I played with these toys growing up and totally get that they are not proportional to real living people, but why are associations with [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] so overwhelming negative? I don’t really get it.
I would say the culture of dumb blonde jokes…but I think those have mostly died out. I guess nobody wants to necessarily be a doll perhaps.
1 Like
I guess the “pretty but dumb blonde” stereotype maybe? (I know recently [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] has pushed against this though) And the fact it’s so associated with a doll?
1 Like
I don’t know honestly. The dumb blonde thing doesn’t make much sense to me because Barbies come in lots of outfits for many careers. Like, Barbies could be anything from a princess to a doctor. Maybe I’m looking at that wrong though.
Barbie/Barbara definitely isn’t my cup of tea but I don’t understand why it should be carrying some sort of stigma.
1 Like
[name_f]My[/name_f] thought is that there’s a connection between the doll aspect and the stereotypes surrounding the doll (disproportionate body type but with features society has a preference towards), and sexuality, whether conscious or not. The “Barbie Girl” song doesn’t really help either.
7 Likes
I once knew somebody named [name_f]Barbara[/name_f] who went by [name_f]Barbie[/name_f], and it was all good.
1 Like
Barbie dolls are associated with sexism due to promoting unrealistic body standards to young girls.
5 Likes
I don’t get it.
Society has changed a lot since the 50s and [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] has come along was since then. There’s nothing about poor body image or diversity under the current [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] brand. [name_f]Nor[/name_f] "bimbo"esque. As like others commented, [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] is modeled after all kinds of women (Even historic people.)
It’s a dated name, but not bad at all.
1 Like
If you don’t know the [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] girl song it might not hurt to check it out to get an idea of answering your question. Because as someone already pointed out…… it doesn’t help with advocating for the name. And it’s why I’d be hesitant in picking that name or association for my child. In a nice world we can say “oh things aren’t like the 50’s”. But that song was released and popularized right at the end of the 90’s
One of the repeated points from previous posters is about body image. Another aspect of the negative connotation is in the song a repeated lyric is “life in plastic it’s fantastic”…. Plastic plastic eludes a feeling of being fake.
So that feeling of being fake could also be what brings the [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] image down.
2 Likes
Im familiar with this song since I did grow up in the 90s. Always struck me as a jokey europop song that was intentionally silly. Similar to that song “Im Blue”. [name_f]My[/name_f] school literally had us do a dance on [name_f]May[/name_f] [name_u]Day[/name_u] to the [name_f]Macarena[/name_f] 
There were so many silly songs then.
Anyway I just find it a bit unnecessary (and maybe a bit sexist?) to find even a minor association with [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] making a name unusable. Is [name_m]Ken[/name_m] unusable?
I originally started thinking about this after seeing posts about nicknames for [name_f]Barbara[/name_f] and the name Malibu.
Sexist or not, [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] is a doll every person knows. Such a strong association everyone will think of.
2 Likes
To answer last question is Ken unusable? I say no because I hear Ken and I don’t necessarily think of doll. But also “Ken” hasn’t had the same level of controversy in regards to body image. And plus if you look at that “silly song” it’s Barbie who is referred to multiple times as a `bimbo friend not Ken.
Unfortunately, it’s not necessarily sexist and quite necessary to consider associations when considering names.
You can in the end pick whatever name you want. If you like Barbie pick it and once you do it becomes usable by default but the association is why I personally wouldn’t and why others also might not.
1 Like
The reason I don’t like [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] is actually because I knew someone with the name that I have very negative associations with. I can understand the negative association with the doll, but honestly it’s been very progressive recently and don’t see that as a bad thing
1 Like
For the name itself without regard to the doll associations, [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] just isn’t my style.
I never had a barbie growing up and I never cared to have one but the impressions I got from others mocking it is that she’s fake, superficial, sparkly pink, too thin, and a dumb blonde. Basically a bimbo as others put it. The company has started to become more progressive but this is relatively recently so most people seem to still associate barbie with its original stereotypes that its had for decades. Maybe the stigma will eventually go away as barbie continues to push against its original image but I think it’ll take quite some time before it does.
If you’re unsure about using [name_f]Barbie[/name_f], maybe you could do something like [name_f]Barbara[/name_f] “Barbie” so the kid can have another name to fall back on if the name [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] ever becomes a problem.
Now [name_m]Ken[/name_m] is actually my style though I’m still not sure if I would actually use it for various reasons. In regards to [name_f]Barbie[/name_f], [name_m]Ken[/name_m] doesn’t seem to get as much attention as [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] but I have heard a guy at work say he’s like a “Ken doll” because he knows people say he’s “a pretty boy” lol One of my other concerns with [name_m]Ken[/name_m] is that it’s sometimes one of the names that I see come up when people are trying to come up with the male equivalent of [name_f]Karen[/name_f] though most people are not aware of this.
1 Like
I just think that [name_f]Barbie[/name_f] is such a huge brand that the name itself is so heavily associated with the product it would be weird for it to be used for anyone or anything else. I don’t feel that association is negative and would personally love it if people actually used [name_f]Barbie[/name_f]. Although, I do find the song “Barbie Girl” to be a super negative association. One could argue that it should be no worse than [name_f]Delilah[/name_f] and the song “Hey There Delilah”, but I would say it is because the “Barbie Girl” song is terrible and the lyrics are pretty inappropriate.
1 Like
I absolutely love [name_f]Barbara[/name_f] with ‘Barbie’ as a nickname, and I always feel a bit sad when people are reluctant to use it nowadays.