Lammily - The New Barbie?

The Lammily is a new doll on the market which is based on the average body proportions of a 19 year old woman and is sold with the buy line, 'Average is Beautiful.'

Just in that one sentence there are a hundred things that annoy me. First just the name annoys me, Nickolay Lamm, Lammily is a terrible name, I know you want to single handedly change girls perceptions of beauty but it is sickening how forcibly you shoehorned your name into it's frontrunner. Next is the 'Average is Beautiful' as if there actually is an average body type, I am not even talking about weight, but even between races there is such a variety in shape and size and skin colour. THERE IS NO AVERAGE. You cannot categorise people like that, so saying that fit, tall, caucasion, white girl is average is very damaging. Lamm does plan to expand to creating Lammily's of different ethnicities but the line's idea of average further damages girls perception of beauty. The thing that annoys me the most is the video in which Lamm talks about his creation, it just irks me that another man is defining what is and what is not beautiful for women. Surely a greater use of time and money would not be making realistic dolls to fit every shape and size but teaching women and men that a woman should define her own standards of beauty. Often girls are more familiar with their barbies than with their own bodies, we are brought up waiting to be told we are beautiful, but we should grow up declaring that.

Don't get me wrong, I am pleased that there is some attempt to crush the Barbie Empire as I do think Barbie does skew a girl's perception of beauty indelibly. However at least Barbie doesn't pretend, it unashamedly defies realistic body proportions and over sexualises. 

So I don't really know how I feel about this overall, I think if any more dolls are going to be created I want it to be woman at the design helm. 

http://time.com/12786/the-new-barbie-meet-the-doll-with-an-average-womans-proportions/

https://www.lammily.com/average-is-beautiful

http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/07/4873034/barbie-isnt-normal-but-neither.html