KEN AND BARBIE AT LIFE SIZE

There has been considerable discussion in both the scientific literatu re and general media concerning the appropriateness of the body shape and proportions of the Ken and Barbie dolts, the most popular dolls in modem history. The greatest concern has been of the possible influenc e that these, and other ''cultural ideals'' for body shape, may have o n young children. However, these concerns have been based entirely on the subjective interpretation of how one perceives the body dimensions of the dolls relative to an adult size. We therefore used our skills in anthropometry and the rules of allometry to scale the dolls to an a dult height to determine the dimensions that these dolls would assume at this adjusted size. These were compared to actual proportions of se veral representative adult groups of predominantly Anglo-Australian ma les and females. The critics have been justified in their opinions sin ce both Barbie and Ken are thin relative to the reference samples. Bar bie's mean girth z-score relative to a reference cross-section of the young adult population was -4.2. This indicates that the probability f or such a body shape is less than 1 in 100,000. Ken is more realistic at about 1 in 50.