IF BARBIE WAS A REAL PERSON, WHAT WOULD SHE LOOK LIKE?

This was my topic for Physical Anthropology. Suitable to be called a short thinkpiece on anthropometry, it discusses how Barbie would deal with everyday living considering her measurements assuming that she is a living person who was born that way (had no plastic surgery).  

Special thanks to Abner Bondoc for having had the patience to do the computations despite his busy schedule that day.  (Dearest, the spirit of this piece came from you) 
 
Barbie, a creation of Mattel from the late 1950s still remains popular among kids of all ages (even those who appear as grown-ups on the outside, or as we popularly address as ‘collectors’). As one fragment of popular tangible culture at 53 years of age and going strong, Barbie has been serving as a physical extension of children’s imagination, ideals, and memories.

Feminists have been ‘fond’ of Barbie, primarily for her unrealistic representations. Beginning with the material, what it is made out of supposedly speaks much about what the product conveys ---- that being made out of plastic, it is something molded, giving the male gender the impression that like it, women are manipulable. Further, it is an exemplification of a most impossible beauty --- Barbie with long flowing hair, is constantly, immaculately groomed with a (radiant) smile which is constantly fixed, which almost savors of imploring. From the done-up face, one may proceed with the choice of fashion attributed to the doll. What is tremendously curious is the begged concept of gender assignment through color, where the signature shade comprises of varied pink tones. It is the vital statistics of the figure which are also impossible to achieve through natural means. In light of this, Barbie reinforces the indirect advertisement of cosmetic surgery.

It is contended here that Feminists have too much fun with their cultural-heated arguments when it comes to Barbie.

Objectives. It is time to bring in a physical anthropological voice into the discourse, and with the use of applied knowledge on anthropometry it is of interest to discuss: (1) Why Barbie appears as an icon of idealized beauty, (2) What she look like if she was a real Homo sapien, and (3) How she would fare through daily living.

Methodology. One doll was selected randomly from the student’s childhood collection and measured in centimeter units, recording values for the criteria indicated in the anthropometric sheets distributed in her Anthro 202 class. In recognition of equipment constraints, the student only used a measuring tape and excluded the criteria requiring calipers (ex. Bicondylar Elbow, Bicondylar Knee, Triceps and Subscapular Skinfold), and Munsell soil chart, leaving out values for skin pigmentation and eye color.

In the attempt of determining scale so as to make an accurate comparison to a live person, the values have been computed based on a female human with a height of 5’9”. For every 1 cm measured on the doll, it is equivalent to 5.842 cm on a human.

Findings. The main reason behind her appeal has clearly to do with exaggerations of her features. Beginning from the head, her hair is unproportionally thick. She stands at a stature of 30 cm, and has a span of 32 cm (in human size would be 175.3 cm and 186.9 cm respectively). To expand Albert Magro's conclusions in his experiment regarding (the segment on) Barbie's head [readers may also refer to 'Why Barbie is Perceived as Beautiful' in Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 363-374 for a study based on evaluations], she features a dome-shaped cranium with a circumference of 10 cm (58.4), a high forehead, large eyes, an oval-shaped face with a total facial height of 4.5cm (26.3), a bi-zygomatic breadth of 3 cm (17.5), straight, closely spaced dentition in a mouth breadth of 1cm (5.8), and an orthognathic chin with a bi-gonial breadth of 2.3 cm (13.4). Proceeding with the neck, at 4 cm (23.4) in circumference and 1.8 (10.5) in length, if Barbie was human she would have needed support for her head considering that her neck is twice in length in comparison to that of the typical/standard woman. And this would mean an apparent risk of her breaking her neck.

She has square shoulders with a bi-acromial breadth of 5.5 cm (32.1) which then brings attention to the short, v-shaped torso where the supposed asset is a breast circumference of 15 cm (87.6), an accentuated waist circumference of 9 cm (52.6) and hip circumference of 13 cm (75.9). The vital statistics on Barbie’s figure which are apparently lacking in realism, had led her to be criticized on occasion as having a ‘wasp’ body rather than the proper hourglass figure typically idealized. The price of such extreme beauty would be an incomplete organ system --- as Barbie’s midsection would only have enough room for about half of a liver and some centimeters of intestines. It would be highly likely that Barbie would find herself suffering from chronic diarrhea and die from malabsorption as well as malnutrition.

To proceed, the length of Barbie’s legs in proportion to her torso would make her unable to walk. Thigh circumference is at 7 (40.9) with calf circumference at 5 cm (29.2). With her Iliac height and Trochanteric height at 18 (105.2) and 16 (93.5) respectively and the size of her feet with foot length of 2.1 cm (12.3) and breadth of 0.6 (3.5), Barbie would as a result be constantly tipping over and nearly falling on her face. She would involuntarily be quadrupedal just to be mobile.

Considering Homo sapien Barbie’s proportions and stature of 175.3 cm, that would denote her lacking from 18 to 22 per cent body fat required for a woman to menstruate or to have children. She also would not be able to have intercourse considering that she is very frail ---Almost any move or position will send her straight into the Emergency Room.

 Click here to view the tabulation of data