I’ve recently encountered quite a few little ladies that have expressed their dislike or their parent’s dislike of Barbie. The reason being, “Barbie sets an unrealistic and poor standard of beauty for young women.” It’s clear that the implication is that by playing with a barbie doll young girls will develop beauty standards that are impossible to live up to and therefore spiral into an adolescence of low self esteem. I don’t know about other women (and men), but I loved barbie. I was able to play with my dolls without analyzing their beauty and applying it to what I was supposed to grow into. Perhaps it’s because I was innocent and sheltered. Or it may have been that I understood the difference between fake and real. Playing with a plastic doll wasn’t something I would compare my human body to. I feel safe saying that I knew it was silly to compare my flesh and blood human body to a doll that was the reflection of someone’s imagination. These two factors (the opinion of young …