A child a personal relationship with her mother - it is a personal model, not a cultural one. A child' mother doesn't represent how a child will think society wants her to be.

It's a bit more than a doll. It's, in North America at least, the first cultural ideal of womanhood little girls are exposed too. Barbie is the materialization of our socio-cultural standards of feminine beauty, and since we teach our young girls this is what a woman should aspire to be, we need studies like this to…

Barbie is an influential icon for many young girls. Even Bratz dolls are. Young girls absorb the ideas of how they should look through their toys and popular media images. So no, it's not JUST a doll. It's another reason why we have things like anorexia, self-perception issues, etc.