Will the real Beth Ditto please stand up?
In 1998, the Body Shop ran the Ruby campaign, featuring a size 22ish Barbie au naturale, reclining on a chaise. It was the campaign that woke up my little size acceptance brain, just the audacity of the Mattel icon looking, well, a lot like me (disclaimer: unlike Ruby, I do have nipples) and then the outrage that the campaign had to be pulled because it was upsetting too many people.
I can’t help but think of Ruby when looking at a Beth Ditto doll created by plus-size UK retailer Evans to promote their new Ditto-designed line which drops this July.
Uh, they know Beth Ditto is a fat girl, right? And they’re trying to sell clothing to fat girls? I had almost allowed myself to believe that we’ve come so far since 1997 when Ruby was pulled out of the mall for supposedly frightening children on their way to Build-A-Bear, but then Beth Ditto’s supposed dolly doppelganger has all of her thigh dimples lipo’d away. So close and yet, so far.
Posted by Weetabix
Filed under: Advertising, Beth Ditto, Celebrities, Fashion
Wow. That doll has no thighs. So close yet so far, indeed.
Uh, where’s the rest of her?
Where are her belly rolls? I love her belly rolls, she’s so glam and yet we’ve got the same tummy! Boo at Evans, boo I say!
Wow, indeed. I spent a lot of time as a kid staring at Barbie and learning to hate my body. I ought to be happy that at least the doll represents a larger woman, but still, the article’s line that “Ditto’s curves have been translated into pint-sized proportions” is totally bogus. Way pissed off.
raine, I had the same reaction…
I don’t think it’s to to bad. It does look like her a good bit….it’s just thinner looking actually….which is pretty stupid. I want one though just because it’s Beth.
I hate to be the devil’s advocate (no I don’t, I relish in it, lol), but could the smaller proportions when compared to Ditto be because of the “fashion doll” medium? ie. it’s difficult to pose a barbie whose thighs touch?
I’m not saying it’s ok or good, but merely that it may be a limitation of the medium.
I just happened to run across this site while blogging. I’d like to take just a moment to promote my new book, “Beth:Love Along The Way…by B.G.Sanford,” and just released by Eloquent Books. It’s a wonderful story of a woman who over comes all odds, and 2 bad divorces, to find love…………….Along The Way.
It’s a most entertaining read, and can be bought on line or have your local book store order it.
All my best,
B.G.Sanford
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/BethLoveAlongTheWay.html
The Beth Ditto doll is capital A adorable, but the fat Barbie was quite disturbing. Maybe it’s because the fat Barbie doll was naked and really quite hideous and the Beth doll is dressed in a cute hot pink minidress. I dunno. I’d get one of the Beth dolls, though. Can’t wait to see the clothing line!
Maybe it’s because the fat Barbie doll was naked and really quite hideous
All dolls are hideous when naked. It’s the joints [shudder].
I thought the fat Barbie was hot, not hideous. Just throwing it out there.
I too thought the fat Barbie was gorgeous. I think the Beth doll was gorgeous too – and to be fair in recent photos it looks like she’s lost a bunch of weight, although that could be that she’s into trapeze dresses lately, not as much skin-tight stuff – but it doesn’t quite portray her accurately.
I do think it might be hard to do so realistically. Remember, the Body Shop doll was an illustration, not a real doll: plastic doesn’t fold that way, and if you attempted to there’d be no way it could move the same way; it’d be an immobile fatty, not a rockstar. It is a bigger doll than most other dolls. It has thighs. It’s got big shoulders and a round face. Its arms are substantially bigger.
I wish it were more Ditto-esque as well but I’ll take what I’m given (…I’ll ask for seconds, but I won’t refuse what I get, you know?). Beth being in the spotlight is in my humble opinion a good thing, even if things aren’t magically perfect because of it. Baby steps, guys.
It’s clear that they forgot to consult the TONS of pictures, widely available through the internet, of Beth Ditto in her undies.
Also, I think the idea that they could not somehow properly engineer a “functioning” fat doll is ludicrous. We have space toilets. We have nano-robots. I’m pretty sure a fat Ditto doll is not beyond the scientific imagination.