When Barbie meets ballet...?

September 9, 2001 7:15 AM

When Barbie meets ballet...? Mattel are shelling out £85,000 to sponsor the ENO's traditional Christmas run of the Nutcracker, which coincidentally starts just as Barbie in the Nutcracker hits the cinemas. A good way to "interest young girls in the ballet", or a head-on crash between two questionable influences on their body image? (more inside...)
posted by holgate (4 comments total)

My girlfriend took ballet classes right through her childhood, and was pretty good at it. But flicking through her photo album, she looks painfully skinny; now, at the age of 24, her knees creak like those of someone twice her age. She freely admits that dancing forced her to fight against her natural body shape throughout her teens.

So when I think of "Barbie" and "ballerina", two polarised ideals that are equally freakish, I can't help but squirm.
posted by holgate at 7:23 AM on September 9, 2001

Ever see a ballet dancer's feet? I couldn't find any pictures, but from experience they're a bit messed up and look deformed.

I can almost see my FOX affiliate's "news" story about the Horrors of Ballet: What parents need to know!
posted by skallas at 11:47 AM on September 9, 2001

My girlfriend was a skinny ballet dancer for a number of years and doesn't seem to have suffered much permanent damage, but I think she just was scrawny and long-limbed; I don't think ballet did it to her.

It's the effects of years of accordion lessons I'm worried about.
posted by pracowity at 3:50 AM on September 10, 2001

I've been working at a toy retailer over the summer and I can assure you that Nutcracker Barbie is the most disgusting toy in the world, followed closely by Angel Of Peace Barbie. Sorry to have an anti barbie sentiment here but I like my escapist illusions to have a possiblity of being true. Barbie is just so physically impossible that it can only be doing bad things. Give them toys with guns, toys with guns, then they'll be well adjusted...
posted by nedrichards at 12:10 PM on September 10, 2001