When walking down a junior high, high school, or college hallway, dorm room, or locker room, it’s not an uncommon occurrence to hear a young woman say something bad about either her body or another girl’s body. Negative comments from peers tend to instill a deeper impact than merely hurting a child’s feelings because they lead toward lowered self-esteem or confidence, and a possible increase in dieting, exercise or eating disorders. Young girls require illumination at an early age towards positive body images, in order to avoid these repercussions and the extremity of committing suicide such as demonstrated in “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy from 1973. No matter the passing time or the era the world is in, young women maintain affected by negative body images which need to truncate at an early age before it the negativity has a chance to resonate in their impressionable minds. Since young girls are brought up to have these bodily expectations that are at times unreasonable, sometimes expectations arise from other peers causing name-calling and negative comments to ensue causing devastating consequences. In Piercy’s poem she talks about girls growing up with their traditional toys such as dolls and lipsticks. (643) At first Barbie looks like a harmless toy that girls have played with for 52 years (Gelder, 116) but conceivably the doll starts the problem due to Barbie prevailing to remain not typical to the average human body stature. Casey Tallent and Dr. Jan Deeds work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Women’s Center in the gender studies segment. In particular, this pair organizes a workshop that they bring to schools as early as the middle school years. They proportion out Barbie to how she would look in real life. In realit... ... middle of paper ... ...iously under weight, and they’re setting a terrible example.” The Report Newsmagazine 8 Oct. 2001. General OneFile. Web 8 Feb. 2011. Maxfield, Christine. "Body love." Women's Health Mar. 2009: 24. General OneFile. Web. 10 Feb. 2011. Park, Jane Shin. “Thin Ice.” Teen Vogue Sept. 2009: 166. General OneFile. Web. 8 Feb. 2011. Piercy, Marge. “Barbie Doll.” Literature and the Writing Process. Boston: Longman, 2011. 643 Print. Traister, Aaron. “Love your whole body (hey, he loves his): when men look in the mirror, they flex and wink at themselves. Women, on the other hand, mutter aloud about last night’s carbs. Aaron Traister has an urgent plea: relax! To the guy at the other sink, you’re a total babe.” Redbook Nov. 2010: 102+. General OneFile. Web. 7 Feb. 2011. Van Gelder, Lindsy. "A Barbie: World." Allure Feb. 2009: 116. General OneFile. Web. 9 Feb. 2011.
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.
The treatment of females from the 18th century through the 21st century have only gotten worse due to society’s ignorant judgment of the gender. Of which, is the change from the previous housewife like actions to the modern day body figure. This repulsive transaction is perceived throughout literature. From the 19th century’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin in 1894 and the 20th century’s poem, “Barbie Doll” composed by Marge Piercy in 1971.
“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
The poem, "Barbie Doll," written by Marge Piercy tells the story of a young girl growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. The author uses imagery and fluctuating tone to describe the struggles the girl is experiencing during her teenage years, and the affects that can happen. The title of this poem is a good description of how most societies expect others, especially girls to look. Constantly, people are mocked for their appearance and expected to represent a "barbie-doll"-like figure. Few are "blessed" with this description. The female gender is positioned into the stereotype that women should be thin and beautiful. With this girl, the effects were detrimental. The first stanza describes the influence that a child is placed into during early childhood. Girls are expected to play with "dolls" and "stoves and irons," the usual toys that relate to the old-fashioned duties of women. A young girl begins to learn what she should be for society and not to deviate from the norm. The tone used in this stanza is quite silent and simplistic at first,...
It was very common to have a Barbie doll growing up, and it wasn’t just a toy, it was a representation of a “perfect life”. From dream houses, to boats, cars, a perfect boyfriend to exiting careers, Barbie had the perfect life. Barbie had the perfect lifestyle AND the perfect body, long legs, small waist and a curvy chest. This taught children from a very young age that having a boyfriend, a career, a house and a petite body is very important. (Worldpress 2011). Barbie’s “attention has been generated by the secondary role she plays in popular culture the artifact of female representation” (Wright 2003). Barbie isn’t just a toy, she mimics
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
Urla, J., & Swedlund, A. C. (1995). The Anthropometry of Barbie: unsettling ideals of the feminine body in popular culture. In J. Terry & J. Urla (Eds.). Deviant Bodies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
206 paragraph one, (line 1), Sandra Cisneros reveals a model of how girls see themselves in the future. The girls felt the dolls represent the same story and scenario each time they came together and play with each other. The attitude, style and quality of dolls. The interchanging of clothes, character's likes and dislikes as depicted the deception by a doll; from a child's point of view. The girls noticed that when the male Barbie doll drops by the other Barbie would steal him away. A typical boy meets girls; girl thinks boy is cute; boy leaves with the opposite girl. This is a reflected of Sandra Cisneros’s short story "Barbie-Q, "p. 206 , paragraph 1 , (line 2 , 3 , 4 , and 5 ) . The girls are tired of the social scene the boy Barbie represents. They only want to play among themselves without any boys. The girls enjoyed looking forward to Christmas and receiving gifts of clothes for their Barbie dolls. This is also, reflected in the insults the girls shared among their future Barbie dolls. In the short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros, the girls enjoyed going to the flea market, purchasing used clothes for Barbie dolls. Barbie dolls meant so much to the two little girls because they didn't care if their Barbie dolls were wearing hand-me-downs; second hand doll clothing sold alongside the street. The joy came from undressing and dressing up the dolls. The girls even found career clothes to match up to their doll's future. In the short
In such a cruel society young woman tend to feel pressured with keeping up a perfect image or appeal just to please everyone around them. The speaker in this poem is third person, the audience is very clear focusing on society and parents raising young girls. The overall theme is how society has a standard of how pretty someone is. It causes woman to feel pressured into looking and acting a certain way. A “girl child” is born and once she hits puberty, she is humiliated for what other people point out and see as her flaws. Soon she tired of trying so hard to be what she was not. She eventually got what she wanted which was to look pretty, though it cost her own life. In this eye opening poem “Barbie Doll”, Marge Piercy gives a great representation of how society’s view affects a young woman’s self-image using similes, gruesome symbols, and strong irony.
Marge Piercy wrote the Barbie Doll poem in 1973, during the woman’s movement. The title of the poem Barbie Doll, symbolizes how females are supposed to appear into the society. In the poem Barbie Doll, the main character was a girl. She was described as a usual child when she was born. Meaning that she had normal features that any person could ever have. Piercy used “wee lipstick the color of cherry candy” as a smile to describe the child before she has hit puberty. After the character hit puberty, the classmates in her class began to tease her saying “you have a big nose and fat legs.” (Piercy pg. 1) Having a big nose and a fat leg is the opposite of what females are supposed to be presented as in the gender stereotype. In the society that the girl lives in, follows the gender stereotypes that presented females as a petite figure with a slender body. These expectations made the character go insane. She wanted to fit into the society so she “cut off her nose and legs and offered them up.” (Piercy pg. 1) Even though the girl was “healthy, tested intelligent…” (Piercy pg. 1) no one saw that in her, but her appearances. In the end of the poem the girl end up dying, a...
In her novel “Beauty Myth”, Naomi Wolf argues that the beauty and fashion industry are to blame for using false images to portray what beautiful woman is. She believes the magazines are to blame for women hating their bodies. Wolf states, “When they discuss [their bodies], women lean forward, their voices lower. They tell their terrible secret. It’s my breast, they say. My hips. It’s my thighs. I hate my stomach.” (Wolf, 451) She is focusing on how w...
The ideal body image: We see it everyday. It is portrayed in advertising and magazines, but how many really thinks about how this image effects most young women's lives? not many because this image have become the norm for our society. It have become what the majority of young women strives to attain. This body image have become an increasing problem for our society. It makes women feel that they are not good enough. It have put the world’s young women on a diet, and for what reason? Only to attain an ideal created by the beauty industry. I have been researching this issue and realized that it is causing an increase of eating disorders and low self-esteem in young woman. The unattainable ideal body image created by advertisements, should be changed in order for young women to be content with their appearance.
Hoskins,Stephanie. “The Negative Effect of Barbies on Young Girls on the Long Term Results” www.divinecaroline.com No Pubished Date Web 8,January 2014
Body Image has become a very important part of our society and what creates our view of it can come from anywhere. It is difficult to pin point what can exactly shape a person’s view on body image because bodies are everywhere. In certain time periods, one’s body image can be influenced by different things. In the Victorian Age status influenced women to be skinny, while currently advertisements and the professional world influence people to achieve the “ideal” body. However, nothing is more influential than what a person goes through during their everyday life. Even though status, advertisements, and the professional world help shape a persons view of their own body image, the strongest pressure comes from our own personal experiences.