Why are all the Barbie dolls naked?

“Why are all of your Barbie Dolls naked?” I asked my six-year old granddaughter the other day.

“I was changing their clothes,” she answered matter-of-factly like I should just know the answer.

“So where are their clothes?” I asked. She hadn’t been playing with the dolls for well over an hour now, having moved on to other—and I suspect more interesting—things.

By the way, there was not a stitch of doll clothing anywhere to be seen.

“I don’t know,” she said as she turned her attention back to playing with some Flarp (you know, the stuff that makes the farting sounds when you play with it).

“Why don’t you know?” I pressed further.

“I just don’t,” was her reply.

Why are ALL the Barbie dolls naked?

This is a question I have asked myself numerous times over the course of my life.

When my sister was little and she played with her dolls, most of them were always naked.

When my girls played with their dolls they were almost always naked. And now, with my granddaughter—naked Barbies everywhere!

I don’t know why the manufacturer sells Barbie or other dolls with clothes on since within the first 24 hours of ownership, the girls have taken off and presumably lost all the dolls’ clothes.

I guess it is to make more money. My granddaughter always wants to buy the “accessories” for her Barbies!

We see an awful lot of Barbie dolls “running around” with no clothes, but they do have on sunglasses and are carrying a purse and have one high-heeled shoe on!

The fascination with the human body

Our natural fascination with the human body is what leads us to scantily clad or naked dolls, in my opinion. We want to see what is underneath the “mask” so to speak. When we are little, the best way to do that is with our dolls. We can do things with our dolls that we can’t do with real people (fortunately)—like take all their clothes off in the middle of the living room…or in public!

For many of our little ones, a naked doll is their first real encounter with nudity other than their own or if they have siblings or live in a nudist colony!

Playing dress up with their dolls is an important part of learning, as well.

As I had mentioned, my granddaughter loves to get accessories for her dolls. Most of the time the accessories disappear, but once in a while, we’ll see her dolls sporting a new outfit or boots or shoes or sunglasses or a purse or something else that we had purchased for her to play with.

At one time, to help her understand the organs and workings of the body, we did purchase her something similar to the image at the right. You can take the organs out and study them as well as follow the fine network of arteries and veins and the central nervous system.

She likes to pretend this educational toy is a zombie and shoot at it with a dart gun!

The Bottom Line

My granddaughter is very curious. She likes to know about things. If having a few naked Barbie dolls around the house helps her understand some basic things, I am okay with that. I remember being curious about things when I was a kid, too. Although I was more of a “Tom-boy” and was more likely to flush the Barbie’s down the toilet than to play dress-up with them!

The bottom line is, don’t get too upset if you find naked dolls around the house. Your grandchildren are going through a normal phase in development and you don’t have to worry about this. (Unless they are 30 years old and have them hanging around the house…but that’s an entirely different thing!)

Thank you for visiting my site. I would love to hear your thoughts on this post. Please leave questions or comments below and I will get back to you very soon!
Notice: Purchases are made on external affiliate company websites. When you click on an affiliate link located on grandparentssecondstory.com to purchase an item, your are buying the item from the seller directly (not from grandparentssecondstory.com). Amazon and/or other companies pay grandparentssecondstory.com a small commission or other compensation for promoting their website or products through their affiliate program. Prices are exactly the same for you if your purchase is through an affiliate link or a non-affiliate link. You will not pay more by clicking through to the link through my site.

About the author

Karin Nauber, “G.G.” is a professional journalist who has worked in the newspaper business for the past 24 years. She is also a grandmother who, along with her spouse, is raising one of their granddaughters. G.G. has seven grandchildren with whom she enjoys spending as much time as possible. She began this website with the hope of helping other grandparents who may be struggling with their role as parent/grandparents. If you would like to contact her, please do so at: gg@grandparentssecondstory.com.