UKC

Sport climbing Barbie and camping fun Barbie don't hang out together. Camping fun Barbie thinks that sport climbing Barbie is shallow and only cares about grade chasing, doesn't take the time to appreciate nature and enjoy just being in the mountains...

Is Ken all right with this?

I'm holding on for the Ken doll, the (un)limited edition version, with "unwanted beta" voice

I thought about creating a whole narrative about this but decided not to let the 5 year old me get too carried away! 

(and yes, Ken too, etc....) 

From the image, I have a few concerns about her safety at the crag. Still at least she looks like a climber, and we all know that's what it all about. 👍 In reality my little girls are extremely excited about this... 😊

I'm waiting for trad climbing Barbie, complete with Helly Hanson fleece, Ron Hills, a rack of hexes on rope and clip on beard accessories.

Andy F

Ah, that'll be Bumbly Barbie. And don't forget those all-important red socks.

Next up: Bouldering Barbie, whose biceps are bigger and emblazoned with Red Bull tattoos. She comes with several colors of KT Tape to protect and decorate her shoulders and knees, a stovetop veggie steamer, a stick clip with a brush, an adorable dog, and a euro van with a bed that doubles as a bouldering pad. Ken not needed.

And a beanie

I'm looking for a Barbie Grylls. Does George Foreman do a range?

Are these full size robotic belay bunnies?

It's quite an impressive list of no-nos!

A woman goes into a toy shop to buy her daughter a Barbie doll for her birthday...

"Well," says the shop assistant, "Which one do you want? We have quite a range of Barbie dolls now."

"There's surfer Barbie. It comes with a bikini, surfboard, campervan and that's £19.95."

"Then there's horsie Barbie. Comes with jodpurs, saddle and a model horse. That's £19.95"

"Then there's climber Barbie. That comes with a harness, chalk bag, quickdraws etc. That's £19.95"

"And lastly there divorced Barbie. That's £247.50"

"F*ck me" says the surprised customer, "What does that come with?"

"Ken's house, Ken's car, Ken's motorbike, Ken's pension..." replies the assistant...  

It works. My 6 yo daughter wants one. I can't decide if this is a good or a bad thing.

And at last someone had actually questioned whether this Barbie Doll is a positive thing or not! Well?

Well she is a bit on the thin side! But in general having dolls doing things like climbing, camping, surfing rather than cooking is a good thing I think.

My first thought when I saw this was: where can I get one for my 6 yo daughter? They're going to be playing with dolls anyway so far better they represent active girls doing fun stuff.

My first thought was that we were inevitably going to get another classic UKC gender stereotyping/sexism/cyborg conflagration (it is, after all a super-thin blond, blue eyed, tight pink shorted, sport climbing Barbie doll!), but I decided not to risk lighting the touch paper in case I got my fingers burnt......

Well it just so happens that my daughter is a thin blue-eyed blonde who likes to wear tight pink shorts and has been known to come sport climbing. I think the stereotype, in this case, is pretty accurate!

True. I'd rather this than most of the unicorn/princess/mermaid stuff that must be 80% of what you can buy.

But what message does it send to a not so thin "average" young girl?

20+ posts in and nobody's asked "what has she ever done on grit?"

The world's gone mad....

Someone did on the Facebook comments!

Yeah, he can be a pain in the arse at the crag.

My thoughts entirely. If anyone here has a young daughter yet did not immediately bridle at Barbie’s extreme thinness, then they may be in for an almighty shock when her late teens arrive and Ana comes calling.

Look, I'm sorry, but let's not get carried away here. My eldest loves dolls and Barbies and let me tell you that they (Mattel?) have tried really hard (and done quite well in my opinion) to tackle to diversity thing. The ones now available represent a fairly healthy and diverse group of plastic persons. Barbie herself has always been slim. That's not her fault, and to discriminate against people who are thin, or blonde etc isn't on a either. The different shapes, colours and abilities of people are reflected in the other Barbie toys available now. Remember, this is an Olympic sport climbing Barbie, and I think that the body type of the doll is not unrepresentative of the body type of real life Olympic sport climbing people.

I’m not getting carried away. I’m still shuddering at the memory of my daughter’s anorexia. Two years of hell that I would not wish on anyone.

There’s been an encouraging shift in recent years with the use of “normal woman” models in much of the fashion world, and it’s about time that Barbie reflected the same. Barbie is diverse in skin and career nowadays, but she is always thin. Yes, plenty of female athletes have tall, skinny bodies, but most young girls do not. Only last week, Taylor Swift, the very mirror of a Barbie doll, owned up to her eating disorder.

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of 'Berbi' so I can introduce my young niece to the thrilling world of gender equal north African goat herding.

Have you looked at its arms? The only reason Barbie might be able to do a pull up is that the rest of it is so skinny too!

She might be able to do okay in lead but she's never going to get anywhere in the bouldering...

I believe she does quite well on plastic though.

There are undoubtedly some top female climbers built like stick insects, but it is stereotyping to say it is representative. Girls buying the doll in this country are most likely to see Shauna Coxsey as their role model and she is not built like that.

Maybe, but it's not a Shauna doll is it? It's Barbie. I think everyone is getting hung up on stuff for the sake of it. I'm honestly surprised that no-one is spitting feathers yet about this being the thin(ner) end of wedge of commercialism in climbing. Look, if this gets kids excited about climbing who may not have otherwise, then that's great. If kids who already like climbing (like mine) like the doll because it's doing something that they can identify with, then that is also great. The Barbie doll collection, for the record, does include females with different body shapes (contrary to the statement in the replies above), but the one in the picture was Barbie herself. It would be far more concerning if her body shape were to fluctuate wildly. Instead Barbie stays the same, but her 'friends' represent a more diverse brush stroke of life. And to be clear, I said that Barbie was not unrepresentative of some sports climbing folk, but I did not say that she was representative. I am fully aware of the wide range of shapes and sizes that make up both sport (within a narrower bracket) and life. 

And her partner the "Ken Wilson" doll

If it's going to make you uncomfortable about your body image, don't buy one. 

Stick with leggo

Strangely enough, my 6 yo asked whether they'd modelled the doll on "Shauny" as she thought it looked like her

complete with an array of huge hexes

she probably climbs better than the 1960s Action Man mountaineer, though we don't know how many bags of chips he eats in training

I`m concerned that camping fun barbie is all set for a via ferrata with a homemade rope lanyard with no form of shock absorber, does the equivalent Ken version come with the explanation of fall factors? Also, chalk bag but no gloves so no cable hauling?

I'm a bit worried for sport climbing barbie's health! She seems to be attached to the rope by only a qd, with a wide open gate clipped through a belay plate at one end and the upper loop of her harness at the other...and wtaf is that chalk bag and qd arrangement. Sport climbing barbie's gonna die.....

And at least camping fun Barbie wears a helmet (though not sure it's an essential camping item?)

The plastic harness looks pretty painful, though probably OK if you're plastic in any case...

Couldn't quite work out why camping fun barbie was actually a climbing barbie. She's certainly got a practically sized trad rucksac. 

Must admit if I found either in a charity shop they'd be straight on my shelf,  joking aside they're a million miles better role models  for small girls than Simpering Princess Barbie.

Why has a Kickstarter not been set up for the Ken (Wilson) doll yet? It could have a pullstring that makes it shriek things like "NO MORE BOLTS ON PEAK LIMESTONE"; "THIN END OF THE WEDGE"; "DEATH TO PUERILE TICKERS" etc etc etc 

And it could come with a range of dress-up fibre pile accessories.

My Daughter has the Disney princess dolls and Lotti dolls. She makes nothing of their differing shapes, they're just dolls. Kids don't care about things we think they care about, they just want to play.

Mattel are also presenting sponsor of the PanAm Olympic Qualifier, which is taking place this week: https://www.facebook.com/sportclimbing/photos/a.123364617754687/27327361301...