. . . In a Barbie World

I came across an article a few days ago, and I've been laughing ever since.  How funny is this picture!?   

source

The girl on the right, Galia Slayen, took Barbie's "womanly" measurments, and proportioned them to a life-sized person.  She then made a papier-mache model to visually display her calculations.  The roughly 6 foot tall woman measures 39" at the bust, 18" around her waist, and 33" at her hips (and her arms are really funny looking, too).

My mom is a retired JR high math teacher, and she once did this same experiment with her classes.  Way to go, Mom.  It's such a great idea, and seeing a model of a life-size person with Barbie's proportions truly brings out the ridiculuousness of her measurements.  

Now, don't get me wrong.  I do believe that, for several years, I single-handedly drove up Barbie's stock value beginning in the late eighties.  This girl has played with her fair share of Barbie dolls, and relished every minute of it.  But, wow, really?!?  This is what we give little girls to play with, and then wonder why we all grow up to have physical insecurities. 

If you want to read the full article from The Today Show, here's the link:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/

I haven't blogged much lately mostly because I've been busy, and there's nothing new to report (other than the fact that my husband is officially DONE with law school... all that's left is graduation... whoo hoo!!).  This, however, was too good to pass up.  If the moral of the story doesn't interest you, at least you can chuckle at the picture one more time.  :)