One of the better "realistic" Barbie dolls I've seen

Recently, I wrote a piece on Osocio about the may attempts people have made to bring attention to Barbie's exaggerated proportions — elongated legs, tiny waist, and huge head.

They ran from the thought-provoking:

To the absurd:

This latest entry, from 3-D printer artist Nickolay Lamm, stands up with the best of them:

Via 3D Prints of The World

Here is its backstory (via ONTD Political on Livejournal):

Artist Nickolay Lamm of MyDeals.com used CDC measurements of an average 19-year-old woman to create a 3-D model, which he photographed next to a standard Barbie doll. Lamm then photoshopped the 3-D model to make it look like a Barbie doll.  

"If we criticize skinny models, we should at least be open to the possibility that Barbie may negatively influence young girls as well," Lamm said in an email to the Huffington Post. "Furthermore, a realistically proportioned Barbie actually looks pretty good." 

Considering how peculiar a Barbie body would look in real life, Lamm concluded: "If there's even a small chance of Barbie in its present form negatively influencing girls, and if Barbie looks good as an average-sized woman in America, what's stopping Mattel from making one?"

Via ONTD Political

But is this a realistic portrayal? As you can see above, I maintain a healthy skepticism about these things. I finally found the original source link, and here is the artist's explanation:

This white model was made using measurements that match up closely with CDC measurements of the average 19 year old woman in America. The end result is what Barbie would look like if she was a healthy, beautiful, 19 year old woman.

Via MyDeals.com

Mr. Lamm adds:

Some people say that we shouldn't pay attention to the body proportions of Barbie because she is just a toy. On the surface, that sounds like a valid argument. But a closer look, through research, suggests that Barbie may lead to the following…
- Heightened body dissatisfaction among young girls (Dittmar)- Unhealthy eating behaviors (Dittmar)-  A desire to achieve a slim body and therefore eat less (Anschutz)

Via Daily Mail

 Thanks to Ivan at 3D Prints of The World for the tip!

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Barbara, we have to stop meeting like this!