HAPPY BARBIE DOLL DAY, friendlies! Today is the day to rock out to all that Barbie got right – a girl’s need to be a girl. The pictures you sent to me of you getting your GIRLY on were nothing short of fabulous! Scroll through, revel in our collective fun-loving gorgeousness, and pass on the sugary-sweet pink love to every woman you meet today.
Lots of love,
Myn
Did you know that March 20th is Barbie Doll Day? Yep – an entire Tuesday in March devoted to Barbie and friends, celebrating Barbie-type values: Perma-tans, pink convertibles, Barbie mansions, skimpy fashion, things-things-things, and of course, the ever-elusive – utterly unrealistic – hour-glass figure.
As I was researching the theme for this month’s I Am Beautiful campaign, I came across tons of Barbie facts. Most of them looked like this:
Peaches and Cream Barbie - my FAVORITE growing up.
*Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. She is from Willows, Wisconsin, and went to Willows High School.
*Barbie was named after the daughter of Mattel founders Ruth and Elliot Handler. Their son’s name is: Ken.
*The first Barbie doll sold for $3.
*The first Black, and Hispanic Barbie dolls were introduced in 1980.
*Barbie’s first career was as a teenage fashion model. She has since had other careers including astronaut, rock star, paleontologist, presidential candidate, and Olympic ice skater, as well as many others.
*Barbie introduced a rap group in 1990 called “Barbie, and the Beats.”
*More than 105 million yards of fabric have gone into making the fashions of Barbie, and her friends, making Mattel one of the largest apparel manufacturers in the world.
*Placed head to toe, Barbie dolls, and her friends sold since 1959 would circle the earth more than seven times.
Then I came across an interesting list at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org. Check this out:
Click here to read Galia Slayen's article about Barbie's dangerous body image in the Huffington Post.
*The target market for Barbie doll sales is young girls ages 3 – 12 years of age.
*A girl usually has her first Barbie by age 3, and collects a total of seven dolls during her childhood.
* If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5’9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips and a size 3 shoe!
*Barbie calls this a “full figure” and likes her weight at 110 lbs.
*At 5’9” tall and weighing 110 lbs, Barbie would have a BMI of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for anorexia. She likely would not menstruate.
*If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.
*Slumber Party Barbie was introduced in 1965 and came with a bathroom scale permanently set at 110 lbs with a book entitled “How to Lose Weight” with directions inside stating simply “Don’t eat.”
Those are some pretty rattling, ugly facts. Not exactly a role model I want my daughters to emulate. But here’s the thing. Barbie, for all her faults, does have one thing I totally am on board with: girlie-ness. What woman doesn’t like to get dressed up, slap some lipstick on, rock some glam eyeliner and go out on the town? Even the most modest, outdoorsy, or homebody-ish woman likes a reason to pull out the pretty, rarely-worn things gathering dust in the back of the closet from time to time. The same is true for little girls, too. My darling SweetZ LOVES to dress up. She believes tutus go with everything – including jeans and hiking boots – and will gladly take her brothers to the mat wearing a pink princess dress and a tiara. She’s as rough and tumble and willing to get dirty as any boy her age…and she loves to do it looking as girly as possible.
So out of all Barbie’s blech, the plastic blonde bombshell did tap into that. A girl’s need to be a girl.
With that in mind, March’s theme for I Am Beautiful… is Because I’m A Girly-Girl. Now, don’t wag your head at me and say, “But, Myndi. I’m not a girly-girl. Never have been. Never will be.” Sorry, but I won’t buy what your selling. I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a girl who’s not girly – it’s just the definition of girly has been skewed by popular culture. Every girl is girly. It’s intrinsic. It’s in our nature. We are different than guys in oh-so-many blessed, beautiful, awesomesauce ways – and that, in and of itself makes us girly. NOT whether or not your favorite color is pink, or your favorite hobby is giggling over hot guys while bedazzling your brand-spanking-new pair of skinny jeans. We are girly because we are girls.
So, here’s your assignment. Go getchyer girly on. Girls’ night out, girls’ night in. Date night with your sweetie. Cozy night at home. Mani’s and pedi’s, or shopping at the mall. Hiking, skiing, shooting guns. Crafting with your besties. Wherever and whatever you do when you are at your most girly – I want pictures of it! Let’s celebrate the part of womanhood Barbie got right – the fun that’s wrapped up in being a girl – and let’s torch the rest of those skewed Barbie-isms, Burning-Man style. Let’s do it for ourselves, and for our daughters and granddaughters – a celebration that says Womanhood rocks, and not because some freaky-ass plastic doll says so.
Please send your pics to myndishafer [at] rocketmail [dot] com, with the phrase Because I’m A Girly-Girl in the subject line. I need your submissions by March 18 so I can get your lovely pics up in time for Barbie Doll Day! Don’t forget to spread the word – the more the merrier!!
Much love to you,
Myn
P.S. In anticipation of Shafer #4′s arrival, there won’t be any I AM BEAUTIFUL posts for April…but there WILL be lots of fabulous guest posts, so be sure to stop by and check ‘em out!
Oh my goodness, you guys! Your response to I Am Beautiful…Just the Way I Am was so sweet and lovely! I loved reading all your comments, and LOVE that the general consensus is that beauty comes in all forms and springs from places unseen.
I’m so tickled by those of you who were willing to show us your real selves – the everyday you, as the world sees you – not just the you that’s primped and curled and ready for the camera (though, don’t worry, I’ll give you the chance for that soon!).
Here you are, dear friends. Beautiful you, JUST THE WAY YOU ARE!
A big hug to all of you who participated in February’s I AM BEAUTIFUL campaign! Each and every one of you are lovely beyond measure!
p.p.s. I have something really fun planned for March’s I AM BEAUTIFUL, so stay tuned!
This is something that is hard for most women to tell themselves, let alone believe. We’ll admit to little aspects of beauty – things like I have nice eyes or I like my smile or I have a nice ass (that’s you, right? *wink*). Or, for others of us, we’ll admit to little aspects of beauty that lie under the surface, like I’m a good friend, or I go out of my way to be kind to strangers or I try to pay attention to other people’s needs, and help. But we don’t often look in the mirror, or take total stock of who we are as people – inside and out - and admit to ourselves,
I am beautiful. Just the way I am. Period.
I know I don’t.
For me, it’s too easy to see the unfinished business that is Myndi. The broken parts of me that are struggling to grow into something more easily recognizable as beautiful. Oh my goodness – my temper? It’s an ugly thing. My self-centeredness? It can oftentimes be masked, but it’s always there, lurking. And as far as body image goes, the list of things that could be considered un-lovely is lengthy. Extra weight. Wide feet. Stretch marks. That’s just a few.
But here’s the thing. None of us are any one thing. None of us are made up solely of those few seemingly undesirable things that pop out at us in the mirror, or shout at us in our psyche. We are the sum of all our parts, good and bad. Pretty and otherwise.
Yes, I have a temper. But I’m always ready to laugh. Yes, I can be self-centered. But if someone needs an ear, I’m always ready to listen. And I may carry extra weight, have feet that can’t be crammed into the prettiest shoes, and stretch marks from bearing children, but I also have strong legs that have never failed me, happy eyes that can’t decide if they’re green or blue, and health that I’ve never had to question or fight for.
Among all I lack, there is so much beauty. Not just in me, but in each and every one of us.
We are beautiful. That is absolutely true, no matter how our brains filter what we see in the mirror.
You are beautiful. Just as you are. Just the way God made you. With your extra weight. With the weight you need to gain. With your thinning hair. With your gorgeous locks. With your extra chromosome. With your missing limbs. With your beautiful tattoos. With the tattoos you wish you’d never gotten. With a total mastectomy. With your breast implants. No matter where you are in life, how you were born, what you’re like now, where you’re headed – you are beautiful. Acne or clear skin, hairy legs or freshly waxed, crooked teeth or straight. You are beautiful.
Gorgeous. Stunning. Lovely. Exquisite.
Just the way you are. Right now, in this moment.
I think it’s time we claim it. Grab ahold of the idea, clutch it tightly to our chests, and declare, “This is mine! My own! I am beautiful!” We need to write the truth of that statement on our hearts, and believe it. Because when we believe in our own beauty – real beauty, beauty that springs from the deep places within ourselves – something in us changes. It becomes easier to see beauty in others. It becomes easier to see beauty in people we wouldn’t have taken much notice of before. Suddenly the cashier at the grocery store is more than a woman in a red vest telling us what our total is. She’s a work of art with hopes and dreams and wounds and hurts…a complete, broken, beautiful package, who, chances are, has no clue about the Truth, or Worth, of her own beauty. Suddenly the woman walking her dog in front of your house isn’t just a middle-aged stranger trying to get some fresh air before making dinner. She’s a work of art with hopes and dreams and wounds and hurts…a complete, broken, beautiful package, who, chances are, has no clue about the Truth, or Worth, of her own beauty.
I believe beauty can be contagious. I believe that when we own up to ours, our shoulders will straighten, we’ll look people more readily in the eye, and other people will begin to see their own beauty reflected in us…and maybe begin to believe in their own beauty, as well.
Isn’t that something you’d want to be a part of?
Here’s your chance.
Every month here at Blogging Barefoot, I’m going to do a segment called I Am Beautiful… Before each segment, I’ll put up a post, asking for photographs of you - gorgeous, beautiful you. Not just you, but the beautiful people that you know (with their permission, of course). Then, later that month, I’ll post those photographs for everybody to see – statements of beauty that aren’t designed by popular media or out-of-whack cultural values.
In honor of August McLaughlin’s Beauty of a Woman BlogFest 2012 (August has a ridiculously fabulous blog – head over there on Friday, the 10th for a chance to win some AWESOME prizes, and to explore lots of other really excellent blogs!), the theme for this month is Just As I Am. I’m asking you to send me photographs of you just as you are. Your daily self. Do you normally wear makeup and heels? Great – photograph it. Do you normally go about your daily life makeup-less and barefoot? (eek! That’s me!) Perfect – photograph it. I want to see photographs of you, as you are at your most normal. Don’t dress up; don’t dress down. Just be yourself.
I had my boys take a couple pics of SweetZ and I to give you an idea. This is us, at our everyday best, in our everyday habitat. Feel free to get creative with your shots – or not! Just don’t be afraid of the camera, and don’t be afraid to shine!
Send your pics to: myndishafer [at] rocketmail [dot] com, with Just As I Am in the subject line. Cut-off date for submissions is February 24! Spread the word…the more the merrier!
Can’t wait to see your lovely selves…
Myn
(p.s. I wish I could say this idea was all my own, but it wasn’t – not even close. The I am Beautiful project on Flickr, gave me the idea. You should totally check it out!)
