It's a 50s thing, modeled on a real woman rather than a kid..... I'm guessing it was all fellas in the design 'team' and boardroom.

Bardie is adult woman, not child. That's why whe looks like adult woman with breast and all. Plus it was based on doll for adults so there it is. But she is grown woman, that's why she looks like one.

Barbie was never aimed at the kids. She was aimed at the adult who bought toys for kids.

When Barbie was created in the 50s the curvy woman was all over, especially in Hollywood (where the creator of Barbie got her inspection from) hence the big boobs, tiny waist, thin long legs, etc. But nowadays those attributes are not as important to society and having a doll reflect something other than a “curvy woman” is t the norm.

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Because women have boobs duh and no it wasn't the breasts were never big to begin with

Yup, same as I would make all kinds of characters with LEGOs when I was a kid, I can see this being very good for the kids creativity, as long as there are enough options.

I'm' very lucky - I'm female but even 50 yeas ago I played with trucks and boats, not dolls and tea sets, and my parents never pressured me to choose differently.

There are superhero dolls. They come on hard plastic (although usually not Barbie size--Mattel is quite jealous of making sure only Barbie wears their god-awful' creations'.0 and plush.

Nor did she fit on the fancy model horses--the ones that looked good, not the horrors Mattel produced later.

Maybe what people are looking for is to be TREATED like they would be treated if they were the sex/gender they see themselves as.

What are the lies you are talking about?

And paying for three of them at current prices!

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I think you mean, "This is not the entirety of human history up until the last 10 years or so, when kids weren't influenced by trendy identity doubts, reinforced by corporations marketing to said doubts."

It won't confuse kids. A boy who's a rock throwing, fort making, rough and tumble boy won't do "gee, this doll can be a boy or a girl. I guess I'll start wearing dresses now". A doll won't make you think differently about "what" you are. If you are trans then you are trans independent of what a doll from the store might get in your head. And if somehow you do get influenced, it won't last long because eventually you'll figure yourself out as fas as "who" you are.

Good points Alicia, Thank you! And you are correct, I did confuse Gender with Sex. Maybe I'm going about this all too primitively.

Why do you believe that gender roles are very important? We live in a society now where you pretty much need two incomes to raise a family, so women have to work even if they don't want to. It hardly seems fair if they are then expected to do all the cooking, cleaning and child-rearing too. I'm curious why you think that it's helpful for society in any way to keep telling people that they should fit into those traditional roles?

Can you explain how exactly it negatively affects society? Personally I think gender roles can be very limiting so being more open to people being able to be themselves and chose what works for them without judgment seems like a good thing for society.

I was thinking more in terms of being able to "visually" determine ones gender. Maybe using the word "roles" wasn't accurate. If no one knows who is male or female wouldn't that make reproducing a bit difficult? It seems dumb but I do think about this sometimes. Imagine 100 yrs from now.... No one has a "gender", we are are neutral. How do you know what you are attracted to if there are no genders? who will actually reproduce? Only the people who by chance hooked up with someone with the opposite body parts? You can't say they had sex with the opposite gender because there is no gender. The more I think about it the more my head hurts.