Vol.

14: e219-e224, December 2009

ORIGINAL
RESEARCH
PAPER

Barbie at 50: Maligned but benign?

J. Worobey
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

ABSTRACT. OBJECTIVE: Barbie, the toy fashion doll, has been subjected to extensive
speculation but little empirical investigation as to whether her thin persona exerts a negative
influence on the self-image of young girls. The present study was conducted to examine the
impact of childhood Barbie play versus other factors on self-image and dieting behaviors of
young women. METHOD: A survey was completed by 254 undergraduate women that
included questions about childhood Barbie play, family characteristics, satisfaction with their
own appearance, and eating behaviors. RESULTS: Neither age of acquisition or number of
Barbies owned had a significant impact on self-evaluations of appearance or on dieting
behavior. The strongest predictor of dieting behavior was the womens recollection of how
much physical appearance was valued by her family of origin members.
(Eating Weight Disord. 14: e219-e224, 2009). 2009, Editrice Kurtis

Key words:
Barbie dolls, eating attitudes,
body image.
Correspondence to:
John Worobey, PhD,
Department of Nutritional
Sciences, Rutgers University,
Davison Hall,
26 Nichol Avenue,
New Brunswick,
NJ 08901-2882, USA.
E-mail:
worobey@rci.rutgers.edu
Received: July 10, 2009
Accepted: September 28, 2009

Few toys stir as much of an emotional

reaction as does BarbieTM the iconic doll
that celebrated her 50th birthday this year.
Reviled by feminists but revered by legions
of adult female fans, she remains the number one doll property in the US despite the
ever changing landscape seen since the
1960s in family values, multiculturalism,
race relations, and economics. Even among
girls, reports suggest ambivalence as to
whether Barbie is loved, loathed, or merely
tolerated as a plaything that they will
almost inevitably receive if not asked for
themselves. With 1.5 million dolls sold
across the globe each week, two of these
dolls are sold every second (1). Mattel, Inc.
(2), her manufacturer, estimates that 90% of
US girls ages 3-10 own at least one Barbie
doll, and if they have one, they likely have at
least seven more (3). Add to this the
approximately 18 million registered users
worldwide on BarbieGirls.com, and one
might conclude that Barbie is universally
loved, coveted, and collected. Yet despite
her evident popularity, some have drawn
attention to a dark side of Barbie play,
namely the torture and mutilation that some
dolls undergo (4), as well as the rejection of
Barbie as being not cool for girls older
than 7 (5).
Apart from her pervasiveness, however,
is the issue of Barbie and her posited effects
on the developing self-image of young girls.
Scores of essays in the feminist literature
take the stance that Barbie exerts a negative
influence on body image and self-esteem (6,
7). Indeed, using Barbie as a keyword, the

Womens Studies International database

reveals 235 published items, predominantly
essays, chapters, or books and their
reviews, the majority of which criticize her
for encouraging an overemphasis on outward appearance. A more telling statistic
perhaps, is the approximately 87,300 links
to essays and postings that result when the
words Barbie and eating disorders are
searched on the world-wide-web (Google
SearchTM, 25.9.2009). While most tend to
blame Barbie for encouraging materialism
at best or contributing to eating disorders
at worst (8), many thoughtful writers do
suggest a number of positives she can claim
as a role model, such as her having friends
and a variety of careers (9).
In light of the attention long paid to Barbie as something of a cultural icon, it is
rather remarkable that so very little empirical research has actually been conducted to
examine the dolls possible role in shaping
girls body images or promoting eating disorders. Indeed, a paltry number of databased reports exist, with studies more often
than not merely placing Barbie in the title
to draw an analogy or catch the readers
eye (10, 11). A careful scanning of both
MEDLINE and PsycINFO revealed fewer
than a dozen research articles that actually
addressed Barbie the doll, with surprisingly
little emphasis on connecting owning or
playing with Barbie to later body image or
eating issues. For example, two studies
approached the doll from an advertising
perspective, that is, recognition of Barbie as
a branded commercial product (5, 12). Four
e219

J. Worobey

studies were concerned with Barbies anthropometrics, and made the case that her measurements were unrealistic relative to those of a real
woman (6, 13-15). An early study found that
nine 4-5-year-old preschoolers played more
socially and imaginatively with Barbie than with
a baby doll, concluding that Barbie doll play
was actually beneficial (16). But in two studies
that investigated girls views of Barbie as a
plaything, torture and mutilation of Barbie was
commonly reported by focus groups of 711year-old girls (5) and 1014-year-old preadolescents (4). The latter study did reveal, however,
that some of the teens felt Barbie to be a dangerous influence on girls perceptions of beauty,
body image, and self-concept (p. 48).
Aside from the Kuther and McDonald (4)
qualitative report, only one published study
was found that made an explicit effort to link
Barbie to body image and girls desire to be
thinner. Using picture books as stimuli, Ditmar
et al. (17) experimentally tested girls responses
to two contrasting-shaped doll protagonists.
One hundred sixty eight 58-year-old girls
were randomly assigned to hear a story about
Mira, while paging through a picture book
that either showed images of Barbie, Emme (a
full-figured fashion doll), or neutral pictures of
the storys settings without images of the dolls.
Viewing the Barbie images relative to the other
images appeared to reduce body esteem and
increase body size dissatisfaction, but only for
girls younger than 7. These results would
seem to provide the first empirical results that
exposure to Barbie can impair girls satisfaction with their bodies. However, the link
between actual Barbie play and later disordered eating remains unexplored.
In the present investigation, the survey
responses of female college students were analyzed to determine if their recollections of
childhood Barbie play, relative to other factors,
would be linked to their negative attitudes
toward eating and body image as young
women. Given the mixed results on the prevalence of eating disorders in ethnic minorities
(18, 19), the influence of white vs. nonwhite status was also examined.

METHOD
Subjects
Respondents were drawn from students
enrolled in an undergraduate course on marriage and family relations at a large northeastern US state university. This elective course
enrolls 75-150 students per semester and draws
from the entire student body. The current same220

Eating Weight Disord., Vol. 14: N. 4 - 2009

ple is comprised of women who took the

course over four consecutive offerings. All men
and women in attendance on the first day the
course met were invited, but not required, to
complete an anonymous questionnaire (see
below). Of the 485 questionnaires turned in,
216 were completed by males and 269 by
females. Fifteen of the females neglected to
complete the last page of the questionnaire and
their surveys were discarded, leaving a samplesize of 254 for the present analysis. The mean
age for the women was 20 years [mean=20.28,
standard deviation (SD)=2.17], and their ethnic
distribution was 12% Asian, 13% black, 8%
Latina, and 67% non-Hispanic white.
Measures
Besides the behavioral variables of interest
described next, the questionnaires included
items regarding age, height, weight, dieting
practices, and demographic items of use for
subsequent class discussions (e.g., ordinal position in family, dating status, parents marital
status). The university Institutional Review
Board approved the use of the survey in the
classroom prior to any distribution. In addition,
three questions pertained to doll play, and
were gender directed: first, When you were a
girl, did you play with Barbie dolls?; second,
If yes, how many did you have?; and finally,
How old were you when you got your first
Barbie doll? [males were asked about Ninja
Turtles/GI Joes].
Appearance saliency
The role of appearance relative to self-image
was measured using the subscales of two available instruments. The Multidimensional BodySelf Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) is a selfreport inventory for assessing body image, and
validated for both males and females (20, 21).
Internal consistency for the subscales range
from 0.71 to 0.86 for females. The 34-item
MBSRQ Appearance Scales subset consists of
five subscales, but as part of the classroom
questionnaire, only two of the subscales were
included in the survey instrument, namely
Appearance Evaluation (7 items) and Appearance Orientation (12 items). A sample Appearance Evaluation item is: I like the way I look
without my clothes on; for Appearance Orientation: Before going out in public, I always
notice how I look. The Child Family Mealtimes
Questionnaire (CFMQ) is a 69-item scale with
excellent inter-item reliability (0.91) that asks
respondents to recall meals during childhood
with a focus on mealtime climate, structure,
and conversations involving weight (Miller
D.A.: Subcategories within bulimia: differentia-

Barbie at 50

tion between fad and clinical bulimia. University of Kansas at Lawrence, 1989. Unpublished
manuscript). Using a 35-item short form of the
CFMQ, Miller et al. (22) were able to predict
maladaptive eating with 67-81% accuracy.
Worobey (23) found that the AppearanceWeight Control subscale (6 items) of the CFMQ
predicted both Dieting and Bulimia-Food Preoccupation on the short-form of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), and this subscale comprised the remainder of the class survey. A
sample Appearance-Weight Control item is: In
my family, we thought of beauty as depending
a lot on weight.
Eating attitudes
Attitudes toward food and eating were
assessed with the EAT-26, a measure of symptoms and concerns characteristic of eating disorders (24). Abnormal eating attitudes are identified with respect to the factors of Dieting (13
items), Bulimia-Food Preoccupation (6 items),
and Oral Control (7 items). Since our purpose
was purely for research and not clinical categorization, the subscales were used as opposed to
the full scale score. The shortened version is
highly correlated with the longer questionnaire
(r=0.98) (24) which has been extensively validated (25, 26). A sample Dieting item is: I like my
stomach to be empty; for Bulimia-Food Preoccupation: I find myself preoccupied with food;
and for Oral Control: I display self-control
around food.
Although the individual items drawn from the
three questionnaires were presented as published by their authors, the response categories
were slightly modified for the EAT-26 statements
in order to make the full battery consistent with a
5-choice format as used in the MBSRQ and
CFMQ. That is, items were rated on a 5-point
scale: Strongly Agree (5), Agree (4), Neutral (3),
Disagree (2), and Strongly Disagree (1).

RESULTS
Descriptive and regression analyses were
undertaken using the Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences (version 16.0, SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL). Using their self-reported values for the
questions on height and weight, body mass
index (BMI) was calculated for each respondent. The mean BMI of 23.10 kg/m2 (SD=3.93)
indicates that the majority of women fell within
the range classified as normal by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Thirty percent of the women reported they were currently on a diet, a figure close to results reported
with comparable samples of college women

(22, 27). Of the 254 respondents, 231 (91%)

reported having owned at least one Barbie doll
when they were girls. The average age at
which they recalled receiving their first Barbie
was 4.4 years (SD=1.76), and the average number they recalled owning was 18.3 (SD=34.07);
however, the latter figure differed by white vs.
nonwhite status (Table 1).
A number of additional variables also differed by white vs non-white status, most
notably BMI and the Dieting factor from the
EAT-26. As shown in Table 1, the white females
had twice as many Barbie dolls on average as
did their non-white counterparts. White
women also scored higher on the Dieting factor from the EAT-26 and higher on a continuum of dating (1=Never dated 6=Married).
Women of color, in contrast, had higher BMI
scores and were higher in religiosity, as measured by more frequent attendance at religious
services.
As an initial predictive analysis, a regression
was run to determine if any Barbie-related or
other demographic variables were associated
with the womens satisfaction with their selfimage. To this end, the variables of respondents age, BMI, age at first Barbie, number of
Barbies, dating status, white/nonwhite status,
and religiosity were regressed onto Appearance
Evaluation. The only factor that demonstrated
an association was BMI, with higher BMI
TABLE 1
Demographic and subscale scores by womens
white/non-white status.
White (N=170) Non-white (N=84)
Mean (SD)

Mean (SD)

20.4 (2.4)
22.58 (3.42)
4.39 (1.83)
19.58 (35.40)
30%

20.0 (1.5)
24.16 (4.99)
4.40 (1.62)
9.34 (13.93)
30%

Appearance subscales
Evaluation
Orientation
Weight Control

3.26 (0.79)
3.52 (0.65)
2.56 (0.98)

3.31 (0.87)
3.58 (0.55)
2.55 (1.03)

EAT-26 subscales
Bulimia-Food Preoccupation
Dieting
Oral Control
Dating Status*
Religiosity**

2.10 (0.86)
2.74 (0.89)
2.28 (0.66)
3.36 (1.14)
1.85 (1.34)

1.91 (0.76)
2.36 (0.81)
2.24 (0.58)
2.96 (1.13)
2.26 (1.37)

Age in years
Body mass index in kg/m2
Age in years at 1st Barbie
Number of Barbies
Currently on a diet

p<0.01
p<0.01

p<.001
p<0.01
p<0.05

For Appearance and 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) subscales, 5: highest
level of dimension.
*1: never dated, 2: not currently dating, 3: casually dating, 4: steady dating, 5:
engaged, 6: married.
**For attending religious services: 0: never, 1: once/year, 2: couple times/year,
3: monthly, 4: weekly.

Eating Weight Disord., Vol. 14: N. 4 - 2009

e221

J. Worobey

TABLE 2
Regression analysis, predicting to Dieting subscale.
Variable

Standard error

Beta

p<

(Constant)
Age in years
Body mass index in kg/m2
Age in years at 1st Barbie
Number of Barbies

2.190
0.043
0.007
0.006
0.004

1.096
0.027
0.016
0.037
0.002

0.107
0.029
0.011
0.130

1.997
1.602
0.411
0.171
1.985

0.05
0.11
0.68
0.86
0.05

Appearance Evaluation
Appearance Orientation
Appearance Weight Control

0.308
0.206
0.381

0.076
0.097
0.068

0.277
0.142
0.409

4.037
2.111
5.598

0.000
0.03
0.000

0.241
0.075
0.085

0.128
0.053
0.041

0.119
0.098
0.128

1.888
1.424
2.068

0.06
0.16
0.04

White/non-white status*
Dating status
Religiosity
*1: white, 0: non-white

scores predicting womens lower satisfaction

with their evaluation of appearance (=0.403,
t=5.52, p<0.0001).
Because the scores on the EAT-26 Dieting
factor were found to be higher in white women
relative to the nonwhite respondents, a regression analysis was next conducted to predict to
the Dieting variable, with white/non-white status (coded as 1=white, 0=non-white) included in
the model. As displayed in Table 2, five of the
ten predictor variables showed significant
associations, including the number of Barbie
dolls once owned. While lower Appearance
Evaluation scores were predictive of higher
Dieting scores, more attentiveness to looks
(Appearance Orientation), and a greater family
emphasis on weight as being important
(Appearance-Weight Control) were also associated with the Dieting factor.
As these regression results suggested that the
number of Barbie dolls seemed to exert some
influence on Dieting scores, a stepwise regression analysis was then conducted to examine its
importance relative to the other correlates. The
same ten variables were entered into the model
for analysis; however, the number of Barbies
variable as well as religiosity were excluded
during the stepwise procedure, with
white/nonwhite status and the dating variable
instead being retained. Table 3 displays the five
models that were produced by the stepwise
regression, with the significant predictor variables listed in the order in which they successively appeared. As with the initial regression,
the three Appearance variables were predictive
of the Dieting factor, with Appearance-Weight
Control showing the first and strongest association. The association for white/non-white status
indicated that being white was predictive of
Dieting, while the association with dating status
e222

Eating Weight Disord., Vol. 14: N. 4 - 2009

connoted a higher Dieting score if more serious

dating was reported.

DISCUSSION
Despite the widely-accepted belief that Barbie dolls promote unrealistic body images in
young girls, which may in turn lead to lessened
self-esteem and possibly anorexia, there has
been almost no research that has attempted to
establish a link between Barbie play and later
disordered eating. Ditmar et al. (17) did provide
some empirical support that exposure to Barbie, albeit pictorially, could impair young girls
satisfaction with their bodies. However, the
link between owning and playing with Barbie
dolls and later disordered eating has been virtually unexplored. For this reason, the present
study was conducted in order to explore the
possible association between recollections of
Barbie play in childhood and young womens
attitudes toward dieting, self-appraisals of their
appearance, and reported BMI. Other factors
that could relate to body image and dieting
behavior were also measured, so as to place the
relative influence of Barbie, if any, into the
appropriate context.
The first noteworthy observation must be
that for young girls, owning a Barbie doll is
fairly normative. The Mattel companys claim
that 90% of American girls from 3-10 have at
least one was validated by the 91% figure for
the women of this survey. Mattel also reports
that the average 3-6-year-old girl is thought to
have 12 Barbies. The average respondent in
this survey indicated they got their first at
around age 4 years, but actually owned over
18, though the difference between white and
nonwhite girls was striking. With so many girls

Barbie at 50

having a history of Barbie play, a cynic might

suggest that disordered eating should be far
more prevalent if Barbie in fact caused body
image problems. The present results, however,
do not support such a view.
Owning a Barbie as a young girl did not make
a measurable contribution to a negative body
image, nor did acquiring a Barbie at an early
age or having an excessive number of Barbies.
Indeed, the initial association between the number of Barbies and the dieting factor was lost
with the stepwise regression. Although actual
time spent in Barbie play was not asked of the
respondents, it could be reasoned that girls
who had more of the dolls played more often
with the dolls. Asking to recall how many dolls
they owned was thought to give a more accurate response than asking for estimates of hours
spent in play some 12-15 years before; however,
more dolls and therefore more play is only an
assumption. Particularly in light of studies suggesting that certain girls may have ambivalent
feelings toward the dolls (e.g., torture play),
future work should try to measure time spent in
and characteristics of their Barbie play. Other
Barbierelated factors might yet be predictive
of body image or eating issues.
Apart from the Barbie play question, however, the subscales that comprised the Appearance cluster which suggest that women place
great store in how they look and likely believe

that others judge them on the same basis were

the primary correlates of the Dieting factor.
Notably, the strongest predictor of the EAT-26
Dieting factor was the Appearance-Weight
Control factor, which represents the womens
memories of conversations at family mealtimes
where beauty and appearance were tied to
weight, as well their recall of being encouraged
to diet as a child. With a comparable sample of
college women, Worobey (23) also found this
factor to be the strongest predictor of Dieting
from the EAT-26. A focus on physical appearance, inadvertently or deliberately encouraged
by family members, thus appeared to exert a
far greater impact on their developing sense of
body satisfaction as a marker of self-image
than did Barbie play in their childhood.
As a further limitation, it must be acknowledged that the respondents in this study were
not recruited for an investigation of eating
disorders or disturbed body image. Nor were
they interviewed, but provided their responses as part of a voluntary classroom survey on
a variety of family-related issues. As the questionnaire was completed anonymously, honesty on the part of the respondents is presumed for the questions on eating and body
image (as well as weight). Moreover, given the
retrospective nature of their self-reports,
accurate recollections of Barbie facts and
mealtime conversations from earlier years

TABLE 3
Stepwise regression analysis, predicting to Dieting subscale.
Variable

Standard error

Beta

p<

Model 1 (Constant)
Appearance Weight Control

1.316
0.508

0.171
0.061

0.545

7.719
8.278

0.000
0.000

Model 2 (Constant)
Appearance Weight Control
Appearance Evaluation

2.314
0.451
0.264

0.322
0.061
0.073

0.484
0.237

7.184
7.352
3.604

0.000
0.000
0.000

Model 3 (Constant)
Appearance Weight Control
Appearance Evaluation
White/non-white status*

4.245
0.447
0.268
0.302

0.868
0.060
0.072
0.127

0.479
0.241
0.150

4.891
7.390
3.711
2.390

0.000
0.000
0.000
0.02

Model 4 (Constant)
Appearance Weight Control
Appearance Evaluation
White/non-white status*
Appearance orientation

3.784
0.403
0.270
0.318
0.190

0.322
0.064
0.126
0.127
0.096

0.433
0.157
0.150
0.131

4.246
6.329
2.530
2.390
1.980

0.000
0.000
0.01
0.02
0.05

Model 5 (Constant)
Appearance Weight Control
Appearance Evaluation
White/non-white status*
Appearance orientation
Dating status

3.231
0.368
0.303
0.268
0.216
0.107

0.919
0.065
0.072
0.126
0.096
0.050

0.395
0.272
0.133
0.149
0.139

3.515
5.635
4.186
2.253
1.980
2.120

0.001
0.000
0.000
0.03
0.05
0.04

*1: white, 0: non-white

Eating Weight Disord., Vol. 14: N. 4 - 2009

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J. Worobey

must depend on both their frankness and

uncolored memories.
In answer to the tongue-in-cheek question
posed in the title of this article, for this sample
of young women at least, Barbies influence
would appear to be benign. The overvaluing of
physical appearance, rooted in overt family
attitudes, was of greater influence in predicting
unhealthy eating practices. And dating more
than casually also accounted for some of the
variance. So while the present results cannot
be construed as viewing play with Barbie as a
prosocial experience (16), laying blame on Barbie as harming girls body image may also be
unwarranted (4). Nonetheless, given the seminal role of family members in shaping their
young girls ideas about physical appearance
and body shape, and Barbies presence and
popularity for well over two generations, it
may be useful to query the mothers of the
respondents in future studies to determine if
they had Barbies themselves. It is perhaps not
unreasonable to investigate if Barbie may have
in fact colored their attitudes toward thinness,
which they then transmitted to their daughters.
Future investigators might also be cognizant
that different factors may correlate with eating
issues in white vs non-white women.

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