Barbie and Mainstreaming Porn

The TLS reviewer of Natasha Walter’s recent Living Dolls notes how pornography “has entered mainstream culture to transform girls into animate versions of the sexist and sexy dolls they embrace in innocent delight.”  Walter points to the effect of Barbie dolls on American girls.  ”When girls aged five to eight played with a Barbie, and were then asked about their own body image, they reported more dissatisfaction and a greater desire to be thin than did girls who had either been playing with a larger doll or who had not been playing with any doll.  Barbie, with her long leg and large breasts, and Bratz, with fishnet stockings, feather boa and up-for-anything attitude, are not ‘just toys’; they indoctrinate girls into the culture of pornography wherein girls are raised not only to be thin and compulsively critical of their own physiques, but also to be ‘babes.’”