Barbiefication
nounUK /ˌbɑːbifɪˈkeɪʃən/ · US /ˌbɑɹbifɪˈkeɪʃən/
Etymology From Barbie (“tall, slender female fashion doll”) + -fication (suffix denoting the process of becoming something).
1
Derogatory A cultural move toward superficiality and a focus on physical attractiveness at the expense of depth and intellect.
- 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.1995 July, Adweek: Western Advertising News, volume 36, Los Angeles, Calif.: A/S/M Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page C-16, column 1:
- 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.1996, The Bangladesh Journal of American Studies, volumes 9–10, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh Journal of American Studies, →OCLC, page 71:
4 more examples
- The official recognition enjoyed by [Geri] Halliwell supposedly marked the ‘Barbiefication of Britain’ and the triumph of superficial ‘plastic’ values.Mary Riddell (13 November 1998), “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
- 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[…].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:
- 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.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:
- [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.2022, Linda Rogers et al., “Nurselogs”, in Mother, the Verb, Swan Sister Treasure Book, Altona, Mb.: Friesens, →ISBN, page 67: