Barbie: Just for girls?

Is Barbie just for girls? The answer to this question is complicated.

Barbies are bought both for collecting and for play. Collectors buy for themselves, and are usually adults. Dolls purchased for play, though often purchased by adult women, are usually bought for children.

Out of those buying Barbies as collectibles, approximately 10 percent are adult men. The remaining ninety percent are women with an average age of 40. 

What percentage of Barbies purchased for play ends up in the hands of boys? It is impossible to know, in part because Western culture is stilled shaped strongly by the belief that dolls are for girls and trucks are for boys. 

Barbie herself is credited with helping to erode limiting stereotypical sex roles. When first introduced, in 1959, her wardrobe was a bathing suit and her aspirations were to be a fashion model. In the decades that followed, Barbie got a graduation cap and gown, and a diploma. She became first a nurse and then a doctor. She even became an officer in the Army, in 1989, and the President of the United States in 2000. 
Though she may have opened doors for girls envisioning themselves as women, Barbie hasn’t been so successful in expanding the options of boys. Parents often refuse to buy dolls for their boys, fearing that playing with a doll would overly-develop a boy’s feminine side, perhaps even to the point of inducing homosexuality. Though research has completely debunked this myth, it lives on. Boys who want to play with dolls are given action figures like Batman, or robotic figures that are even further removed from the human realm. Rather than being encouraged to develop their nurturing and empathetic sides, boys are often directed towards competition-based play, from sports to war games. Many parents believe that these differences between boys and girls are innate and should be supported.

Others disagree. While research clearly shows differences between male and female brains, it also shows that boys are innately capable of nurturing and empathy, and that they need to experience these qualities in themselves and in others. Boys need their parents and other adults in their lives to encourage and support them in expressing all of their feelings. Playing with dolls gives children a way to act out what they are feeling before they have words to express it, and boys are often denied this opportunity. While girls can send their Barbies into combat, boys have a much harder time accessing Batman’s softer side. 

As more and more parents break free of these limiting stereotypes and allow their boys to play with dolls, they still face cultural taboos. Sometimes mothers will confide in each other that their sons like to play with their Barbies. While the mothers say they are comfortable with seeing their sons dress Barbie in her ball gown, they might also mention that the dads don’t know their sons are playing with Barbies: it’s a secret between the mother and the son. 

This secret is guarded from other boys, too. A boy who plays with Barbies is a magnet for teasing and derision from many of his peers, even if they too are closet Barbie doll fans.

As psychologists point out, it is time for boys to bring their Barbies into the light of day. Moms and dads both need to welcome them.