HOW DARE SHE: Why People Hate On Barbie

Meet Barbie: the girl (well technically, she's almost 53...) with the "perfect" body, luxurious blonde hair, and all the clothes any female could ever hope for. And if you're not into the striped swimsuit thing, you can always just give her a pair of jeans and a black tee. Why do people hate her, you ask? In my opinion, it's pretty obvious. She's viewed as perfection, the woman we all aspire to be. And so, like normal females, we want to murder her. She's like the cheer captain with all the guys drooling over her (not that pretty) and her (probably fake) boobs and her (wayyyy to big) ass. Unspeakable amounts of jealousy wash over us, and we see red. And how do we channel this girl hate? We spread rumors, of course! "Oh my god, did you hear? So-and-so cheated on her boyfriend over the weekend with that guy in fifth period English! He's not even hot! What a slut..." The same goes for Barbie. We're so jealous of this beautiful woman (because obviously she's real-where do you think the idea from the doll came from?) that we feel the need to discredit her in as many ways as possible. We look down on her beauty, describe it as fake, materialistic, slutty. We tell our kids that she's ugly, even though she clearly isn't. And then, completely contradicting ourselves, we try our very best to be prettier than her. 

In 2008, a 49-year-old British woman had over 100 plastic surgeries in order to transform herself into a living Barbie doll, and was fairly successful. She first started with her plastic surgeries after she was involved in a case of extremely harsh and went for reconstruction procedures. "My face was completely disfigured, I looked like a monster. I lived like that for six years and they were the worst six years of my life, " she said of the situation. (If you don't believe her, google Sarah Burge, and I'm sure you'll find a picture...) She wanted to be beautiful again, and she wanted to stay beautiful. "When I lost my face I didn’t feel good on the inside. I was miserable. As for being an addict I’m the first one to admit it’s true. I’m addicted to looking good. What’s wrong with that?" And isn't this what every woman wants? To look good and feel good and to get away from the bad parts of our past? And yet people all the time criticize her for undergoing these procedures. Dumb, crazy, and disgusting are, I'm sure, only some of the names she's called. Because again, we're jealous. We wish we had that "perfect" body without having to go under the knife. And it makes us mad that she is able to look like that while we're still stuck with the bodies and faces we were born with. 

All of the hatred directed towards Barbie is born purely from our own envy. We want to be like her because she is perfection. Because everybody loves her and because we love her. We would love to have that body, that hair, that wardrobe, and yet it's utterly impossible. Even the women who undergo surgery never come out looking exactly like our idol. And in our society, the best way to cope with impossibilities is to pretend that we're better off without them anyways. 

~Ellen~