Always have and always will. When I was younger I inherited about twelve Barbies from my older sisters. My family didn't have quite enough money to spend on Barbie merchandise but we improvised. I had a 4 ft tall by 3 foot wide doll house my parents made for my Barbies My Barbies had two closets full of homemade clothes as well as clothes my sisters bought for me. I had a Barbie horse, corvette, kitchen set, and bathroom set which made me very popular.
When I was younger I didn't see any side effects from playing with them. That was until I saw the film Life Size. Life Size is a Disney film staring Tyra Banks and Lindsay Lohan. In the film Tyra Banks character is Eve, a black doll that becomes a human after a spell goes wrong. For the first part of the film Eve has to come to terms with her new life. When she finds out things aren't as easy or nice like in her plastic world I came to the realization myself that Barbie is too perfect. She could be anything she wanted to be which is harder to accomplish in real life.
The big slap in the face was when I realized I would never look like Barbie. It was when I stopped growing in 7th grade and was instantly the shortest one out of my friends. In the article "princess culture turning girls into overspending narcissist" I understood how girls grow up playing pretend start to think they deserve to be treated like a princess, or in my case to live like Barbie. In the article it says that there are three things that define a princess; ultra-feminine, she is someone special, she is in charge. Barbie looks amazing, has a big house, a nice car, and a handsome man. In reality it takes hard work and years to make enough money to afford the lavish Barbie lifestyle; and besides, who wants an anatomically impaired man anyway?
As long as parental figures are willing to explain to their child why they can't be Barbie when they grow up I think its okay for kids to play with them.
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