I never thought much about it until now, but accurately proportioned dolls are uncanny and creepy. I wonder if that's why Barbie wasn't accurately proportioned to begin with.
It sure doesn't look like a fun toy. As a male I never played with Barbie, but I sure didn't want to play with a toy that looked like my parent. I wanted to play with the action figure that was bright, fun and imaginative. IE GI Joes, Turtles, Super heroes, etc.
I think the problem with girls toys is how they are promoted to be played with. The point of Barbie is to make sure she looks pretty, regardless of the dolls initial proportions. So little girls are taught to focus on appearance and making sure things are visually appealing as possible (including themselves).
I agree. To me Barbie looks obviously unrealistic which reinforces to me that it's a toy. However, I don't feel I have a good perspective on this because I never played with Barbies as a child. OTOH the toys I did play with were also not "realistic" in any sense.
Perhaps if kids grow up playing with realistic toys they won't think they are uncanny.
I don't think they're doing themselves a favour by having the first image be a re-proportioned Barbie. She definitely looks creepy given that there's a familiar comparison.
