• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Safety Risk .net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

Discover More on this Site

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE RESOURCES
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • PSYCHOLOGY OF SAFETY & RISK
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Covid-19
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Covid-19 Returning to Work Inductions, Transitioning, Safety Start Up and Re Entry Plans
    • Covid-19 Work from Home Safety Checklists and Risk Assessments
    • The Hierarchy of Control and Covid-19
    • Why Safety Loves Covid-19
    • Covid-19, Cricket and Lessons in Safety
    • The Covid-19 Lesson
    • Safety has this Covid-19 thing sorted
    • The Heart of Wisdom at Covid Time
    • How’s the Hot Desking Going Covid?
    • The Semiotics of COVID-19 and the Social Amplification of Risk
    • Working From Home Health and Safety Tips – Covid-19
    • Covid-19 and the Hierarchy of Control
  • Dr Rob Long Posts
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no HIERARCHY of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • Quotes & Slogans
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
    • When Slogans Don’t Work
    • 77 OF THE MOST CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
    • 500 BEST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2020
    • 167 CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
    • COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
    • Safety Acronyms
    • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
    • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
    • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
    • Safety Slogans List
    • Road Safety Slogans
    • How to write your own safety slogans
    • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
    • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
    • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
    • Safety Slogans for Work

What Can Safety Learn from Barbie

January 29, 2016 by Dr Rob Long 9 Comments

What Can Safety Learn from Barbie

safety barbieWe learn today that after many years Barbie is getting a ‘make over’. The iconic doll of the ‘perfect’ female form is about to become ordinary, diverse and not perfect. This is the end of a 56 year tradition that has had more harmful by-products than any other social experiment I can recall. What is so interesting is the discourse and language around this profound change. What was once called ‘perfect’ is now labelled as ‘unreal’ and ‘delusional’, ‘ridiculous’ and ‘offensive’. Why have parents not boycotted this product 50 years ago? Why is it that Mattel finally decide to make Barbie ordinary and normal?

Evelyn Mazzocco, senior vice-president and global general manager of the Barbie brand, said: “We believe we have a responsibility to girls and parents to reflect a broader view of beauty.” At last!

The perfection of Barbie has plagued the upbringing of young people for years. The many unconscious messages it sends to young people, children and especially young girls has been so harmful. There is nothing like setting a goal of perfection to screw up any sense of hope for a normal mortal. One need not count the anorexia or bulimia data or the distortional beliefs and values of the beauty industry to know the icon and symbol of perfection is fundamentally dangerous and harmful. Yet it has managed to keep the position of prime semiotic of the feminine for so long.

The real question coming out of this is not about lost sales for Mattel over the past few years but what are the psychological by-products of goals. Barbie has for years been the poster doll of what it is to be a female. A tangible physical model and semiotic (symbol) to reach into the unconscious of girls and say ‘you should look like this’. And the consequence for children who didn’t match up to Barbie (or Ken)? – loser, failure!

So what are the lessons?

  1. The first lesson for Safety is the consideration of harmful by-products of perfectionist language, discourse and models.
  2. The second lesson is the need to be aware that all decision making has a by-product. No decision is neutral, every decision in risk has a by-product and trade off.
  3. The third lesson is about relevance and the importance the ordinary, everyday things in safety.

I often get asked into organistions to speak for a day and somehow ‘fire up’ the workforce to culture change. This of course is impossible. I get astounded at how superficial people can be in the safety industry and so easily seduced into gimmicks, fads and snake oil. It seems Safety would rather have some shiny toy that goes ‘bling’ than embrace a challenge that is tough and hard work but very ordinary. Sometimes it seems safety would rather pay a fortune to hear someone say nothing really well, than to hear something of substance. Safety seems the only industry that credits learning integrity to a McHappy Day diet.

The ordinary everyday challenges of safety are the skills of listening, observing and consultation, not counting, policing and grandstanding. It seems crazy, we can’t just have ordinary conversations or an open chat, we have have a Gemba walk! We can’t just focus on the way we organize, we have to have a Shingo model? (BTW, the Shingo model advocates perfectionism http://www.shingoprize.org/model.html look at point 3 ‘seek perfection’). It seems safety in leadership can’t just focus on followers it has to be ‘transformational’, ‘integrated’ or something else. It seems we can’t just do the fundamentals of safety, we have to have ‘lean safety’ or some other jargon, that in the end isn’t lean but increases bureaucracy.

There’s a lot to be said for getting back to the basics. I call this the ‘yo-yo delusion’ (https://safetyrisk.net/the-yo-yo-delusion-and-conversations-about-risk/). Much of this stuff that gets paraded around in the Safety toy shop is more often evidence that we don’t know how to get the basics right.

I am working at the moment on a fifth book with Greg Smith from Nexus Lawyers (http://nexuslawyers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Greg-Smith-Profile.pdf ) called ‘Risky Conversations, The Law, Social Psychology and Risk’. The book is being made from transcripts of 4 days of conversations together about risk and safety. (The conversations have also been recorded and a DVD and talking book will be available.) Greg and my conversations bring together the two disciplines (Law and Social Psychology) and question the many safety myths, models and mantras that are believed in but are of no value in court. The book starts with the classic question, ‘does paperwork cover your arse in court?’ The book includes more than a dozen case studies and concludes with tips and skill development cues. We expect the book to be out later this year.

It was clear in the process of our conversations in doing this book just how many things Safety does that have absolutely no value in managing risk and have no credibility as legal defense. If you get into court, metrics and matrices are meaningless. Bells and whistles mean nothing when Counsel Assisting asks what you did to manage risk and you have a fatality to explain. Yet, metrics and measurement remain the trophy of Safety with no connection to the real world. It might take another 50 years before Safety realizes that everyday ordinary safety may not be shiny but it works. Maybe then, Safety will look and see that ‘The Emperor has No Hard Hat’ (http://www.safetyresults.ca/safety_book.html), and that the Barbie Doll of perfection has been a delusion all this time.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • The ‘Feeling’ and ‘Being’ of Safety - April 13, 2021
  • Please Don’t Use the ‘F’ Word in Safety - April 13, 2021
  • The Voodoo of The Hoodoo - April 9, 2021
  • The Heinrich Hoodoo - April 8, 2021
  • Deconstruction and Reconstruction for Safety - April 4, 2021
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Robert Long, Semiotics, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: Barbie, perfectionism, semiotics

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

Visit Count – Started Jan 2015

  • 22,010,692 Visitors

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join over 30,000 other discerning safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Rob Long on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Nicholas Sanders on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Gemba Safety Walk
  • Sean Walker on The Gemba Safety Walk
  • Wynand on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Admin on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Wynand on The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • Bernard Corden on The Voodoo of The Hoodoo

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Featured Downloads

  • How To Make Your Own Cloth Face Mask (187294 downloads)
  • violence_checklist.pdf (803 downloads)
  • Electrical Equipment Risk Assessment Checklist (2567 downloads)
  • Zero-to-HRO-08-September-2017.pdf (722 downloads)
  • "School of Ethics Map" has no version set!
  • Convention-Flyer-November-2018.pdf (351 downloads)
  • hazard-database.xls (4220 downloads)
  • CLLR-SPoR-Unit1.pdf (454 downloads)
  • Manual Handling Risk Assessment Form (416 downloads)
  • Presentation-Skills-Toolbox.pdf (513 downloads)
  • Field Activity Risk Assessment Form (714 downloads)
  • How-can-the-ideology-of-zero-be-ethical_.pdf (184 downloads)
  • WHS-Legislation-A-to-Z-2012.doc (57715 downloads)
  • Coronavirus - Covid 19 Toolbox Talk (4001 downloads)
  • Seven-Essential-Safety-Reminders.pdf (885 downloads)

Recent Posts

  • The ‘Feeling’ and ‘Being’ of Safety
  • Please Don’t Use the ‘F’ Word in Safety
  • The Voodoo of The Hoodoo
  • The Heinrich Hoodoo
  • CLLR Newsletter–April 2021
  • Deconstruction and Reconstruction for Safety
  • The Politics of Safety Legitimization
  • An Ethic in Error for Safety
  • Blinded by the Light
  • A Typical Safety eBulletin

Footer

AUTHORS

  • Alan Quilley
    • Heinrich–Industrial Accident Prevention
    • The Problem With ZERO Goals and Results
  • Bernard Corden
    • Blinded by the Light
    • Covid 1984 – The Shake Hands Maskerade and Vial Diplomacy
  • Bill Sims
    • Employee Engagement: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?
    • Injury Hiding-How do you stop it?
  • Craig Clancy
    • Task Based vs Activity Based Safe Work Method Statements
    • Safety And Tender Submissions
  • Daniel Kirk
    • It’s easy being wise after the event.
    • A Positive Safety Story
  • Dave Whitefield
    • Safety is about…
    • Safety and Compliance
  • Dennis Millard
    • Are You Risk Intelligent?
    • Honey they get me! They get me at work!
  • Drewie
    • Downturn Doin’ Your Head In? Let’s Chat….
    • How was your break?
  • Gabrielle Carlton
    • All Care and No Care!
    • You Are Not Alone!
  • George Robotham
    • How to Give an Unforgettable Safety Presentation
    • How To Write a Safety Report
  • Goran Prvulovic
    • Safety Manager – an Ultimate Scapegoat
    • HSE Performance – Back to Basics
  • James Ellis
    • In search of plan B in workers’ recovery
    • What and how should we measure to support recovery from injury?
  • James Parkinson
    • To laugh or not to laugh
    • People and Safety
  • John Toomey
    • Who is Responsible for This?
    • Who Are Your People?
  • Karl Cameron
    • Abby Normal Safety
    • The Right Thing
  • Ken Roberts
    • Safety Legislation Is Our Biggest Accident?
    • HSE Trip Down Memory Lane
  • Mark Perrett
    • Psychology of Persuasion: Top 5 influencing skills for getting what you want
  • Mark Taylor
    • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
    • Enculturing Safety
  • Max Geyer
    • WHS Legislation is NOT about Safety it’s about Culture
    • Due Diligence Is Not Just Ticking Boxes!
  • Matt Thorne
    • It was the SIA until someone wanted to swing from the Chandelier
    • Common Sense is Remarkably Uncommon
  • Peter Ribbe
    • Is there “Common Sense” in safety?
    • Who wants to be a safety professional?
  • Phil LaDuke
    • Professional Conferences Are A Sleazy Con
    • Hey Idiots, You’re Worried About the Wrong Things
  • Admin
    • CLLR Newsletter–April 2021
    • Zero is not a Target or Vision, it’s a Language/Discourse
  • Dr Rob Long
    • The ‘Feeling’ and ‘Being’ of Safety
    • Please Don’t Use the ‘F’ Word in Safety
  • Rob Sams
    • I’m just not that into safety anymore
    • Social ‘Resiliencing’
  • Barry Spud
    • Barry Spud’s Hazard Control Tips
    • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
  • Sheri Suckling
    • How Can I Get the Boss to Listen?
  • Safety Nerd
    • The Block isn’t portraying safety as it should be
    • Toolbox Talk Show–PPE
  • Wynand Serfontein
    • Why The Problem With Learning Is Unlearning
    • I DON’T KNOW
  • Zoe Koskinas
    • Why is fallibility so challenging in the workplace?

FEATURED POSTS

Deepwater Horizon and The Suppression of Risky Conversations

The Allure of Submission

Workshop – Introduction to the Social Psychology of Risk

Leadership, Risk and the Zone of Reciprocal Relationship

Risky Conversations, The Law, Social Psychology and Risk

Zero Discourse and Perfectionism

Measurement in Safety, You’ve Got it All Wrong

Safety Should NOT Be About Safety

Centre for Leadership and Learning in Risk (CLLR)–Study Calendar

Foundations of Perception and Imagination in Risk

Making Sense of Safety Management Systems

It Works! A New Approach to Risk and Safety

ACTOR + ACTION + TIME = EVENT

Compliance, Obedience and The Attraction of Risk

Human Dymensions Feb17 Newsletter and Competition

New Video Series on Safety

Its all About Behaviours

Is Choice The First Casualty in the Worker’s Compensation War?

Safety-as-Persona

Spin, Nonsense Language and Propaganda in Safety

More Posts from this Category

Paperwork

https://vimeo.com/162034157?loop=0

Due Diligence

https://vimeo.com/162493843?loop=0

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.