Barbie Fashionista. Credit: "Barbie Fashionista 107 (Malibu)" by moggymawee is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
She's the blonde bombshell and he's her square-jawed sidekick. But nearly 70 years after the impossibly perfect Barbie and Ken made their debut, a new study from Adelaide University and UNSW Sydney shows the iconic pair are finally looking a little more like the rest of us.
Three decades after a landmark Australian study revealed Barbie and Ken's body proportions were almost unattainable in real life, researchers have revisited the 1996 study and found that Barbie and Ken have undergone a remarkable transformation.
Using the same scientific methods as the original study, researchers measured today's Fashionista Barbie dolls—including Curvy, Tall, Petite and Standard Barbie—as well as the latest Ken doll to determine how closely their body proportions match those of real adults.
The findings show that key body proportions, including waist-to-hip and chest-to-waist ratios, are now much closer to those seen in real populations. The study is published in the journal PLOS One.
