Barneys Tampers with Minnie Mouse for Window Display

Pictured: Minnie Mouse before (left) and after (right) from Barneys Holiday Campaign.

How many of you have heard about Barneys department store in New York messing with Minnie Mouse’s beloved shape?  The mouse has been a style icon since the Great Depression in her colorful polka dots, paired with over sized gloves and big yellow pumps.  So why mess with the Mouse? Apparently some “people” at Barneys thought Minnie should appear as rail thin in their Holiday Campaign video. Translation, let’s make Minnie Mouse look like a New York Fashion Week Runway model. The new Minnie was to appear in Barneys upcoming “Electric Holiday” window display on Nov 14th. Seriously? The geniuses at Barneys put Minnie in a Lanvin dress and got ride of her curves and fun loving smile.  You know, a starving mouse is probably not a happy mouse right?  What is wrong with this picture? Why would anyone remake a beloved icon like Minnie into an wisp thin figure?   Thankfully, the media and consumer are calling Barneys and Disney on it.

Amid public outrage, Disney and Barneys have issued this thoughty statement.  “We are saddened that activists have repeatedly tried to distort a lighthearted holiday project in order to draw media attention to themselves,” Disney and Barneys said in a joint statement to the News. Seriously? Making Minnie a rail thin model is the literally the distortion.   And what does this new Minnie say to young girls about an attractive body image? I hope this gets pulled before the Nov. 14th holiday display debuts.  Change.org has already started a petition to protest the literally mini Minnie Mouse from appearing as a shadow of her former self. 133,000 people have already signed the petition and I urge all of you to sign too. Is nothing sacred? Why did Barneys and Disney have to tamper with Minnie Mouse’s body shape to make her as thin as a runway model? With eating disorders in young girls growing rapidly, what type of message does it send to young girls to turn Minnie Mouse into an almost unrecognizable 5’11 uber thin figure?  Nobody is changing Mickey Mouse, right?