I was thinking about what I did for fun as a child indoors, and Barbies were the biggest thing. I never really got into baby dolls, but I found Barbies very cool. Anyway, I was trying to figure out why I had so much fun playing Barbies, which consisted of guy drama, beauty pageants, and such. Everything that went on in my Barbie world, I despise in my own life (with the exception of my very cool Barbie Porsche with working headlights ;) ).

Now, my Barbie fun time would make sense if indeed I loved shopping and guy gossip. It seems that my Barbie was everything I wasn’t. My Barbie was always the dark-haired, dark-eyed beauty (so Kira or Teresa). She was always super stylish with very cool hair.

Furthermore, in our Barbie world there were three main guys: Zach-the most requested, Joe-Zach’s second best twin brother, and Brad-their third best sidekick. My Barbie always got Zach. My Barbie also always won the beauty pageants. (Well, I made my sister judge, and she knew I’d beat her up if i didn’t win. hahaha) My Barbie always got everything, and it was usually with her looks.

As I look back, my Barbie never went to college. I think most of them made it thru high school tho. (Yes, I had barbies that started from babies -> Skipper -> Jazzie -> adult Barbie) When Barbie had her own children, they attended elementary school tho.

Okay, so what’s all this psycho-babble about playing Barbies about? Well, it’s frightening how much I re-enforced female stereotypes in my Barbie world that I’m so against now. I think the study of a little girl’s Barbie world would reveal a lot about how they view their family, the world, and most importantly how they view themselves.