Growing up Barbie

As a child growing up in the 70's I am one of those generations like many others that played with the barbie doll. Like Speigel's article clearly points out, barbie symbolized female bonding and role play in the fantasy world. I never looked at barbie as a sex object, granted I understand that no one can fit the body image that barbie portrays. However, as a young child who loved to play barbies, I can't say that I felt that barbie gave me a poor self image. In my quest to better understand this view, I asked my eight year old daughter to share with me what she thinks of the barbie doll. She, too saw barbie the same way that I did. She looked at the barbie doll as role playing much that she would do with any of her other dolls. She also enjoys going to everything girl which is a barbie website. As far as I am concerned barbie is not a threat to young girls at all.