Barbiefication

English

WOTD – 21 August 2023

Etymology

From Barbie (“tall, slender female fashion doll”) +‎ -fication (suffix denoting the process of becoming something).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌbɑːbifɪˈkeɪʃən/, /-bɪ-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌbɑɹbifɪˈkeɪʃən/, /-bɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: Barb‧ie‧fi‧cat‧ion

Noun

Barbiefication (uncountable)

1. (derogatory) A cultural move toward superficiality and a focus on physical attractiveness at the expense of depth and intellect.
   • 1995 July, Adweek: Western Advertising News, volume 36, Los Angeles, Calif.: A/S/M Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page C-16, column 1:

     On the road toward Barbiefication, we are so taken by artificially plastic standards of beauty that we surgically alter our human characteristics to look like idealized dolls.

   • 1996, The Bangladesh Journal of American Studies, volumes 9–10, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh Journal of American Studies, →OCLC, page 71:

     While the Barbiefication of women of the world is serious business (all puns intended), I want to add that I have seen evidence that the globalization of Barbie has been met with resistance.

   • 1998 November 13, Susan Hopkins, “Girl Power and Popstars: From Madonna to the Spice Girls”, in Girl Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture, Annandale, N.S.W.: Pluto Press Australia, published 2002, →ISBN, page 22:

     The official recognition enjoyed by [Geri] Halliwell supposedly marked the ‘Barbiefication of Britain’ and the triumph of superficial ‘plastic’ values.

     Quoting Mary Riddell (1998 November 13) “Geri Halliwell May Appeal to Six Year Old Girls, but that Doesn’t Make Her the Right Person to Relaunch the Women‘s Unit”, in New Statesman, volume 127, number 17, London: New Statesman Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10.

   • 1999, Philip Melling, “Race and Promiscuity: Millennial Ministry and the Legacy of Ham”, in Fundamentalism in America: Millennialism, Identity and Militant Religion, Chicago, Ill.: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers; Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, footnote 1, page 74:

     Where Alexander Lebed identifies the enemy of Russian culture as the soap opera, Estonia's Jaan Kaplinski attributes the erosion of Baltic culture to ‘Barbification’ and cultural imports such as dolls, comic strips and cable TV […].

   • 2013, Charles de Chassiron, “The Re-emergence of National Cultures following Independence in the Baltic States”, in Peter I. Barta, editor, The Fall of the Iron Curtain and the Culture of Europe (Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series; 44), Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:

     The Estonian poet-politician Jaan Kaplinski has criticised his fellow citizens for their heedless consumerism and what he called the ‘Barbiefication’ of society – a phenomenon that he considers to be more dangerous even than Bolshevism.

   • 2022, Linda Rogers et al., “Nurselogs”, in Mother, the Verb, Swan Sister Treasure Book, Altona, Mb.: Friesens, →ISBN, page 67:

     [W]e must now resist anachronistic legislation and the Barbification of young women, the saddest phenomenon being the identical non-identifiable missing photos of girls and women surgically and cosmetically altered to resemble dolls.

Alternative forms

• Barbification

Translations

cultural move towards superficiality and a focus on physical attractiveness

• Finnish: pinnallistuminen (fi) (literally “becoming (more) superficial”)
• Macedonian: по́вршност f (póvršnost)

Further reading

• Barbie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia