Existential Dress-up With Real-Life Barbie

Image Source

The need to redesign ourselves, to feel like we’re someone different for the day.

Today’s question might not be completely feminist based - rather, I’d like to think it relates to human nature in general.

Specifically, I’m talking about the disturbing trend of the doll girls; most famously, Valeria Lukyanova, the Russian real-life Barbie doll (or so she has dubbed herself), although there are other young women who have developed a following for their baby doll look - Venus Angelic and Dakota Rose for example.

Each of these girls has created a persona, one in which they mimic the unattainable and nonexistent, and one for which there are numerous concerns. For instance, the disturbing image of adult women and teenagers dressing up like sexualized baby dolls, the unrealistic physical expectations that they place upon themselves and other young women (and which must have been placed upon them at some point), and the fact that this persona cannot be maintained forever: what will these girls do once the crux of their public image (their physical features) have faded?

Now, I’m trying not to judge these ladies too harshly. I too like to reinvent myself and have been known to slip into a leather jacket, motorcycle boots and spike my short hair into a Mohawk to feel a little more rock n’ roll for the day. Or, after watching the old John Wayne movie Hatari, dress like I’m about to go on safari. But I’d like to think that those days are just underrepresented facets of my personality bursting forth.

However, if I judge these girls by the way that they look, am I not as bad as the rest of the superficial world that pushed them into this uber-plasticized world?

What do you think? Are we capable of fairly judging others' physical representations, or are we doomed to an eternity of shallow behavior based on looks?