Barbie & "generalized melancholy"

In her celebritysatan.com post "Celebrity Concept As Barbie Doll" the author, Katie, brings up the potential emotional health consequences of our culture's untiring emphasis on the sort of blonde centerfold standard of beauty shown by... blonde centerfolds [such as Hugh Hefner's companions "The Girls Next Door"], and so often seen on tv, in films and magazines.

"As you know," she writes, "the whole trip with the Barbie phenomenon is a skinny blond girl with a ridiculously narrow waist, perfect button nose, eyes the color of the Mediterranean sea, full lips, flowing blond hair (Prell?) and big perfect boppers... some have argued that this is just the type of idealized (and largely unattainable... via natural means at least) image that has lead to a considerable amount of grief and general melancholy... we tend to forget what I have dubbed "generalized melancholy," but this is a concept that I’m trying to popularize in my new book... the idea of a generalized melancholy is a demeanor found persistent in most of ones waking moments... one doesn’t necessarily need to suffer from acute depression, anxiety, or a psychological malady/aberration such as an eating disorder to have a chronic minor glumness..."

There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with the Barbie look, whether you have it naturally, or want to gain it through cosmetic enhancements. But it has become almost archetypal - so ubiquitously promoted in film and tv, magazine and billboard ads, it has become a kind of de facto standard of what women "should" look like in order to be "truly" beautiful and successful, especially in an entertainment related career.

So what do you really look like? And how do you feel about yourself and life if you can be ok with that look you naturally have?
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Related article: The Dark Side of Beauty, by Douglas Eby

Related pages:
body image
depression
depression: teen/young adult
identity
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