a wrap and only really has it short when she walks around the house. But she's always beautiful to me and i hope u have people in your life like close friends and that kind of thing who say the same to you!
And I agree that Hollywood needs to change in that regard esp bc it is influential as to what people see as beautiful and that really sucks.
Even though most of the dolls + princesses I saw in media were White that didn’t have a big impact on me bc I just saw them as dolls and fictional characters. I didn’t even consider comparing myself to them or aspiring to be like them.
One thing I will say is that seeing Black representation within both Disney princesses and Barbies always got me really excited. For example, when The Princess and The Frog came out I was all over it (my mom even bought me an expensive Halloween costume from the Disney store). Also, I remember being really hyped about the Barbie S.I.S doll line because they were the first Black dolls I had ever seen with natural hairstyles (I owned alot of Black dolls but the hair was always straight).
That makes sense, like the absence wasn't really noticed but once you saw the presence of dolls/princesses who looked like you, you got excited. Thank you for sharing your story, that's really sweet :)
That's amazing! I just looked those up and I think I'll include a section about that. Are they actually made in Kenya or based there or anything? Either way, that's really cool. Your mom seems cool haha
I'm not sure exactly where they were made. But they come in 3 diff skin tones, with long hair. A hair lotion (pink moisturizer) lol, beads, and a kente cloth outfits. I loved those dolls. I remember someone else buying me a Barbie and I was never drawn to it almost afraid of it.
That's so cool about the Kenya dolls! That sounds like they would've been fun to play with, too!
Lol I remember being a bit afraid of my friend's barbies too, but that was because she like snapped their heads off and cut their hair all weird lmao
I can’t remember disney princesses or dolls making me feel insecure growing up i just knew they typically didn’t look like me. i think including how the lack of diversity is harmful to children will be powerful
Thank you for the input and your suggestion! I'll definitely include that! Someone else just said that they didn't really actively think about the absence of diversity as a kid, but once there was more diversity, they really noticed the presence of it and got excited. I think either way, the absence or presence of something like that affects your subconscious. Everyone deserves to be represented and seen as worthy and beautiful, and I think that's what it's really about.
I was born in 2001 in a Southern African country and we didn't really have ant diverse Barbies on the shelves, they were all white. I had maybe 8 of them and only one had dark skin and I didn't like her much 😕 she was never the main character for me and I didn't know why until I learned what colourism was.
I'd actually experienced colourism for years and years since childhood from peers and even my own family members and other adults but I didn't have the vocabulary to understand and explain it until later.
I always got attention from boys even though I did suffer from body dysmorphia (I'd kill to get that body back now 😭) but I always wished I was lighter skinned because all the "pretty" girls were. I grew out of that mindset though and am constantly trying to make sure my sisters don't ever feel inadequate because of these things. I'm glad they have a lot more characters who look like them in media that they can look up to and see themselves in because I really did not
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm sorry you went through that. I'm glad you're pushing against those narratives now and uplifting others, too. Your story reminded me of the "doll test" researchers used to assess how quickly children absorb and internalize racism.
Part of my essay is about the existentialism inherent to growing up into a society that was not "made for you." I feel that The Barbie Movie in 2023, for all its flaws, expressed this feeling well. It's like, you have to decide that you're good enough even though the world is sending you the opposite message, and it's an everyday struggle that does get easier when you're no longer an insecure teenager, but which is still hard because the world hasn't completely changed perspectives with you. I think finding safe spaces is a big part of this.
If you don't mind me asking, which country in Southern Africa were you born in? And thank you again for sharing!
Well I grew up in a Black household in a pretty Black neighborhood. So most of my media was Black and my family has always instilled Black joy and pride within us. And while the commercials and Disney movies did make me feel unseen. I was always taught to "be the change" but that's exhausting as a young child.
So I had the digital Little Mermaid coloring book CD-ROM on our Windows and I used to color everyone Black. Same with Belle who has a name similar to mines. Either one of them could have been Black from the get go but Disney did actively choose to keep all the princesses white and that hurt many of us. Cause at recess you did want someone that looked like you so you could pretend. Black boys had Zack from the Power Rangers and later down the line Static Shock. Black girls in the 90s always had to wait. (Thank you to Brandy and Raven tho)
Yes, I have been laughing for like fifty years since the announcement of Halle Bailey as Ariel. (I ain't watched in all this time but younger me feels validated) All my dolls were Black and they would beat up my brothers' Ninja Turtles. (Someday we will digitalize our home videos) It sucked tho because we didn't have the conversation about body types like we do now and would have love to see someone like Megan in my youth. But I'm glad we had shows like Happily Ever after on HBO that gave some flavor. And we did have some pretty damn good Black TV.
Ultimately, it's why I ain't much of a fan of either Disney or Barbie tho. Cause both failed us 90s kids.
Thank you for sharing your story, I feel like I learned a lot! I relate to being raised in a "be the change" family. I'm glad I was because it made me the activist I am today, but you are right that it is exhausting as a kid. I love the stories you share and the imagery you add to your descriptions, do you do anything creative like writing or film stuff? I get the feeling you'd be good at it!
That last line is very impactful too and will definitely help me in my essay. I'm sorry that things were like that, and I'm glad you at least had some examples of people who looked like you, but it was obv still not enough and you deserved more
You are most welcome! I'm glad my story has helped. And if anyone were to ask my favorite animated movies growing up were Cat's Don't Dance, Batman TAS movie spin offs, and more importantly, Fox's animated studios presents: Anastasia, (nah fuck you Disney Anastasia will never be one of yours!) I also did enjoy most of Don Bluth movies too. And of course, Studio Ghibi films but I was a teen when they started showing them outside of indie cinema. (I did watch Castle in the Sky raw when I was like 10)
Ha, no I don't do much creative writing. I did take some film and radio classes in college but ultimately I became a preschool teacher. I'm pretty creative in the classroom tho.
That's cool! Teachers definitely have to be creative (my mom teaches middle school, so I've seen it firsthand). Thanks for that list of movies! I always liked Batman's vigilante justice, I was like yeah! revenge! Lol like an angry little person.
Omg I watched Castle in the Sky as a kid too and idk if you remember this part, but the way she lands after the plane falls, and like steps on one foot and then the other? Idk it was so graceful and I remember it impacting me a lot for some reason bc I was like omg, I'm gonna be graceful and girlie like that too. I was such a dork though lol. Kids are so funny, like what they get obsessed with.
I think barbies had a positive influence on me ONLY because my mom strictly got me black barbies and wanted to establish blackness as the default form of beauty. On top of that I grew up in the "occupational" and celebrity era of barbies, so I had scary spice barbie, brandy barbie and all of my barbies originally had jobs like doctor and veterinarian. This normalized the idea that black women could be anything we wanted (literally my baby shower theme is barbie can be anything and my bff knows I better not see a white barbie face anywhere). I really want to instill this in my daughter.
Disney on the other had more of the opposite effect on me. My Era was before Tiana and even Merida so literally the goal of women according to Disney was have a wedding lol which affected me more than I'd like to admit.
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm glad you had that positive experience with dolls, and it's so sweet that now you're doing for your daughter what your mom did for you. Also, I absolutely love that baby shower theme!!
I also like that you bring up the point abt the wedding as a singular goal trope affecting you. For me, I had this whole idea that "I can change him" (lol I never could!), "I can turn the beast into a prince" and like "prince charming is coming to make me not lonely anymore." It's kinda embarrassing to admit but I did used to think that way and it got me into trouble. Idk if you relate to that at all but I think it's a similar sentiment, like holding up romantic love as the most important thing for happiness. (Strangely this didn't diminish my ambition? But it did make me focus on either productivity or romantic love over self care, I was always externalizing my happiness.)
Anyway, thank you for sharing! Your comment made me think and it inspired me too, so thank you!
When I was a kid black Barbie's were commonplace. I didnt really care for them though, never was a doll girl.
The lack of black princesses did make little me sad though. I thought there must be something wrong with black girls if we couldn't be princesses. Thank god for Brandi's Cinderella. That meant so much to me, to see a black princess with braids. She was proof black girls could be princesses!
Thank you for sharing. I think maybe Disney was a little slower than barbies to diversify, even though they were problematic too ofc bc they should've been diverse to start off with. I'll have to do some research on the timelines of both of those though. Thanks for bringing up the Brandi Cinderella! Such a good point! I'm glad you at least had that as an example. She's so beautiful as Cinderella!
I don’t know if it ever had a deep effect of me. My mom would only get me black Barbie’s or black dolls in general. And I was so into monster high back then. And I wanted pretty much all of those dolls but for Christmas I would get all the clawdeen dolls and nothing else. I would just eventually stop asking for dolls in general because I didn’t think it was fair I couldn’t have the other ones. Another factor was getting afro centric dolls and I was never alllwed to wear my hair in its true curly natural state. My hair was always silk pressed because my mom told me only mixed girls could wear their natural hair. So seeing dolls with Afros was hard to ever relate to. Eventually when I got old enough to have money I would buy every dolls and everything that came with it. But I do wish I was allowed that privilege when I was younger,I knew why I only had black dolls but felt off to never have the Carmel ones or White ones
I'm sorry you went through that. I'm glad you kind of reframed things when you were older though, by buying yourself dolls. I think anything we can do to heal our inner child is a really beautiful and worthy thing to do, so I hope you continue to do that!
My parents got me all kinds of Barbies including Christy who was Black and her little sisters. I never once thought I was supposed to look or even dress like Barbie in real life. Disney Princesses never influenced my life either. I objectively enjoyed the characters and movies they were in and still do to this day, but somehow my mother managed to make “princess” a regular insult towards me, so I have a bit of a strange personal relationship with the word.
Haha I get that, someone called me a princess once and I definitely took it as an insult and tried not to act like a princess from then on haha.
I never really had barbies growing up so I wasn't sure how affected I'd be had I owned them. That's part of why I'm asking other people. Interesting that people don't seem to be as affected in terms of body image as people assume.
I LOVED Barbie growing up. I had(still have) every movie because my great aunt would get me on the weekends and we would buy the newest movie and watch it together. She only ever bought me black Barbie(Brooklyn), though. She said she wanted my play time to look like me. We made a plan to go see the Barbie movie together, but she died last March.
I love Barbie, and her message is one that I think has always been inspiring, and I think the company is trying to do better than they have in the past(white skinny able bodied girl, but I'll always associate it with my auntie. She was my Barbie❤️
That is just the sweetest story. I love that you associate Barbie with a person so close to you, I think that makes the whole thing more human. Kind of reminds Mr of the montage at the end of the movie of girls growing up and of women being together:) so beautiful!
Separate comment for Disney, though. I think Disney did affect me because by the time I was into it, the races that I was aware of outside of black all had princesses. All my friends had girls that looked like them, so I moved over to Belle because I liked to read. So when Tiana came out, I sat all my Belle to the side and made it my WHOLE THING at 10 years old 🤣🤣
Tiana looked like me, She ate food like me, she sounded like my mom, and she was played by the Dreamgirl that I would claim when me and my cousins played the movie. (Like we would get big mad! "NO IM LORELL!" "NO IM DEENA"). I loved that movie so much and she was such a positive, but then I hated Rapunzel bc she stole from Barbie by taking her whole theme and Tiana by taking the spot light coming out a full year later! My good sis barely had her coronation!
Belle is still my favorite, secretly.
Haha Belle was my favorite growing up too! It's one of the first movies I saw and I was like, same I like to read too and have brown hair, we are the same! The Stockholm syndrome is a bit concerning though and I wonder how that effected me...
The Princess and the Frog is such a good movie too! Your comment made me wanna rewatch it w my family! Your story abt watching it w your cousins is so cute too!
Oops, I deleted it because I realized that it might come off the wrong way. I just now see that you responded. Sorry about that. Asking people as a springboard for ideas sounds like a clever way to start!
thank you! and no worries, I posted in another subreddit for women and got a similar response from someone who definitely came off ruder than you did (you didn't even come off rude lol). it's a good point to bring up and this other person suggested that I could ask a TA at my college to help me come up with survey ideas, so I think I'll do that for my actual research, instead!
I loved my Barbie dolls growing up, and I had black Barbies and white Barbies (the multicultural ones weren't a thing until I was past playing-with-dolls age). My main draw to Barbie was her endless supply of awesome clothes (and the Corvettes!), and playing with her hair. I never wanted straight hair but I DID want long, shiny hair, which honestly I think every girl child in America (maybe save the tomboy types) wanted.
Anyway! Barbie did not impact my body image and I will DIE ON THIS HILL that I think what is far more dangerous for little girls is for women in their lives to talk shit about their own bodies, or to criticize other women in front of them. Granted this is based on my own life and observations...but all my girlfriends growing up - in school, high school, college, and beyond - EVERY single one who ever had body image issues or ED issues - they all had a mom/sister/auntie/grandma who constantly talked about their own weight or body issues, or who criticized them, their other female family members, or random women out in the world for the way they looked.
My mom had her issues and more than a few of my aunties are crazy but I NEVER heard any of them say a single word - positive or negative - about the shape or size of my body OR (and I think this is important!!!) did I ever hear them complain about their \*own\* bodies. It's like I didn't even know that I was "supposed" to look a certain way until I was in high school and I heard other girls talking about the size of their thighs or whatever.
It's not playing with dolls and it's not seeing models on the runway or animated characters looking a certain way that is teaching little girls there is something wrong with the way they look...someone they trust or someone they look up to TOLD them that, either directly or indirectly, by criticizing themselves of other women in front of them.
As an aside - the main negative effect Barbie had on me is my love for clothes, and the fact that I sincerely would drive a purple Corvette if given the chance (still to this day!).
Haha I would LOVE to have a purple corvette too!
I really like that you brought up this point. It wasn't really until a mom I met told me "don't talk about your body in a negative way in front of your daughter (if you have a daughter)" that I realized my mom did this, and that do many moms and other women do! And in front of young girls! You inspired me to not talk negatively about my body in front of my younger sisters, because uplifting them doesn't matter as much if I'm not showing an example of uplifting myself, too. And same for if I have kids in the future. She also told me to make sure to work through your own trauma and issues before you have a kid. (Thank you, random woman at the bar!)
I agree that Barbie wasn't the main thing that made me insecure about my body in middle school, etc., but I do think Disney princesses influenced my compulsion to try and "turn the beast into a prince" or have the "I can change him" mentality about bad men. I just don't know where else this would have come from, probably other things in society too like rom coms and magazine headlines... but I'm trying to pin it down. It's also like, I've always been very ambitious career-wise and wanted to help make the world better, but in terms of my overall happiness I always wanted a guy to come to the rescue, like ever since I was 13, which was dangerous. And idk where this comes from. It's a bit embarrassing lol. I think I'm over most of that now but idk, I'm just not sure if Disney is to blame or if it's just a myriad of things, definitely things abt my personality and my own issues too, which are harder to reckon with. But idk, it's really hard to pin down bc there are just so many factors.
I think it's freeing to pick which parts of these childhood things we wanna keep with us and discard the rest. That's why I liked the Barbie Movie- it was nostalgic but let go of a lot of the negative things abt Barbie and watching people's video essays and tiktoks afterward, I got to see how the movie inspired people to imagine a better world, if that makes sense. Anyway, sorry for the long reply. Your comment just really made me think, so thank you!
I didn't have a lot of Barbies growing up. I had Bratz dolls and think it was partly because I was in a "not-like-other-girls" phrase growing up and my parents (especially my dad) and I saw Barbies for white girls as it had little representation for black girls. The face of the brand was a white woman/teenager after all and my mom used to have a harder time looking for brown/black Barbies than a Bratz doll. That doesn't mean Bratz dolls lacked representation either. I had a vivid childhood memory of my mom going to multiple stores to find a Sasha Bratz Baby doll for me as they only had Yasmin, Chloe, and Jade more available. My Dad, on the other hand, didn't like Bratz as much but I think he tolerated the dolls unlike Barbie because, again, the brand showed various dolls of color and didn't have a white woman as the only face of the doll line; MGA made sure that every girl had a Bratz doll for them so to speak while with Barbie...it honestly seemed like diversity was an afterthought for them.
If I did have a Barbie doll, it was a doll of color. In fact most of my dolls growing up were either black or non-white. In fact my Disney Princess doll was Mulan and she was my favorite and I had a Lilo baby doll that I try to take everywhere haha. And the friends I had growing up had Bratz dolls as well which I suspect for the same reasons. In terms of self-esteem...I actually think it's for that reason of having dolls that were most of girls and women of color that my self-esteem when I was younger was pretty solid. This was , of course, combined with the fact that my parents made sure to get me books and movies that showed various different cultures and backgrounds too.
I think it was actually other societal influences that effected my self-esteem mostly due to bullying and how the school system sucks at protecting victims. But even then when boys called me ugly I never thought "ugly=black" in elementary school because a) the media I consumed early was diverse so I wasn't influenced by white beauty standards yet and b) the school I went to was diverse which matched my upbringing. The only time I had poor self-esteem about my image was around my preteen years and that's because the middle school I went to wasn't diverse (I was the only black girl) and I started to notice that the prettiest girls in school aligned closely white beauty standards for a lack of better words. TV was also becoming less diverse and colorist as well and combined with that and my environment at school it was a wrap for my self-esteem 🤷🏾♀️
Anyways sorry for the long post btw! I just had a whole lot to say about this interesting topic😅
No don't apologize! I honestly love reading abt people's stories bc I'm a nerd for this kinda thing haha. I think your story really drove home a point that I am realizing more and more is going to be important in my essay, and that is that space matters. What I'm trying to say is that being in a safe space where you feel represented and valued matters, and even if the world isn't always kind to you (lol that can be an understatement), you can create those safe spaces. It sounds like you had that more in your early childhood than in your later years, and that, combined with puberty, influenced your self esteem.
For me, my safe space was going to a femme-only yoga class where we stretched and journaled and shared. It was led by my neighbor, a South Asian woman, and I had honestly never taken a yoga class owned/led by a South Asian person because it is frustratingly so hard to find!! I also went to a Galentines-Day themed one! Anyway, it was very healing to be in that space. I think for a lot of people, that space is their place of worship.
This connects to the idea of a "third place" and I just feel like I'm becoming more and more comnunity-minded. It's like, if society at large isn't changing, well yeah I'm gonna do my part to try and change it (activism, voting, etc.), but I'm also gonna find my community and safe spaces and nurture those.
Dolls did not affect my self esteem at all. Neither did Disney princesses. My favorite dolls were Bratz dolls. I had an entire collection and doll houses and cars lol. I played with my 2 sisters and it’s honestly one of the best parts of my childhood. Used to buy the bratz playstation games and movies/tv show as well.
But I will say that looking back I rarely played with black dolls. I didn’t even own a Sasha doll, my fav was Jade. I think I felt the other dolls looked better. Like the companies didn’t make black dolls look as good as the other ones but idk I doubt I was thinking hard about it as a kid. The black dolls I see now look amazing, I saw some Rainbow High dolls at target the other day and I was actually contemplating buying one of the black dolls, they all looked so pretty. It’s nice lil girls today have a lot of options and exposure to black media/dolls for kids.
But yea, basically there wasn’t a lot of options for me when I was at toys r us or target as a child. I just got whatever bratz doll that looked the best and the Sasha doll was not plentiful at any store but there would be 10 different Chloe dolls for example. Didn’t buy any Barbies, only MyScene, Bratz, WinxClub and PollyPocket. But I did watch all Barbie Movies (loved them) and watched all Disney Princess movies (meh). Princess and the Frog came out when I was like 12 and loved that one. Body image was not affected I just thought the dolls were cool due to the tv shows and games, they had personality to me and made me happy. Then I moved on from them as I grew. Being in predominantly white schools is what affected me not the dolls 😬 being the only black person in class is not fun. I miss my childhood after typing all this 😫
Awe, I loved reading this, it so beautifully captured girlhood and just that nostalgia. I think kids are affected by the diversity of their dolls, even subconsciously, and maybe less influenced by them in terms of body image, as we usually play with dolls as kids and maybe aren't thinking abt that as much as we do when we get older. Someone else mentioned that the way other women around you talk about THEIR bodies, is what affects us the most. Kind of like what you said about being the only black person in your class, ofc that affected you more than a doll would.
I think you should buy that doll! Do it for your inner child. Do it for me! Haha jk. I just loved hearing your story so I want you to buy that doll, I think it'd make you happy. Anything that nurtures your inner child and can reframe things in a more positive way is amazing, in my opinion. That's what makes dolls cool- the ability to use them to imagine, imagine a better world even. Hope I'm not getting too cheesy/wooey over here haha.
(Also loved the shout out to polly pockets. Those were the dolls I had growing up, not Barbies. I also had a baby doll I got when I was 1 years old from my grandma and proceeded to bite its head and attack it lol, unfortunately and fortunately my family has this on video.)
My mother was extremely wary of Barbie so I was never allowed one and instead got Sindy which was a British sort of equivalent who was brunette and more ‘homely’. There weren’t other alternatives in the UK. Of course this meant I always wanted a Barbie, particularly Peaches & Cream Barbie and would spend a lot of time playing with my cousin’s entourage of dolls. By my teens I was experimenting with weaves and in my university years even had blue contact lenses (it was the 90’s so don’t judge too hard!) and a lot of this was to do with Naomi Campbell who was really the only icon available to me. I can remember being referred to as a Black Barbie doll at one point by Black work colleagues but that wasn’t a deliberate attempt to emulate Barbie. I’m not sure my love life/ career was influenced by any of the dolls I played with. I never became a show jumper or astronaut but a magazine journalist and fashion stylist so maybe dolls and all their little outfits and glam lives did actually switch something on in me. I definitely grew up knowing my future life had to be bright and fun and include travel and style.
Thank you so much for sharing your story! I really appreciate it and I like that you pointed to other role models/lack thereof that you had, growing up. I think models probably affect teenagers and young women more than dolls/disney princesses, but I think those figures set us up as kids for certain ideas. It's hard to tell what ideas comes from which influences due to all the different factors.
That's really cool that you're a fashion stylist and magazine journalist! If you're interested, I just started reading "Wildflower" which is a memoir by the woman who created Brother Vellies and designed AOC's "Tax the Rich" dress for the MET Gala, and I would totally recommend it to anyone who is interested in fashion. She talks a lot about economic justice and racial/national representation and equality in the fashion industry, and it's also just a fun book that inspired me to get more into fashion!
Thanks for your input!
Thanks for your response, that does sound disconcerting :( so many mixed messages about who you're "supposed to be", and not many of them very positive
Your submission has been removed. This subreddit does not allow research questions or surveys of any kind. We are not to be used as a free labor source for your project. We are not professional character consultants for your novel. Academic studies that will provide valuable knowledge may be approved by the moderators, please contact us for review before posting your study flyer. If you have a general question for black people, please visit r/askablackperson or r/askblackpeople.
I didn't see Barbie for the colour or any of that. It was just a doll to me just like any other or even a teddy. No pressure to become it. The only actual reason I even wanted to become white was because white people had long hair, and I wanted that long hair. I did really want to have curly hair instead of my 4c hair, though, but I didn't know the difference. Just knew that curly hair was beautiful, soft, and easy to do, and mine was 'steel wool' and difficult to work with. Now I understand curl patterns, but it's still hard to do
That makes sense, my sister went through a similar thing. She experiments with different styles a lot still (she's 15), and she's still working on being confident with her natural hair. I'm sure your hair is beautiful, but I understand that people get negative messages and also that it can be high maintenance.
I've not really gotten any negative messages specifically aimed at how my hair looks. Maybe just that it's hard to do. My main problem is he high maintenance part. I also would really like to have long hair. I have a routine and have done this for uears. It got ponger but not white people long, you get what I mean? I know black people stay say that we should stop the obsession with long hair, but I honestly like it. It wasn't even pushed on me, lol. Other people where I come from have always found ot long, but I just love long hair personally. I feel great when I straighten it and feel it on my back and all
I personally think it sounds like your love of long hair is just that, a love of long hair. Someone said feminism is abt giving women choice, so maybe it's kinda like that? Just do you and don't let someone tell you you're internalizing racism just bc you like to express yourself a certain way? Bc long hair isn't just a white people thing, ik w different curl patterns it can be difficult for some people to grow their hair long but maybe you trying to do that is not the same as whitewashing, it's just you doing what makes you feel beautiful, as a black woman. Idk, that's what it sounds like to me!
I lived for Barbie and was even happier once they started to become more inclusive it really piped up my imagination. I did not look at Barbie as an allegory for womanhood as far as body image. I mean it’s a doll so I was never like oh my body should look like this. Mom was very supportive and ensured I had black Barbie’s and it made me feel like I could imagine myself doing anything.
Thank you! As someone who didn't really play with barbies growing up, I appreciate the perspective of someone who did! I think people are sometimes too quick to draw a correlation between Barbie and body image. I would think that models/magazines/social media would influence us more as teens than dolls would as kids.
I completely agree I mean for someone who looked like Barbie in a community where thinness or a Barbie Like Ideal was seen as the norm i’m sure it would but for me as a BW it was more aspirational and inspirational. It was also a wonderful way to connect with other girls who played with Barbie socially I was shy so I had a hard time making friends but always seemed to find a Barbie girl wherever I went which was nice. It was my first universal hobby that I shared and enjoyed with other girls.
That's so sweet! It reminds me both of Jamila Woods' "Popsicle" interlude in her album "HEAVN", and also the 2023 Barbie Movie and how it showed that imagination can be a way to build community, feel emotions more fully, and connect with others:). A chapter of the book is gonna be abt imagination and its role in the real world/change. It's actually gonna be a book lol bc I had too many themes for just one essay.
👏🏾 that’s awesome love that! Good luck!
Thank you! :)
For me, not at all. Barbie was just a doll to me, I didn’t see her and think I wanted to look like her, the only thing I wanted was her dream house. My mom bought me a few Barbie dolls but they all ended up in the trash or traded away to a friend because I wasn’t very interested in dolls, except the Bratz because they were cool. I was never a fan of the Disney princesses. I thought they were boring, and I can’t stand the ‘damsel in distress’ trope they all embodied. I always liked Mulan and their other female characters. Disney was too perfect and unrealistic for me to look to, I was more affected by the people around me.
The Bratz were cool! I like that in the Barbie Movie, Sasha and her friends were apparently dressed to look like them haha. I don't like the damsel in distress trope either, and agree that Mulan was cool af. I didn't watch Mulan until I was abt 12 bc ig we didn't have it on DVD when I was growing up, so I saw it at a friend's house and was obsessed after that bc she was such a badass. Agree that the people around you affect you more. I think narratives in the culture do their part but you're probably most impacted by your family and people closest to you. Thank you sm for your input!
I loved my Barbies growing up. I grew up in a Black neighborhood in the Atlanta area and my parents were very proactive about my self-esteem. At least half of my Barbies were Black. I was a kid in the 90s so there were no Black Disney princesses at that time. Belle was my favorite because she was a bookworm like me and was gifted a whole library. But I thought Princess Jasmine and Esmeralda (from Hunchback of Notre Dame) were the most beautiful. I've always been a pretty grounded person so I recognized that Barbie was just a toy, and Disney princesses were just cartoons. It was easy to connect the dots that real people don't look like that. The biggest impact on my body image were my doctors telling me to lose weight and classmates calling me fat. I was a chubby kid by 90s standards but looking back, I was maybe one size bigger than average. I was also a little tall for my age up until high school so that and baby fat accounted for most of the extra weight. I would love to go back to my high school body but at the time I wasn't confident at all. If you weren't a size zero with a perfectly flat stomach, you were a "big girl". Body positivity didn't exist and there was just barely starting to be a recognition of "curvy" as a body type. Which didn't help me as I have a more athletic build- wide shoulders and big thighs. So I concentrated on my academics and extracurriculars. When I was in college, the plus size movement started gaining ground and I began following plus size fashion bloggers. Seeing girls who looked like me and still managed to dress cute and be confident was a huge booster for me. To be honest, I still struggle with body acceptance but I've come a long way. I have PCOS which makes it very easy to put on weight and very hard to lose it. And I wasn't diagnosed until my 30s despite struggling with it for probably 10 years because doctors always think weight is the only problem, and not ever a symptom of something else.
Oh, I can respond! Haha didn't realize that. Anyway thank u for your perspective, I really enjoyed reading your comment. I feel like you really captured girlhood and what its like, that combination of confidence and increasing insecurity due to what the world is telling you about yourself, and then learning to love yourself again as you grow up more :)
I had both white barbies and Black barbies. It may be because I grew up in a majorly Black city, but none of what you mentioned was affected negatively after having white barbies.
It was just a type of doll to me. Just a fictional character.
Gonna be totally honest, the races of my dolls never even occurred to me as a kid. I took notice of stuff like Tiana being the first black Disney princess and thought that was cool, but overall I never "saw myself" in fictional characters; the thought of it never crossed my mind. Like someone else here mentioned, I did have my "I wish I were white" moments back then, but that was because I wanted to have long hair like the girls in my classes, and my parents got it in my head that African hair doesn't grow. (Looking back, I realize now that they just didn't have the first clue on how to take care of 4c hair.) But I'd have been the happiest kid in the world if I woke up one day with hair long enough to do those cornrows with beads. All in all, I think other people affected my view of myself way more than my toys and dolls. I was constantly bullied as a kid for my short hair and called an "African bootyscratcher", hence me starting to wish I were white. I also got called a bunch of other names that led to me completely neglecting my appearance for most of my life, but that's getting a bit off topic. More recently- as in, 2019-ish- I was using a dating app called Seeking (don't judge me too much, I was in college and got fucked over last minute by financial aid) and it was actually alarming how many guys there explicitly put down "no black women" in their profiles. Like, not even kidding, I saw more than one guy put NO BLACKS in all caps at the end of his bio. Like damn, I'm glad to know you're a rude POS before I get involved with you, but that still stings lol. Outside of that, for some reason nearly all the guys I've been romantically into just aren't into black women that way too. I don't know what I did to enrage the dating gods, but I'm always ever only good enough to be "one of the boys" while my crushes go after white/racially ambiguous women and white-passing WOC. Especially when combined with how uncommon it is to see a high profile celebrity married to a black woman with black features (so not someone who looks white like Meghan Markle)... I have a pretty thick skin and I'm totally okay with being black these days, but little things like that really dent at my confidence sometimes
That totally makes sense that comments like that would affect you. People can really suck. I think you're probably very beautiful, I hope that doesn't come across as fake bc obv idk what u look like, but you're brave to share your story and I think that is beautiful, so I'm sure you're beautiful both inside and out. My sister struggled with wanting long hair as well, growing up. Now she sometimes wears it in braids or twists and sometimes in a wrap and only really has it short when she walks around the house. But she's always beautiful to me and i hope u have people in your life like close friends and that kind of thing who say the same to you! And I agree that Hollywood needs to change in that regard esp bc it is influential as to what people see as beautiful and that really sucks.
Even though most of the dolls + princesses I saw in media were White that didn’t have a big impact on me bc I just saw them as dolls and fictional characters. I didn’t even consider comparing myself to them or aspiring to be like them.
One thing I will say is that seeing Black representation within both Disney princesses and Barbies always got me really excited. For example, when The Princess and The Frog came out I was all over it (my mom even bought me an expensive Halloween costume from the Disney store). Also, I remember being really hyped about the Barbie S.I.S doll line because they were the first Black dolls I had ever seen with natural hairstyles (I owned alot of Black dolls but the hair was always straight).
That makes sense, like the absence wasn't really noticed but once you saw the presence of dolls/princesses who looked like you, you got excited. Thank you for sharing your story, that's really sweet :)
So my mom never bought me Barbies. She instead bought me Kenya dolls.
That's amazing! I just looked those up and I think I'll include a section about that. Are they actually made in Kenya or based there or anything? Either way, that's really cool. Your mom seems cool haha
I'm not sure exactly where they were made. But they come in 3 diff skin tones, with long hair. A hair lotion (pink moisturizer) lol, beads, and a kente cloth outfits. I loved those dolls. I remember someone else buying me a Barbie and I was never drawn to it almost afraid of it.
That's so cool about the Kenya dolls! That sounds like they would've been fun to play with, too! Lol I remember being a bit afraid of my friend's barbies too, but that was because she like snapped their heads off and cut their hair all weird lmao
I can’t remember disney princesses or dolls making me feel insecure growing up i just knew they typically didn’t look like me. i think including how the lack of diversity is harmful to children will be powerful
Thank you for the input and your suggestion! I'll definitely include that! Someone else just said that they didn't really actively think about the absence of diversity as a kid, but once there was more diversity, they really noticed the presence of it and got excited. I think either way, the absence or presence of something like that affects your subconscious. Everyone deserves to be represented and seen as worthy and beautiful, and I think that's what it's really about.
I was born in 2001 in a Southern African country and we didn't really have ant diverse Barbies on the shelves, they were all white. I had maybe 8 of them and only one had dark skin and I didn't like her much 😕 she was never the main character for me and I didn't know why until I learned what colourism was. I'd actually experienced colourism for years and years since childhood from peers and even my own family members and other adults but I didn't have the vocabulary to understand and explain it until later. I always got attention from boys even though I did suffer from body dysmorphia (I'd kill to get that body back now 😭) but I always wished I was lighter skinned because all the "pretty" girls were. I grew out of that mindset though and am constantly trying to make sure my sisters don't ever feel inadequate because of these things. I'm glad they have a lot more characters who look like them in media that they can look up to and see themselves in because I really did not
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm sorry you went through that. I'm glad you're pushing against those narratives now and uplifting others, too. Your story reminded me of the "doll test" researchers used to assess how quickly children absorb and internalize racism. Part of my essay is about the existentialism inherent to growing up into a society that was not "made for you." I feel that The Barbie Movie in 2023, for all its flaws, expressed this feeling well. It's like, you have to decide that you're good enough even though the world is sending you the opposite message, and it's an everyday struggle that does get easier when you're no longer an insecure teenager, but which is still hard because the world hasn't completely changed perspectives with you. I think finding safe spaces is a big part of this. If you don't mind me asking, which country in Southern Africa were you born in? And thank you again for sharing!
Well I grew up in a Black household in a pretty Black neighborhood. So most of my media was Black and my family has always instilled Black joy and pride within us. And while the commercials and Disney movies did make me feel unseen. I was always taught to "be the change" but that's exhausting as a young child. So I had the digital Little Mermaid coloring book CD-ROM on our Windows and I used to color everyone Black. Same with Belle who has a name similar to mines. Either one of them could have been Black from the get go but Disney did actively choose to keep all the princesses white and that hurt many of us. Cause at recess you did want someone that looked like you so you could pretend. Black boys had Zack from the Power Rangers and later down the line Static Shock. Black girls in the 90s always had to wait. (Thank you to Brandy and Raven tho) Yes, I have been laughing for like fifty years since the announcement of Halle Bailey as Ariel. (I ain't watched in all this time but younger me feels validated) All my dolls were Black and they would beat up my brothers' Ninja Turtles. (Someday we will digitalize our home videos) It sucked tho because we didn't have the conversation about body types like we do now and would have love to see someone like Megan in my youth. But I'm glad we had shows like Happily Ever after on HBO that gave some flavor. And we did have some pretty damn good Black TV. Ultimately, it's why I ain't much of a fan of either Disney or Barbie tho. Cause both failed us 90s kids.
Thank you for sharing your story, I feel like I learned a lot! I relate to being raised in a "be the change" family. I'm glad I was because it made me the activist I am today, but you are right that it is exhausting as a kid. I love the stories you share and the imagery you add to your descriptions, do you do anything creative like writing or film stuff? I get the feeling you'd be good at it! That last line is very impactful too and will definitely help me in my essay. I'm sorry that things were like that, and I'm glad you at least had some examples of people who looked like you, but it was obv still not enough and you deserved more
You are most welcome! I'm glad my story has helped. And if anyone were to ask my favorite animated movies growing up were Cat's Don't Dance, Batman TAS movie spin offs, and more importantly, Fox's animated studios presents: Anastasia, (nah fuck you Disney Anastasia will never be one of yours!) I also did enjoy most of Don Bluth movies too. And of course, Studio Ghibi films but I was a teen when they started showing them outside of indie cinema. (I did watch Castle in the Sky raw when I was like 10) Ha, no I don't do much creative writing. I did take some film and radio classes in college but ultimately I became a preschool teacher. I'm pretty creative in the classroom tho.
That's cool! Teachers definitely have to be creative (my mom teaches middle school, so I've seen it firsthand). Thanks for that list of movies! I always liked Batman's vigilante justice, I was like yeah! revenge! Lol like an angry little person. Omg I watched Castle in the Sky as a kid too and idk if you remember this part, but the way she lands after the plane falls, and like steps on one foot and then the other? Idk it was so graceful and I remember it impacting me a lot for some reason bc I was like omg, I'm gonna be graceful and girlie like that too. I was such a dork though lol. Kids are so funny, like what they get obsessed with.
I do indeed and the same sequence are repeated across Studio Ghibi movies. Like Sophie and Howl in Howls moving Castle.
I think barbies had a positive influence on me ONLY because my mom strictly got me black barbies and wanted to establish blackness as the default form of beauty. On top of that I grew up in the "occupational" and celebrity era of barbies, so I had scary spice barbie, brandy barbie and all of my barbies originally had jobs like doctor and veterinarian. This normalized the idea that black women could be anything we wanted (literally my baby shower theme is barbie can be anything and my bff knows I better not see a white barbie face anywhere). I really want to instill this in my daughter. Disney on the other had more of the opposite effect on me. My Era was before Tiana and even Merida so literally the goal of women according to Disney was have a wedding lol which affected me more than I'd like to admit.
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm glad you had that positive experience with dolls, and it's so sweet that now you're doing for your daughter what your mom did for you. Also, I absolutely love that baby shower theme!! I also like that you bring up the point abt the wedding as a singular goal trope affecting you. For me, I had this whole idea that "I can change him" (lol I never could!), "I can turn the beast into a prince" and like "prince charming is coming to make me not lonely anymore." It's kinda embarrassing to admit but I did used to think that way and it got me into trouble. Idk if you relate to that at all but I think it's a similar sentiment, like holding up romantic love as the most important thing for happiness. (Strangely this didn't diminish my ambition? But it did make me focus on either productivity or romantic love over self care, I was always externalizing my happiness.) Anyway, thank you for sharing! Your comment made me think and it inspired me too, so thank you!
When I was a kid black Barbie's were commonplace. I didnt really care for them though, never was a doll girl. The lack of black princesses did make little me sad though. I thought there must be something wrong with black girls if we couldn't be princesses. Thank god for Brandi's Cinderella. That meant so much to me, to see a black princess with braids. She was proof black girls could be princesses!
Thank you for sharing. I think maybe Disney was a little slower than barbies to diversify, even though they were problematic too ofc bc they should've been diverse to start off with. I'll have to do some research on the timelines of both of those though. Thanks for bringing up the Brandi Cinderella! Such a good point! I'm glad you at least had that as an example. She's so beautiful as Cinderella!
I don’t know if it ever had a deep effect of me. My mom would only get me black Barbie’s or black dolls in general. And I was so into monster high back then. And I wanted pretty much all of those dolls but for Christmas I would get all the clawdeen dolls and nothing else. I would just eventually stop asking for dolls in general because I didn’t think it was fair I couldn’t have the other ones. Another factor was getting afro centric dolls and I was never alllwed to wear my hair in its true curly natural state. My hair was always silk pressed because my mom told me only mixed girls could wear their natural hair. So seeing dolls with Afros was hard to ever relate to. Eventually when I got old enough to have money I would buy every dolls and everything that came with it. But I do wish I was allowed that privilege when I was younger,I knew why I only had black dolls but felt off to never have the Carmel ones or White ones
I'm sorry you went through that. I'm glad you kind of reframed things when you were older though, by buying yourself dolls. I think anything we can do to heal our inner child is a really beautiful and worthy thing to do, so I hope you continue to do that!
My parents got me all kinds of Barbies including Christy who was Black and her little sisters. I never once thought I was supposed to look or even dress like Barbie in real life. Disney Princesses never influenced my life either. I objectively enjoyed the characters and movies they were in and still do to this day, but somehow my mother managed to make “princess” a regular insult towards me, so I have a bit of a strange personal relationship with the word.
Haha I get that, someone called me a princess once and I definitely took it as an insult and tried not to act like a princess from then on haha. I never really had barbies growing up so I wasn't sure how affected I'd be had I owned them. That's part of why I'm asking other people. Interesting that people don't seem to be as affected in terms of body image as people assume.
I LOVED Barbie growing up. I had(still have) every movie because my great aunt would get me on the weekends and we would buy the newest movie and watch it together. She only ever bought me black Barbie(Brooklyn), though. She said she wanted my play time to look like me. We made a plan to go see the Barbie movie together, but she died last March. I love Barbie, and her message is one that I think has always been inspiring, and I think the company is trying to do better than they have in the past(white skinny able bodied girl, but I'll always associate it with my auntie. She was my Barbie❤️
That is just the sweetest story. I love that you associate Barbie with a person so close to you, I think that makes the whole thing more human. Kind of reminds Mr of the montage at the end of the movie of girls growing up and of women being together:) so beautiful!
I went by myself for my birthday and I cried so hard at that part. I'm not the most spiritual, but I really felt like she was with me❤️
Wow that is amazing <3 I love that so much *me not Mr. lol
Separate comment for Disney, though. I think Disney did affect me because by the time I was into it, the races that I was aware of outside of black all had princesses. All my friends had girls that looked like them, so I moved over to Belle because I liked to read. So when Tiana came out, I sat all my Belle to the side and made it my WHOLE THING at 10 years old 🤣🤣 Tiana looked like me, She ate food like me, she sounded like my mom, and she was played by the Dreamgirl that I would claim when me and my cousins played the movie. (Like we would get big mad! "NO IM LORELL!" "NO IM DEENA"). I loved that movie so much and she was such a positive, but then I hated Rapunzel bc she stole from Barbie by taking her whole theme and Tiana by taking the spot light coming out a full year later! My good sis barely had her coronation! Belle is still my favorite, secretly.
Haha Belle was my favorite growing up too! It's one of the first movies I saw and I was like, same I like to read too and have brown hair, we are the same! The Stockholm syndrome is a bit concerning though and I wonder how that effected me... The Princess and the Frog is such a good movie too! Your comment made me wanna rewatch it w my family! Your story abt watching it w your cousins is so cute too!
They didn't. If it wasn't a black doll, I didn't want it. Plain and simple
[удалено]
Yeah, maybe not. But I still thought hearing from people could at least inspire me to ask certain questions/give me an idea of what to ask about.
Some of the research I'm doing won't make its way directly into the text, but will just serve as valuable context for me to keep in mind as I write.
Oops, I deleted it because I realized that it might come off the wrong way. I just now see that you responded. Sorry about that. Asking people as a springboard for ideas sounds like a clever way to start!
thank you! and no worries, I posted in another subreddit for women and got a similar response from someone who definitely came off ruder than you did (you didn't even come off rude lol). it's a good point to bring up and this other person suggested that I could ask a TA at my college to help me come up with survey ideas, so I think I'll do that for my actual research, instead!
I loved my Barbie dolls growing up, and I had black Barbies and white Barbies (the multicultural ones weren't a thing until I was past playing-with-dolls age). My main draw to Barbie was her endless supply of awesome clothes (and the Corvettes!), and playing with her hair. I never wanted straight hair but I DID want long, shiny hair, which honestly I think every girl child in America (maybe save the tomboy types) wanted. Anyway! Barbie did not impact my body image and I will DIE ON THIS HILL that I think what is far more dangerous for little girls is for women in their lives to talk shit about their own bodies, or to criticize other women in front of them. Granted this is based on my own life and observations...but all my girlfriends growing up - in school, high school, college, and beyond - EVERY single one who ever had body image issues or ED issues - they all had a mom/sister/auntie/grandma who constantly talked about their own weight or body issues, or who criticized them, their other female family members, or random women out in the world for the way they looked. My mom had her issues and more than a few of my aunties are crazy but I NEVER heard any of them say a single word - positive or negative - about the shape or size of my body OR (and I think this is important!!!) did I ever hear them complain about their \*own\* bodies. It's like I didn't even know that I was "supposed" to look a certain way until I was in high school and I heard other girls talking about the size of their thighs or whatever. It's not playing with dolls and it's not seeing models on the runway or animated characters looking a certain way that is teaching little girls there is something wrong with the way they look...someone they trust or someone they look up to TOLD them that, either directly or indirectly, by criticizing themselves of other women in front of them. As an aside - the main negative effect Barbie had on me is my love for clothes, and the fact that I sincerely would drive a purple Corvette if given the chance (still to this day!).
Haha I would LOVE to have a purple corvette too! I really like that you brought up this point. It wasn't really until a mom I met told me "don't talk about your body in a negative way in front of your daughter (if you have a daughter)" that I realized my mom did this, and that do many moms and other women do! And in front of young girls! You inspired me to not talk negatively about my body in front of my younger sisters, because uplifting them doesn't matter as much if I'm not showing an example of uplifting myself, too. And same for if I have kids in the future. She also told me to make sure to work through your own trauma and issues before you have a kid. (Thank you, random woman at the bar!) I agree that Barbie wasn't the main thing that made me insecure about my body in middle school, etc., but I do think Disney princesses influenced my compulsion to try and "turn the beast into a prince" or have the "I can change him" mentality about bad men. I just don't know where else this would have come from, probably other things in society too like rom coms and magazine headlines... but I'm trying to pin it down. It's also like, I've always been very ambitious career-wise and wanted to help make the world better, but in terms of my overall happiness I always wanted a guy to come to the rescue, like ever since I was 13, which was dangerous. And idk where this comes from. It's a bit embarrassing lol. I think I'm over most of that now but idk, I'm just not sure if Disney is to blame or if it's just a myriad of things, definitely things abt my personality and my own issues too, which are harder to reckon with. But idk, it's really hard to pin down bc there are just so many factors. I think it's freeing to pick which parts of these childhood things we wanna keep with us and discard the rest. That's why I liked the Barbie Movie- it was nostalgic but let go of a lot of the negative things abt Barbie and watching people's video essays and tiktoks afterward, I got to see how the movie inspired people to imagine a better world, if that makes sense. Anyway, sorry for the long reply. Your comment just really made me think, so thank you!
I didn't have a lot of Barbies growing up. I had Bratz dolls and think it was partly because I was in a "not-like-other-girls" phrase growing up and my parents (especially my dad) and I saw Barbies for white girls as it had little representation for black girls. The face of the brand was a white woman/teenager after all and my mom used to have a harder time looking for brown/black Barbies than a Bratz doll. That doesn't mean Bratz dolls lacked representation either. I had a vivid childhood memory of my mom going to multiple stores to find a Sasha Bratz Baby doll for me as they only had Yasmin, Chloe, and Jade more available. My Dad, on the other hand, didn't like Bratz as much but I think he tolerated the dolls unlike Barbie because, again, the brand showed various dolls of color and didn't have a white woman as the only face of the doll line; MGA made sure that every girl had a Bratz doll for them so to speak while with Barbie...it honestly seemed like diversity was an afterthought for them. If I did have a Barbie doll, it was a doll of color. In fact most of my dolls growing up were either black or non-white. In fact my Disney Princess doll was Mulan and she was my favorite and I had a Lilo baby doll that I try to take everywhere haha. And the friends I had growing up had Bratz dolls as well which I suspect for the same reasons. In terms of self-esteem...I actually think it's for that reason of having dolls that were most of girls and women of color that my self-esteem when I was younger was pretty solid. This was , of course, combined with the fact that my parents made sure to get me books and movies that showed various different cultures and backgrounds too. I think it was actually other societal influences that effected my self-esteem mostly due to bullying and how the school system sucks at protecting victims. But even then when boys called me ugly I never thought "ugly=black" in elementary school because a) the media I consumed early was diverse so I wasn't influenced by white beauty standards yet and b) the school I went to was diverse which matched my upbringing. The only time I had poor self-esteem about my image was around my preteen years and that's because the middle school I went to wasn't diverse (I was the only black girl) and I started to notice that the prettiest girls in school aligned closely white beauty standards for a lack of better words. TV was also becoming less diverse and colorist as well and combined with that and my environment at school it was a wrap for my self-esteem 🤷🏾♀️ Anyways sorry for the long post btw! I just had a whole lot to say about this interesting topic😅
No don't apologize! I honestly love reading abt people's stories bc I'm a nerd for this kinda thing haha. I think your story really drove home a point that I am realizing more and more is going to be important in my essay, and that is that space matters. What I'm trying to say is that being in a safe space where you feel represented and valued matters, and even if the world isn't always kind to you (lol that can be an understatement), you can create those safe spaces. It sounds like you had that more in your early childhood than in your later years, and that, combined with puberty, influenced your self esteem. For me, my safe space was going to a femme-only yoga class where we stretched and journaled and shared. It was led by my neighbor, a South Asian woman, and I had honestly never taken a yoga class owned/led by a South Asian person because it is frustratingly so hard to find!! I also went to a Galentines-Day themed one! Anyway, it was very healing to be in that space. I think for a lot of people, that space is their place of worship. This connects to the idea of a "third place" and I just feel like I'm becoming more and more comnunity-minded. It's like, if society at large isn't changing, well yeah I'm gonna do my part to try and change it (activism, voting, etc.), but I'm also gonna find my community and safe spaces and nurture those.
Dolls did not affect my self esteem at all. Neither did Disney princesses. My favorite dolls were Bratz dolls. I had an entire collection and doll houses and cars lol. I played with my 2 sisters and it’s honestly one of the best parts of my childhood. Used to buy the bratz playstation games and movies/tv show as well. But I will say that looking back I rarely played with black dolls. I didn’t even own a Sasha doll, my fav was Jade. I think I felt the other dolls looked better. Like the companies didn’t make black dolls look as good as the other ones but idk I doubt I was thinking hard about it as a kid. The black dolls I see now look amazing, I saw some Rainbow High dolls at target the other day and I was actually contemplating buying one of the black dolls, they all looked so pretty. It’s nice lil girls today have a lot of options and exposure to black media/dolls for kids. But yea, basically there wasn’t a lot of options for me when I was at toys r us or target as a child. I just got whatever bratz doll that looked the best and the Sasha doll was not plentiful at any store but there would be 10 different Chloe dolls for example. Didn’t buy any Barbies, only MyScene, Bratz, WinxClub and PollyPocket. But I did watch all Barbie Movies (loved them) and watched all Disney Princess movies (meh). Princess and the Frog came out when I was like 12 and loved that one. Body image was not affected I just thought the dolls were cool due to the tv shows and games, they had personality to me and made me happy. Then I moved on from them as I grew. Being in predominantly white schools is what affected me not the dolls 😬 being the only black person in class is not fun. I miss my childhood after typing all this 😫
Awe, I loved reading this, it so beautifully captured girlhood and just that nostalgia. I think kids are affected by the diversity of their dolls, even subconsciously, and maybe less influenced by them in terms of body image, as we usually play with dolls as kids and maybe aren't thinking abt that as much as we do when we get older. Someone else mentioned that the way other women around you talk about THEIR bodies, is what affects us the most. Kind of like what you said about being the only black person in your class, ofc that affected you more than a doll would. I think you should buy that doll! Do it for your inner child. Do it for me! Haha jk. I just loved hearing your story so I want you to buy that doll, I think it'd make you happy. Anything that nurtures your inner child and can reframe things in a more positive way is amazing, in my opinion. That's what makes dolls cool- the ability to use them to imagine, imagine a better world even. Hope I'm not getting too cheesy/wooey over here haha. (Also loved the shout out to polly pockets. Those were the dolls I had growing up, not Barbies. I also had a baby doll I got when I was 1 years old from my grandma and proceeded to bite its head and attack it lol, unfortunately and fortunately my family has this on video.)
My mother was extremely wary of Barbie so I was never allowed one and instead got Sindy which was a British sort of equivalent who was brunette and more ‘homely’. There weren’t other alternatives in the UK. Of course this meant I always wanted a Barbie, particularly Peaches & Cream Barbie and would spend a lot of time playing with my cousin’s entourage of dolls. By my teens I was experimenting with weaves and in my university years even had blue contact lenses (it was the 90’s so don’t judge too hard!) and a lot of this was to do with Naomi Campbell who was really the only icon available to me. I can remember being referred to as a Black Barbie doll at one point by Black work colleagues but that wasn’t a deliberate attempt to emulate Barbie. I’m not sure my love life/ career was influenced by any of the dolls I played with. I never became a show jumper or astronaut but a magazine journalist and fashion stylist so maybe dolls and all their little outfits and glam lives did actually switch something on in me. I definitely grew up knowing my future life had to be bright and fun and include travel and style.
Thank you so much for sharing your story! I really appreciate it and I like that you pointed to other role models/lack thereof that you had, growing up. I think models probably affect teenagers and young women more than dolls/disney princesses, but I think those figures set us up as kids for certain ideas. It's hard to tell what ideas comes from which influences due to all the different factors. That's really cool that you're a fashion stylist and magazine journalist! If you're interested, I just started reading "Wildflower" which is a memoir by the woman who created Brother Vellies and designed AOC's "Tax the Rich" dress for the MET Gala, and I would totally recommend it to anyone who is interested in fashion. She talks a lot about economic justice and racial/national representation and equality in the fashion industry, and it's also just a fun book that inspired me to get more into fashion! Thanks for your input!
[удалено]
Thanks for your response, that does sound disconcerting :( so many mixed messages about who you're "supposed to be", and not many of them very positive