Somy Ali on the Barbie movie: Don’t agree with the message Barbie doll creators have been conveying over the years causing damage to our children

Share this on

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on whatsapp
Share on email

Amid the hype around Margot Robbie’s Barbie movie at an all-time high, the film has been released in theatres. The trailer of the movie too was showered with love as people waited in bated breath for the movie to open. This Barbie adaptation by Greta Gerwig is, therefore, a special experience for many… in fact, even Google is celebrating its release with a pink homepage and stars the moment one searches for Greta’s name. Actor-turned-humanitarian Somy Ali, who now runs her NGO, No More Tears, however, has some concerns. Read on…

“Barbie has been reigning over the minds of girls as young as four years old since 1959. When I moved to the US at the age of 9, I was given a blonde hair blue eyed Barbie doll for my birthday. To this day I vividly remember how much I could not relate to her. Her features were unlike mine and particularly her skin colour and to me, even at the age of nine, she looked fake and phoney. My concept of beauty as it is even today were and are Rekha ji, the late Smita Patil Ji, Nandita Das, and models like Seema Hari. I find all of them stunningly beautiful and in my book, that’s the epitome of beauty. When I was a little girl, I believed Rekha ji to be the most beautiful woman in the world and to this day I have the same ideology when it pertains to what is beautiful,” she says.

Somy recalls how in 2000, Barbie’s creators, due to tons of pressure, tried to change her waist-to-hip ratio to what our normal women’s bodies look like and they even made some of the dolls portraying them as doctors and career women.

“Nonetheless, I detest what they have done and are still doing to young girls’ psyche universally. It has led many girls as young as nine to develop body dysmorphic disorders such as bulimia and anorexia. These are serious disorders and I blame the makers of Barbie, bigotry, racism, and the creators assuming that this is what every child will relate to and fall in love with. Whereas, it’s the complete opposite and it’s about time they change their marketing strategy and create all shapes and sizes including skin colors to show our children that they belong. Their message has been the complete opposite and has been for years isolating several young girls leading them to depression and starvation so they can fit the societal norm of what is beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, I think someone like Jennifer Aniston to be absolutely gorgeous as I do Gwyneth Paltrow, however when it comes to Barbie what they are doing is lethal for our children as our personalities develop by the age of nine,” she adds.

The former actor shares how one of her journalist friends just saw the movie and was appalled as she left the theatre. From that friend, she came to know that the press was handed a gift bag that consisted of skin whitening cream and cleaning supplies sending the same old message they were sending in 1959.

“Hence, nothing has changed and the concept of beauty remains to be light-skinned and the role of women is to scrub floors and stay in the kitchen. I find this disgusting and appalling that there have been no changes in countless years with the message the Barbie creators are sending to our youth. It’s like the tobacco industry, we all know that smoking kills and so do the people who distribute cigarettes and manufacture them. But in spite of many lawsuits filed against them by families of people who have died due to lung cancer, the tobacco industry keeps winning and keeps on selling to its addicts,” she sounds disturbed.

Concluding, Somy adds, “It’s all about money and since the masses are white in the US, Barbie creators cater to them which is nothing, but blatant discrimination. I think letters to the creators and awareness of the damage they are causing to our children is necessary. However, I do not believe things will change rapidly, similarly to how long it takes for people to comprehend the damage caused by the consumption of tobacco.”

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on whatsapp
Share on email

Tags

Related articles

Nepo kids - Janhvi Kapoor, Ananya Panday... are all over in Bollywood, and it is a matter of concern or so I thought! Let me, Sumita Chakraborty, Editor-in-chief, TheGlitz, start with a disclaimer: I have nothing against fluff or star kids. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed Emily in Paris. It was lively, fun, and the fashion was on point. Sometimes, all you need is a bit of light-hearted escapism, and I’m all for it. So when I sat down to watch Ananya Panday's Call Me Bae, I wasn’t expecting Citizen Kane. But what I wasn’t expecting was just how puerile and soulless it would turn out to be.
In a move that has taken the digital space by storm, travel and lifestyle creator Larissa D'Sa has gone from Instagram reels to the big screen, and TheGlitz is here to give you the inside scoop! Known for her beautifully curated travel content, Larissa has just released her first short film, Beyond Borders and Banter, marking a significant leap in her journey as a creator. No longer confined to the small screen, Larissa’s cinematic debut showcases her travels to Kolkata during the iconic Durga Puja festival, offering viewers a richer, more immersive narrative than ever before.
In a world where “ordinary” just doesn’t cut it, celebrities have taken luxury to a whole new level. From lavish mansions to obsessions with vintage timepieces, their quirks aren’t just extravagant—they’re downright legendary. Let’s pull back the velvet curtains and let Sumita Chakraborty, Editor-in-chief, TheGlitz take a cheeky peek into the luxe lives of some of the world’s most glamorous stars, including a sportsman who’s as famous for his luxe tastes as his athletic prowess.
Bigg Boss OTT with Anil Kapoor has been trying very hard to live up to the stellar reputation of its big brother, the OG Bigg Boss, Colors hosted by Salman Khan. Unfortunately, though TheGlitz loves 'My Name Is Lakhan' Anil Kapoor, sorry to say, he's no Salman Khan and Bigg Boss OTT looks like a sloppy version of the original show. And to top it, in a recent episode, Armaan Malik slapped Vishal Panday on the pretext that he had made a "lewd" comment about his second wife Kritika who walks around the house, prancing around looking dumb as a dumbbell. And the so-called "lewd" comment from Vishal was "I like Kritika Bhabhi. I'm guilty!"
Sonakshi Sinha is back! ...Back in the starry spotlight after the super duper success of the maverick Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Heeramandi'. However, before this Netflix masterpiece, which everyone is talking about, things were not exactly going great for our pretty Sona. Sadly, the audience had completely forgotten about her. Sona was not in the news and was relegated to being "irrelevant" to today's cinema. news filtered in that Sonakshi Sinha was getting married on June 23, 2024. However, TheGlitz was told by a source that Sonakshi Sinha was already married to Zahir Iqbal. They had got married two years ago and were living together from then on.