Designers Claim The Only Way For Barbie's Clothes To Fit Is For Her To Have An Impossible Physique

There's another hot beauty debate, but this time it's not about a celebrity or supermodel. Instead it centers on a household item — the Barbie doll that so many of us grew up with.

The original lead designer of Barbie and all her plastic glory, Kim Culmone, recently came out of the defensive for those who have criticized the childhood toy for her unrealistic body type.

"Barbie's body was never designed to be realistic," Culmone told Fast Company during the interview.

I just wish someone had been there to tell that to the little girls who idolized the doll and used her proportions as something to strive towards, despite the fact that a "real-life" Barbie body is so humanly impossible (unless you undergo extensive plastic surgery like Valeria Lukyanova did), a woman with the same measurements would literally have to crawl on all fours to get around.

Instead, Culmone said that the Barbie doll was created with her nipped-and-tucked body in order to accommodate the clothes (guess loose-fitting sheath dresses weren't so chic when toy company Mattel decided — and ultimately never changed — Barbie's original design).

While Culmone's argument may seem legitimate in many capitalist minds and markets, ThinkProgress aptly points out that this general justification (some bodies are simply better than others for clothes) is exactly what has contributed to a super-skinny culture where sub-zero sized models strut the runway in awesome pieces that simply wouldn't "work" on the rest of us.

I'm less than impressed by Barbie's impossible one-size-fits-none, and hoping that from now on these dolls come with a warning or start to be slightly more representative of the population for the impressionable young ones who love them.

via Think Progress, Top Photo Courtesy: Tumblr