Body image issues raised over a young woman’s remodelling as a real life Barbie doll.
Alex Hum
Features Editor
Valeria Lukyanova, a 21-year-old Ukrainian model, has naturally grown into the exquisite, beautiful perfection that makes her the human Barbie doll.
At least this is the claim that Lukyanova makes, maintaining that she has never undergone plastic surgery. She says that her appearance is completely natural, addressing the speculation as to whether or not she had plastic surgery.
Lukyanova’s wide hips, abnormally large breasts, and, perhaps most eye-catching of all, her incredibly slender waist, give her very bizarre body proportions.
She also spends a significant amount of time applying her makeup in order to give her face the waxy quality of a doll, as shown in her YouTube makeup tutorials.
She flaunts portrait photos of herself, oftentimes bikini-clad, and posts them on several different social networking websites, primarily Facebook and VK, a massive European social network. She has uploaded roughly 11,000 photos to date.
Photos of the “living Barbie doll,” as Lukyanova calls herself, recently went viral.
Many people are suspicious of her unnatural appearance, and have raised the possibility that the phenomenon is a hoax created using Adobe Photoshop.
The web blog Opposing Views asked their readers on April 23: “What do you think? Could this human doll actually exist? Or has the crafty interweb pulled the wool over all of our eyes yet again?”
The issue was cleared up when Lukyanova uploaded a live video of herself responding to the verbal attacks on YouTube on April 26., denying that she underwent plastic surgery; a claim that was challenged by several media outlets including International Business Times and Buzzfeed.
Lukyanova has also come under fire in the form of critical, sometimes hateful comments on social media sites.
“She looks not only ugly, but ridiculous,” says one Twitter user.
“A woman with completely perfect features is a boring woman,” says another. Others call her creepy, scary, sickly, unnatural, and inhuman.
At the same time, her Facebook page has several thousand ‘likes,’ and each photo, a few hundred at least. Some people commented calling her beautiful, sexy, and even angelic.
And a disturbing number of men are asking for her phone number.
The dispute seems to be that people cannot agree as to whether or not she can be considered beautiful.
As people debate back and forth through threads of comments online, it becomes clear that this question is difficult to answer objectively.
Photos of Lukyanova with less makeup, where she appears more natural, were more readily accepted.
Arguably, whether or not Lukyanova is beautiful is unimportant compared to the deeper rooted issue that her transformation raises about the representations of the female body in social media.
The Barbie doll has become a popular culture icon for beauty with her deep blue eyes, cascading blonde hair, and physical measurements.
Some argue that Barbie has always set a poor example of female self-image by placing an unrealistic beauty standard for the many young girls who play with these toys frequently.
In a Huffington Post article from 2011, writer Galia Slayen translates Barbie’s proportions in understandable terms.
“If Barbie were an actual woman, she would be 5’9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips, and a size 3 shoe. Barbie would have a BMI [Body Mass Index] of 16.24 and fit the weight criteria for anorexia . . . If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.”
Lukyanova may not have pushed her body to impossible limits, and while she can stand on her own two feet unlike her 12-inch counterpart, her proportions are extreme.
Reporter Dan Evon of Inquisitr wrote, “She doesn’t have the exact measurements of the famous girl from Mattel, but in the real world, she comes as close as you can get.”
This is worrying in a media-laden world of visual representations that teach females what it means to be aesthetically attractive. Lukyanova’s actions demonstrate the desire for girls to take after Barbie dolls and change the way they look, even if it puts their well-being at risk.
Another tweet highlighted by The Inquisitr, however, sees Lukyanova in a more forgiving light.
“Isn’t unhealthy obsession on looking like a Barbie doll a part of her identity though?” someone tweets.
While the comment is critical of Lukyanova, it introduces her as a human being—a personal side that is often overlooked.
Lukyanova is a graduate from Odessa State Academy of Construction and Architecture, a post-secondary institution in Ukraine. Beyond that, she is a musician posting audios samples of her opera on Youtube.
“I am a composer and have written over 70 songs on the theme of spiritual development,” she says on her Youtube page.
In a response video, Lukyanova asks to be taken seriously. Though a visual spectacle, she asks that people not judge her for how she looks, but on the merits of her other talents.
“People do not mention that I evolve [spiritually] and lead seminars and workshops in astral travel, answer questions and help people understand themselves,” she says.
Lukyanova says she uses her appearance to get people’s attention, but only in the interest of displaying her other talents.
The focus on Lukyanova’s appearance shows superficiality on the part of her critics, who fail to see the value in her talents because they are distracted by what she looks like.
The young model says outer beauty means nothing to her; a strange statement for someone who has made it her goal to look as much like a Barbie doll as possible.
Both Lukyanova and her critics show superficiality in their words and actions, just as both place importance on personal depth. Lukyanova altered her appearance to resemble a Barbie doll, and embodies the way ideal body image is often represented in the media. At the same time she demonstrates a desire to be understood for her character.
“The real life Barbie” shows that even after her transformation to look like the disproportionate children’s toy, which could well be unhealthy, there is still much more to her than what is on the outside.
