Barbie and Her Fat Ankles

Take a quick skim through any fashion magazine and your worst suspicions will be confirmed: they (the magazines, the media, the world at large) want girls to be stick figures.

Now, this is not a new revelation. But recently, things have gone completely cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs crazy. First, fancy schmancy shoe designer Christian Louboutin was presented with the opportunity to redesign Barbie, and instead of making the obvious improvements—more diverse and unique facial features, arms and legs with joints, the ability to come down off her tippy-toes—he went straight for Barbie's chubby ankles. That's right, the 2 or 3 millimeters of ankle was just too big for Mr. Flashy Red Soles, so he slimmed down her beastly tree trunks.

This latest instance of out-of-control weight watching would be laughable, if it didn't come on the heels (no pun intended) of this...

Yeah, that's supposed to be a real person. Notice how her head is wider than her hips. Please wait a moment while we choke on our soda.  This is too ridiculous!

What's that you say? The girl in the photo, the same one who looks like a lollipop (thanks, of course, to some really awful and obvious Photoshopped) was apparently fired for being too fat?! Seriously? Someone has got to put a stop to this madness.

Europe, to the rescue! Both the UK and France are thinking about requiring disclaimers on photos that have been Photoshopped so that, ya know, we don't think we have to look like that poor model whose head is wider than her hips. Nothing is official yet, but we have our slightly chubby fingers crossed that the legislation will go through. But what should the disclaimer look like? We have a few suggestions:

• This smiling stick figure—after all, someone in these photos has to smile!
• A very small print of the original, un-edited photo along with the phrase "Here is what this person actually looks like."
• For a sleek, modern approach, how about a filled in circle next to an outline of a circle and the phrase, "Something has been removed from this photo."
• Faint text at the bottom of the photo that reads, "Objects in photo are larger than they appear."
• A drawing of a unicorn with the text, "I'm not real, and neither is this photo!"

What do you think of the Barbie makeover and the media's general portrayal of women? Do you think warning labels on Photoshopped images would help?

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