http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/04/23/the-real-life-ukrainian-barbie-doll/
This article came up on my FaceBook feed the other day and made me think of our discussion of girls and body image. The article is about a 21 Ukrainian girl who has claimed to be a "real life barbie." Valeria Lukyanova has begun posting photos of her Barbie-like self on her FaceBook page, which has recently gone viral.
Lukyanova's Barbie obsession has sparked multiple "how to" videos on the internet in which teenagers demonstrate how to get Barbie's hair and makeup. It is not yet known whether Lukyanova is real or fake, photoshopped or placates surgery, but scholars say the mystery of her existence is not the issue. The problem is that her image feeds into the media's image of what a beautiful woman is, when in reality having barbie's figure and features is not possible without intensive surgery and photoshopping.
This article made me consider once again what sort of messages are being sent to young girls about their bodies, and that these messages must be extremely strong and negative to make women like Lukyanova want to change their bodies so drastically.
What is your opinion of Barbie and this trend of real life Barbie look-alikes?
I also came across this article and thought it was really interesting. I believe that its not just the extreme messages that push girls to change their bodies so drastically. I think that the reality is that we see advertisements in the media, often hundreds of times a day, that are just as damaging to a girls body image as this and we often don't even realize it because they are more discrete. All of these influences work together to sneak into our heads, and leave us with an unrealistic image of beauty that cause many women, such as Lukyanova, to go to dangerous extremes.
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