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Life-size Barbie gets real women talking

Galia Slayen, a student, presents the iconic doll's proportionals in a provocative new context. 

In Galia Slayen’s hands, the "iconic blond plaything has morphed into a life-size representation of what an eating disorder looks like. Four years ago, Slayen, then a student at Lincoln High School in Portland, Ore., built what she believed to be a life-size version of the doll she played with as a child as part of the first National Eating Disorders Awareness Week."

The barbie is made of "wood, chicken wire and papier mache, and is dressed in a size 00 skirt that was a remnant from Slayen’s one-year bout with anorexia."

“I’m not blaming Barbie [for my illness] — she’s one small factor, an environmental factor,” Slayen said. “I’m blond and blue-eyed and I figured that was what I was supposed to look like. She was my idol. It impacted the way I looked at myself.”

“As a pop-cultural icon, Barbie is often used as art to express one’s own personal opinions and views,” a Mattel spokesperson said in an email. “Girls see female body images everywhere today and it’s critical that parents and caregivers provide perspective on what they are seeing. It’s important to remember that Barbie is a doll who stands 11.5 inches tall and weighs 7.25 ounces — she was never modeled on the proportions of a real person.”

Finishing reading the artcle at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42595605/ns/today-today_people/t/life-size-barbie-gets-real-women-talking/