Imagine your ‘perfect’ woman. Six feet tall, weighs 110 pounds, curvy hips, small waist, a large bust; and a bonus, she’ll never get pregnant. Every man’s dream. Yes, we are talking about the most beloved doll of all time, the beautiful and ‘perfect’, Barbie.
This children’s toy was first debuted in March of 1959[1], and she was the ideal role model for all girls, or so it seemed. She was ‘perfect’; impeccably skinny, had ‘perfect’ hair, a ‘perfect’ boyfriend and family, a ‘perfect’ house; every aspect about her was flawless. Yet how was this ‘perfect’ doll impacting the millions of young, vulnerable girls who were playing with her?
The average girl from ages three to six owns at least twelve Barbie dolls [2] and spends hours playing with
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Many admit that they started worrying about their weight at a young age. In a study conducted of three-year-old, preschooler girls, “research… found that up to 50 per cent were already anxious about how they look while a third wanted to lose weight”[4]. This is around the age that a girl usually gets her first Barbie doll. Many of the girls who have or had an eating disorder admitted that Barbie played a massive role on their influences in behavior and looks. They are led to believe that the only way to be happy and have a wonderful life is to be just like Barbie, with the super skinny look. What really affected my body image issues, was how Barbie could look stunning in any outfit at any point in time. I wanted, still do, to look that glamourous all the time. It’s not a pretty thing knowing that you just don’t fit in; it’s actually quite ugly at the core, wanting to be just like a …show more content…
People are willing to spend thousands of dollars to achieve that Barbie look from the ‘perfect’ wardrobe to the last nose job. One such person is Cindy Jackson. Born and raised on a farm in Ohio, Jackson isn’t what you’d call an outstanding girl. She, like other girls, was given a Barbie on her sixth birthday fueling the start of her captivating fantasies. In fact, Jackson mentions that “through Barbie [she] could glimpse an alternative destiny” [7]. Isn’t that a sad reality? Comparing yourself to a Barbie, yearning to be plastic. As she grew older, the more convinced she was that to be beautiful was to be Barbie and when she had the chance to get cosmetic surgery, she took it; in fact, she got a lot of it, 52 cosmetic surgeries to be precise. Almost every part of her body has been touch by surgery in one way or another, making her feel better than ever. When people see pictures of Jackson before her surgeries, they don’t see her as pretty, but only once she’s gone under the knife is she allowed to be noticed by others. In a quote from Covershots modeling company, Blyth stated that, “the pursuit of perfection transformed her from nerdy nobody to one of London's most beautiful sirens” [8]. What kind of message is this sending? That to be noticed, to be somebody, you have to look the part and the only way
In the beginning of “Barbie Doll”, pleasurable and unpleasurable imagery is given so that the reader can see the extremes girls go through to be considered perfect.
For starters the title, “Barbie Doll” holds a meaning. It symbolizes the ideal figure of a female body. Society creates this ideal that is embed into every century. It is never ending. It is intended that she must have the twig like arms and legs, the minuscule waist and nose,
Cindy Jackson is just a wonderful lady, and her amazing looks didn’t stop there. She continued altering her physical looks to enhance herself. Her transformation begins when she felt that she was living with the wrong body and face. It seems that she didn’t have the assurance to deal with the reality and must change her physical features. I felt like she is still exhibiting low esteem and she wanted people to understand the fact plastic surgery made her wonderful, beautiful and younger. I feel like her website falsely advocates that plastic surgery is the best answer to any confidence or self esteem problems.
“If Barbie was designed by a man, suddenly a lot of things made sense to me,” says Emily Prager in her essay “Our Barbies, Ourselves” (Prager 354). Prager’s purpose for writing this essay is to explain the history of Barbie and how the doll itself has influenced and continue to influence our society today. Prager is appealing to the average girl, to those who can relate to the way she felt growing up with Barbie seen as the ideal woman. Emily Prager uses a constant shift between a formal and informal tone to effectively communicate her ideas that we view women today based upon the unrealistic expectations set forth by Barbie. By adopting this strategy she avoids making readers feel attacked and therefore
At the beginning of "Barbie Doll", it reads "This girlchild was born as usual". This line shows that their is nothing wrong with this girl. She is your average child that plays with "dolls that pee-pee" and " miniature GE stoves and irons". She does not realize that anything is wrong with her until "a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs". She was normal and happy, then society points out that she is different then the model in Seventeen magazine.
The Barbie is a plastic, man-made female toy, which has perfect facial symmetry, unnatural body dimensions, and perfectly unblemished white skin. In Chris Semansky’s Overview of “Barbie Doll,” he explains that the Barbie “is invented to show women have been socialized into thinking of their bodies and behavior in relation to a male-controlled idea” (Semansky). The title directly alludes to the Barbie toy, which represents a design of a man-made construction of the female image that shows an unnatural human form that could only exist inside the imagination of men. Throughout both “Barbie Doll” and “The Birthmark” you will find the female protagonists seeking an ultimately perfect form, free of the characteristics that those around them see as unworthy. It is as if they are chasing the blueprint of perfection that is present in the Barbie. The original Barbie came with three outfits a bathing suit, a tennis outfit, and a wedding dress (Semansky). Her outfits clearly symbolize restrictions forced on female privilege, identity, and autonomy, where “she embodies the ideals and values of her middle-class American community” who expect her to “spend her days at the country club and her afternoons cooking dinner for her husband” (Semansky). This is directly similar to the “outfits” those around the women in “Barbie Doll” where the girlchild is born
(Steinberg: 271) Barbie is portrayed as this blonde perfect female and was made in the image of the perfect body type. Children idolize Barbie and the way she is advertised causes them to believe that your body is only supposed to look this way, everything is life is perfect and that they will not face any obstacles as life goes on. Steinberg mentions, “Thematically Mattel still hasn't invented the Homeless Barbie, the Abortion Barbie, the Alcoholic Barbie, or the S&M Bondage Barbie”. (Steinberg: 272) After reading this section I agreed with the statement “This Bitch Has Everything”. Mattel has painted a picture in the mind of young children that the perfect life can be created through their imagination and not that there are different paths that we all go through in life. Children lose their agency due to the fact that society has constructed and idea of what life is all about and children look to the media and the items around them for guidance and understanding of what is to be expected. Barbie creates the idea of what is the best and appropriate way to live your life as a
It has recently been brought up that media influences girls in pre-adolescence, which is highly likely since most young girls idolize Barbie (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). “Were Barbie a flesh-and-blood woman, her waist would be 39% smaller than that of anorexic patients, and her body weight would be so low that she would not be able to menstruate” (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). Most young girls wish that they could look like Barbie when they grew up, but if they knew the reality of having her measurements, their perceptions would probably change. Children frequently fantasize about who they will be, what they will do, and how they will look when they grow into adulthood. Advertisers use women that are abnormally thin, and even airbrush them to make them appear thinner.
The overview of the studies listed below are experimented and tested evaluations of the effects that thin dolls have on young girl’s body image. One study in particular finds and addresses that the dolls did directly affect the young girl’s food intake, but had no effect on body image. In this study the researchers used girls 6 to 10 years old, average sized dolls, and Legos in a controlled condition. This testing also required the girls to do a taste test, and questionnaires. The other study finds and addresses that Barbie’s could be a driver of negative body images in young girls. In this testing there were 162 young girls used, from ages 5 to 8. The young girls were shown pictures of Barbie, which is known to be slimmer, Emme Dolls, which
Imagine being a 5 year old girl playing with baby dolls and brushing your Barbie doll’s hair and feeling fat. A 5 year old feeling fat sounds crazy, right? Well with the influence Barbie has had for years is causing girls younger and younger to feel that their body is not “perfect”. Eating disorders, unrealistic expectations, and self-confidence are all at jeopardy once a young girl is rewarded with her first Barbie doll.
For this, I am most certain that Barbie doesn’t need a makeover. If Barbie needs a makeover, shouldn’t every girl featured in Sports Illustrated also get a makeover? Or should Sports Illustrated always use the same girl? No, both would be ridiculous, because there is not one kind of beautiful, there are many. The fact that Barbie was unapologetic, gives the doll a confidence in who she is. That is a message I would happily pass on to my children.
Stone, Tanya Lee. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us. New York: Penguin Group, 2010. Print.
According to Lisa Belkin, Barbie is good for society because she’s fun to play with and she encourages little girls to use their imagination and dream big. Many young girls who play with Barbie dolls have realized that she is just a doll. Some of these little girls don’t have the desire to look like Barbie; they just think Barbie is just a doll that they play with and leave them everywhere. At a young age girls are given their first Barbie doll and thought what “perfect” should be. Barbie portrays the perfect image and life. Not only is Barbie tall, skinny, and beautiful, she has all the luxurious accessories to match her perfect life. To go along with her perfect life she is accompanied with the perfect boyfriend, family and dream house.At a young age girls are also being influenced by this doll, what they should look like, and what kind of life they sgould lead. Young girls strive to achieve this look which is life threatening to obtain. Regardless to the changes they made to Barbie, she is still far from real. Little girls that are mature enough don’t strive to look like Barbie because she’s just a plastic doll.(Debate.org, 9). According to “The Intentions behind the creation of Barbie”, Barbie dolls ...
When I was very young, I owned very many Barbie dolls. To me, they were just so beautiful, and flawless, and I loved them very much. But the Barbie that said the most to me was the President Barbie. This spoke to me. It said that anyone, anywhere, of any gender, socioeconomic status, background, sexuality, ethnicity, race, or belief system could be anything they ever wanted to be, as long as they worked hard enough to achieve it. And this is a very important message, and it is a message that Barbie sends to people every day, all over the world.
Barbie, a doll manufactured by Mattel, Inc., encourages an unrealistic body image, racial insensitivity, and contradictive goals, and it is having a negative influence on young girls everywhere. Launched in March 1959 by Ruth Handler, an American business woman and president of Mattel, Inc., Barbie quickly became popular and has gone on to sell three dolls every second, in over one hundred and fifty countries. However, Barbie’s rise to success has not been wholly positive – there have been numerous controversies, parodies, and lawsuits, all addressing a number of issues. One such issue is how Barbie promotes an unrealistic and unobtainable body image. For example, to scale, Barbie is five feet, nine inches tall, has a thirty six inch chest, eighteen inch waist, and thirty three inch hips. Had Barbie been a real person, she would not be able to walk, much less hold her head up. Secondly, Barbie is racially insensitive and perpetuates stereotypes. “Mexico Barbie,” from Barbie’s “ethnic” line, comes with a passport and a Chihuahua, as well as stereotypical red lace ribbons in her hair. Lastly, Barbie portrays goals that are both unobtainable and contradictive. Barbie has had a variety of careers, such as being a doctor, astronaut, and President of the United States, but also engages in stereotypical domestic activities, such as cleaning and baking. These characteristics are affecting young girls in a time when they are most developmentally susceptible, and teaching them a number of negative lessons.