When I was growing up, Barbie was the essence of a woman’s beauty. She had clear skin, white teeth and colorful lips. She had blonde hair, blue eyes and white skin. Her measurements were perfect: shapely breasts, tiny waist, slim arms and legs. All her clothes fit her perfectly. She looked good in everything — even when my sister and I cut her hair.
Then, in 2014, Barbie changed. Gone was her perfectly clear skin and her disproportionate body measurements. She suddenly became somewhat normal; she looked like us. She can get acne, stretch marks, scars, stitches, freckles, cellulite — things we all experience as we get older.
A year later, Barbie has actually become a real woman. She gets her period, and she even comes with a set of colorful pads. That’s awesome!
"Society needs ‘normal Barbie’ who gets her period" http://t.co/Gdaoc7UeVd
— TIME.com (@TIME) September 23, 2015
The world is still very uncomfortable about menstruation. In some parts of the world, girls drop out of school when they start getting their periods due to lack of private facilities. The first episode of “Orange Is the New Black,” when Chapman is using pads as slippers, shows a bigger problem: Due to limited resources, women in prison sometimes will have to resort to using pads or tampons for other uses than their periods, like cleaning, leaving them with very little to use for when they actually have their periods. Women who live in poverty or are homeless suffer from lack of resources.
No one likes talking about it, and I think women can all relate that it can be embarrassing and shameful. I’m sure we all have that one story about our periods. Mine was when I was 12-years-old. We had just gotten out of an assembly, and as I was walking back to class with this cute guy, a friend shouted across campus that I was leaking. It was embarrassing, and I couldn’t help but feel ashamed. How could my body betray me like this?
Even now, I’m still getting used to talking about my period comfortably. I sometimes still pick out female cashiers when I buy pads and tampons, and I hide them when I use public bathrooms. But we shouldn’t be embarrassed by our periods. Periods are normal.
While Period Barbie is primarily being marketed to educate young girls on menstruation who are going through puberty, I think Period Barbie is making a bigger statement: normalizing periods.
Girls get periods. Periods are part of the female sex, and we need to stop hiding or skirting around this fact. Showcasing a female doll who gets one too will hopefully make everyone more comfortable talking about something every woman gets. Period awareness. Let’s make it a thing.
Related Links:
Normal Barbie is on the right track
Film shows negative stereotypes of female bodies
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