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    The plastic surgery a model needs to look like Barbie

    By Piper Weiss, Shine Staff | Fashion – Fri, Oct 14, 2011 8:54 PM EDT

    (Matthew Rolston/O Magazine)(Matthew Rolston/O Magazine)We know that Barbie's body is anatomically impossible. So why are we still trying for it?

    Every day a new plastic surgery promise emerges: scooped-out backs, rear-end lifts, sculpted kneecaps. If it's possible, it's suddenly necessary.

    Related: Designer Barbies for $500 and up?!

    But what exactly would you have to go through to get the 'perfect' Barbie body? In the latest issue of O Magazine, model Katie Halchishick becomes the human diagram.
    Posing for photographer Matthew Rolston, her glamorous, Marilyn Monroe-type features are surgically outlined according to Barbie's proportions.

    Here's a breakdown of what she'd need done to be the kind of doll women aspire to: a brow lift, a jaw line shave, rhinoplasty, a cheek and neck reduction, a chin implant, scooped-out shoulders, a breast lift, liposuction on her arms, and tummy tuck, which would also have to be sculpted as if it were lined in whale-bone from the inside. And that's just the half of her.

    Halchishick doesn't actually need or want any of these procedures. She's proving a point: just because our distorted image of how a body should be is medically attainable, that doesn't mean it should be attained.

    And if you doubt that anyone actually wants to look like Barbie, meet Cindy Jackson, a 55-year-old woman who's had 52 cosmetic surgeries to look like her plastic idol."This is the way I should look," Jackson told Good Morning America. "It's evolution. It's medical progress." There's also 10-in-one-day record-holder Heidi Montag, and a revolving door of on-screen personalities who look more like each other and less like human beings by the day.

    Not everyone would call that progress. "The number one wish for all teenage girls is to be thinner," said Halchishick, a former Ford Model who now mentors high school students about body image issues. "They think what makes a girl beautiful is skinny with big boobs, perfect hair, perfect make-up."

    Last year a total of 13.1 million body parts were surgically altered. Five percent of patients were under the age of 20.

    Halchishick, who co-founded the website Healthy is the New Skinny, doesn't place all the blame on surgery or a pint-sized rubber and plastic doll. She believes change has to start in schools, as well as in the fashion industry. "Girls want to know how to lose weight so badly, and the schools don't want to talk about it, because they're worried they'll develop a complex," she told The Gloss in March. "There need to be models to show [girls] to wish for more." She now heads up her own modeling agency for women with natural figures. She's also campaigned to get plus-sized designers into New York Fashion Week. But her spread in O magazine, the first nude pictorial they've ever featured, has been the most buzz-worthy.

    Accompanied by an essay by writer Amy Bloom, the photograph is     intended to make women rethink their body image ideals. But it hasn't had that effect on everyone. When one 15-year-old girl saw this photo of Halchishick, her first thought was of her own imperfection, according to a blogger for Healthy is the New Skinny. "I thought if a girl as pretty as that has to change so much to be perfect, it made me wonder how much more I'd have to change."

    Related:

    Plastic surgery and teen girls: is it ever okay?

    Model Crystal Renn talks weight issues

    Image of ultra-thin model sparks outrage

    Amy Bloom's message of empowerment



     
    • J. Cody
      J. Cody  •  22 hours ago
      Thumbs Up if you clicked hoping to see a hot girl that actually had the surgeries done!
    • Jeff
      Jeff  •  Richmond, Virginia  •  1 month 2 days ago
      get her under the knife quick!
    • E
      E  •  Arlington, Virginia  •  1 month 2 days ago
      if zodiac manages to find a girlfriend, she will become a very miserable and insecure creature indeed. or she will leave him for someone who is kind to her.
    • Rushel
      Rushel  •  Mandaue City, Philippines  •  3 months ago
      No matter what's your body size. Be proud of your self.!
    • bob G
      bob G  •  Wallingford, Pennsylvania  •  3 months ago
      because yknow, appearances are a million times more important than personal integrity so let's focus all our efforts on THAT.
      • ...
        ... 1 month 5 days ago
        nice breasts have integrity :D
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  •  4 months ago
      if anyone calls this lady frumpy and all things negative.. POST UR PICT HERE AND TELL ME YOU DO LOOK LIKE BARBIE!!=.= bcoz as far as i'm concern.. NO ONE CAN!! unless its photoshopped =.=
    • Michelle
      Michelle  •  Pensacola, Florida  •  4 months ago
      New goal: Once a day, tell someone that they're perfect.
      • Brandon
        Brandon 4 months ago
        New Goal: Once a day point out how fat someone's arm's look
      • Brandon
        Brandon 4 months ago
        Maybe then these #$%$ obese people will start working out and stop eating like pigs. #$%$ fat people... Always ruining my day
    • Pocket O B A M A
      Pocket O B A M A  •  Ocala, Florida  •  4 months ago
      Perspective is everything. It is a toy. If you buy your daughter a Raggedy Ann doll she will automatically not try to have the physique of Andre the Giant. I do not think they need to be made perfectly anatomically correct if that is understood.
    • Mariah
      Mariah  •  Chicago, Illinois  •  4 months ago
      While it's good that she's healthy and neither fat nor thin, but I have a problem with this coming from a model who has practically perfect, professionally-styled hair, pretty plump lips, practically no body hair from the looks of it, and maybe even a spray tan. It's not totally overdone, but she's no plain Jane.
    • Zack
      Zack  •  Irvine, California  •  4 months ago
      I love all girls! Tall skinny fat short, its all good! Screw all the fashion nazis because the one group of women I dont find attractive are the heroin adddicted twig models!
    • Sadie
      Sadie  •  4 months ago
      sorry but the model that they are using is a frumpy average American woman...high fashion models features and bodies are much closer to Barbie...naturally...so are VS models
      • A Yahoo! User 4 months ago
        yeah.. and so are their brains. i wonder if ur a mattel girl
    • Kayla
      Kayla  •  Aurora, Oregon  •  4 months ago
      its just sick what people think of as sexy these days, I mean come on marilyn monroe used to be every guys fantacy and the woman was REAL and had curves now you need to NOT have any shape to be thought of as sexy..... UGG
    • Golf Digger
      Golf Digger  •  6 months ago
      ugggg... I get it the toys are what folks try to emulate... seems like Mrs. Potato Head is winning the battle
    • Venra Williams
      Venra Williams  •  6 months ago
      life is to be happy , when u are thin life is hard and stressful so eat drink and be merry because to morning all us will be dead
    • annav
      annav  •  7 months ago
      All of us women should be proud to be whatever we are no matter what the standards of beauty are nowadays, a mind, heart and soul are the beautiful parts of us -- if you men can't understand that then there is something wrong with you!
    • RedBambie
      RedBambie  •  7 months ago
      people need to stop obsessing about Barbie. I played with Barbie as a little girl and never once then or now did it occur to me that I need to look like her. It's a doll if you ever got the idea you were supposed to look like her it wasn't from her. Maybe mom's should stop talking about dieting and "losing a few pounds" all the time in front of their kids instead of worrying about a doll.
    • Manjula
      Manjula  •  6 months ago
      However, as a person whose "natural figure" is skinny, I wish people would stop with all the skinny hate
    • Wicked Sister
      Wicked Sister  •  7 months ago
      According to denverpost.com, Katie is a FORMER plus sized model. When she WAS a plus sized model, she wore a size 14. In my personal opinion, it's absolutely ridiculous that size 14 is considered plus sized, but whatever. That's beyond the point. In addition, it also says that she is currently a size 8-10, which I have gathered is STILL, to some lesser degree, considered plus sized. I simply can't wrap my hear about that. I wear a size 8, and if I were to lose any weight, I would be sickly thin. No thanks. If size 8 makes me a plus size, then I'm proud to say I'M PLUS SIZED!
    • Stephanie
      Stephanie  •  7 months ago
      They don't need to redesign Barbie! It's a friggin doll peanut! I don't know a single person who wants to look like barbie because most sane people realize that it's not physically possible to have her proportions, nor, do they want to! Barbie has been around for many many years and it does not need to be re-designed...that's ridiculous!
    • Ranjani
      Ranjani  •  6 months ago
      i don't mind i don't want to be a public figure. that is not matter to me at all ok.
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