We're All Doomed! 2: The Barbie Effect

I did the second part of this assignment on Cherice's opinion piece, "The Barbie Effect". The writer is writing an opinion but states a lot of the information as facts. I questioned if she had done her research which is why I selected this article. She got some of it right, but some of it wrong. Below is a breakdown of some of the main "facts":
Barbie Statistics:
- 6’ tall, 100 lbs., size 39-19-33.
According to the South Shore Eating Disorder Collaborative, who built the first ever “Real-Life Barbie”, she would be 5’9”, weigh 110 lbs. and measure 39-18-33.
- Average girl from age 3 – 11 owns at least 10 Barbie dolls and spends hours playing with them and dressing them up.
The information I found indicated Barbie’s are most commonly owned by girls 4 – 12 and that they will own an average of 7 in that time.
- In 1965, Slumber Party Barbie debuted with a scale set at 110 lbs, a book titled “How to Lose Weight” with the contents of “Don’t eat”, caused sales of Barbie to drop dramatically.
According to the New York Times, sales of Barbie began dropping in the early 1960’s and stayed low through the 1990’s. This Slumber Party Barbie was only part of the problem.

Eating Disorder Statistics:
- 8 million Americans have an eating disorder.
From the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders states that up to 24 million Americans have an eating disorder.
- 10 – 15% of them are men.
Also from the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.
- 80% of females are under the age of 20.
I could not find this exact statistic, but according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 90% are women between the ages of 12 and 25.
- Admitted they started worrying about their weight between the ages of 4 and 6.
I could not find this statistic, but according to the National Eating Disorders Association 42% of girls in first through third grade want to be thinner.
- Admitted Barbie played a huge role on their influence of behavior and looks.
I could only find one study done on a direct effect between Barbie and body image. The study results showed that young girls between the ages of 5 - 8 had lower body esteem after viewing pics of Barbies than girls who viewed pics of an Emme doll (size 16) and those who viewed no dolls.

People Want to “Be Like Barbie”:
- Have spent millions of dollars making their home like the Barbie dreamhouse.
I couldn’t find any stories on Google of people who had spent any money on a “real-life” version of the Dreamhouse but there is an architect in CA who was hired by Mattel to make the Barbie Dreamhouse, and it’s in Malibu. There are also hotels and spas around the world that have Barbie themed rooms.
- Sarah Burge spent over one million dollars to achieve the Barbie look.
Wikipedia states Sarah spent over 250,000 pounds, although some of it was to correct disfigurement after a vicious attack by an ex-boyfriend. According to the Mirror, a British magazine, Sarah hasn't paid for most of the surgeries.
I was really glad I did the research because, like I said before, I questioned whether or not the author's stated facts could be backed up with hard data. Her statistics involving numbers did come from somewhere, although they were in fact low but a lot of her statements about meaning and motivation couldn't be corroborated. This exercise has led me to a) be more careful about what I believe when reading opinion pieces and b) wish that the author had cited the resources she used to come up with this information.