Perhaps The Scrapbook is getting old—or, more likely, regards the subject matter as uncomfortably close to home. But we were alternately amused and horrified last week by a front-page photo in the New York Post depicting Mattel’s new Curvy Barbie doll: “Meet new ‘Fat Barbie,’ ” read the headline.
Fat? According to the Post, that seems to be the social-media consensus about this latest iteration of 57-year-old Barbie. But take a look at that doll! Yes, Curvy Barbie might stand to lose a few pounds—at this time of year, who couldn’t?—but if you crossed paths with Curvy Barbie in Legoland or chatted her up at a My Little Pony fair, would “fat” be the word you would choose to describe her? She looks like a chorus girl from 42nd Street.
Yes, Barbie is only a doll, and girls who play with Barbies are surrounded by examples of real humans. Nor does The Scrapbook believe that anyone who ponders Barbie’s wasp waist, elongated neck, giant eyes, tiny mouth, and disproportionate legs and bosom is likely to mistake her for anyone they know. Like Ingres’s “Grande Odalisque,” Barbie is a wondrous creature unknown to nature and not to be taken literally. Except, of course, when Curvy Barbie is derided as “fat.”
