Opinion

Barbie isn’t a bad influence. It’s a doll.

Enough already. The May 15 Ask Amy column, "Respect parents' princess-free zone," discussed parents who are concerned that owning a Barbie doll would negatively affect their daughter's body image. Are you kidding me? Yet another cry for help because a child might like Barbie?

In the late 1950s and onward, Barbie was every little girl’s dream, and my friends and I all had at least one. They were and are dolls. We had fun dressing them up and playing with them. We didn’t pay the least attention to their tiny waists, pointy little breasts and feet arched so they could fit into their little high heels. None of us thought about wanting to grow up looking like that, or even imagined it. They were dolls. Fun to play with, not to imagine reality with. (I had a little motorized baby Thumbelina doll as well. Do you think I thought all babies looked like that or that I wanted a real one that looked like that?)