During my younger years, all I did was play with my Barbies from ages 7-12. Which brings my attention to the current controversy, “Should Barbie be Banned?” Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by an American toy company named Mattel, Inc. which was launched in 1959. This doll was created by Ruth Handler using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. The standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches at 1/6 scale. Her vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches for her chest, an 18 inch waist, and 33 inches for her hips. Recently, there has been some controversy over this doll, Barbie, weather or not it should be banned. She's aspired by mothers and daughter around the world, but can she really …show more content…
These dolls were originally meant for girls 9 to 12 years of age to play with. This caused some controversy because it presented girls at such young ages with a “sexy” female form, and many parents objected. I see this issue as something that is very true, because of the outfits the Barbie has on, and the shape of her body is too mature for these young girls. At 9 to 12 years old, girl's haven't went through puberty yet they haven't even seen their own body looking like this, so why should their doll have this body? When Barbie's body is compared to the U.S. Average physical proportionals, it shows a difference in almost every single category. The averages for the U.S. are as follows, head:20”, neck:15, bust:35”, biceps:13”, forearms:11”, wrist:6.5”, waist: 35”, hips:40”, thigh:25”, calf:16”, ankle:9”. The Barbie measurements are, head:22”, neck:9”, bust:32”, biceps:7”, forearms:6”, wrist:3.5”, waist: 18”, hips:29”, thigh:16”, calf:11”, ankle:6”. Comparing these two body measurements, the “perfect” Barbie body is lower in every single area, besides the head. If these sizes are averagely impossible, than why should Barbie be shown as “the perfect
By this time Barbie was a very popular doll that a lot of young girls wanted to have in their hands. Mothers and other parents were liking the doll because she provided a sense of what the “grown-up” world would be like. Plus, a lot of girl’s loved playing dress up and playing pretend house wife. But Barbie was more than just the house wife, Barbie has a career, many of them and she was a fashion icon. Than Barbie, the classic Caucasian, bond headed went even farther. “In the 80s, she joined the multicultural movement and was depicted as African-American, Latina, and Asian”, (Friedman, 2006). Now, not only could girl choose what profession and career they wanted their dolls to be, but now they could choose the race they were and maker Barbie more like their own. Yet still parents started to notice the Barbie’s measurements and how unrealistic they were. They started to worry about of this would have a negative impact on their children when they grew up to be adults. I can use this article because it explains that Barbie came in different race now but her measurements were so unrealistic. This causes concern and many people still today wonder if Barbie has a part in why women stress over their body
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,
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.
Barbie's image through the shape of her body and all of her accessories is beginning to lead to many issues in our world. Barbie is portraying a negative impact on society through her influential being as a plastic doll. In 1965 the slumber party package was on the market showing buyers how straight forward she is with her products and accessories. The package had all of the normal slumber party things like a robe, comb, and hair rollers but it also had a weight scale set at a permanent weight of "110" and a disturbing book on weight loss that read in all caps, "DON'T EAT." This package is an example of how misleading Barbie and her products really are because it is implying to children that they should not eat and that if they grow up
(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
Barbie is a doll in which does not possess any human characteristics. Although this plastic doll is not real, it is causing a lot of controversy over the human race acquainted with Barbies. Some people say that Barbie is not an appropriate role model for young children... However, regardless of what adults say about Barbies, children love playing with them. There is no reason to believe that a piece of plastic with hair is not a good role model. Barbie teaches responsibility and ambition, teaches children to be what they want to be, and also brings joy to children and friends in her Barbie world.
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
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.
Barbie’s human body size characteristic may be unrealistic, but the doll isn’t a human shrunk down to play size. For instance, in the movie “Life-Sized” a girl’s doll comes to life. While it may be that in this movie the doll had a hard time adapting to life as a human, she eventually got the gist of having a career and living life the way everyone wanted
Since her arrival in 1959, Mattel has sold over 1 billion Barbie dolls, making her the most successfully sold doll of all time. 1 billion girls since her inception have pretended to be flight attendants, cheerleaders, re-enacted marriages to Ken, cut her hair off, painted her face with magic markers, took clothes on and off, and exhausted every possibility of performative play. Feminists, Scholars, Artists, Psychologist, and Journalist, have contributed to the discourse about her detriment with the universal message that Barbie gives conflicting messages about body image and how a girl should take space in the world. In like manner, many have come to her defense. She’s just a doll, right? No, she is a brand, indestructible, until 2001,
In the early 1960s, Barbie released a “Slumber Party Barbie”. In the set, it included a hairbrush, a weight scale that goes up to 110 pounds, and a diet book that says, “How to Lose Weight? Don’t Eat!” (“Brainwashed”). As for this, Barbie involuntarily unmasked their true message to girls which is if you want to be a Barbie you have to be 110 pounds, and not eat .An expert named Marci Warhaft- Nedler, the author of Body Image Survival Guide for parents, said “Barbie sends our girls one message, and it’s this, You can do anything and you can be anything-as long as you look like this: very tall, very thin, very Caucasian, and very beautiful” (Hains). Nedler exposed the harsh reality of the famous Barbie doll, that it portrays the stereotypical message to young girls that being thin, tall, white, and having a beautiful face will get you anywhere you want to be. Because of the claims made by experts, interrogations were made in order to inform people what Barbie would look like. In real life, Barbie would be approximately 5”6 in height, weight about 120 lbs., and her measurements would be 38 for chest, 18 for waist, and 34 for her waist. This notifies females that Barbie’s measurements are impossible to achieve since her measurements are remarkably off that would be unrealistic to achieve this body. Also, since her body fat percentage is extremely low, she wouldn’t be able to menstruate or live a healthy lifestyle (“Brainwashed”). Additionally, due to her out of place proportions , she would have to walk on her hands and knees (“Brainwashed”). Considering this. Since Barbie’s body is desired by many females, some have spent thousands of dollars to achieve the ideal Barbie look. Specifically, a woman named Cindy Jackson spent $55,000, and underwent 20 plastic surgeries to achieve her goal of becoming a real life Barbie doll (Body Body Image). blah. In the early
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 ...
One day, as Ruth Handler watched her daughter play with paper dolls, she noticed that often the dolls were put into adult scenarios, such as grocery shopping, working, et cetera (“The Creation of Barbie”). As most dolls in this era, the 1950’s, were either babies or small children, Handler got an idea: what if she created an adult doll (“The Creation of Barbie”)? So, she drew up a design for one, and she named her Barbie, after her daughter, Barbara (“The Creation of Barbie”). Then, in 1959, Mattel, a huge and very popular toy company, picked up the idea (“The Creation of Barbie”). Barbie made her first appearance in New York, at the annual toy fair (“The Creation of Barbie”). That year, 351,000 Barbie dolls were sold, which was a sales record in America (“The Creation of Barbie”). Today, Barbie continues to be the most popular doll in the world, with two sold every minute (“The Creation of Barbie”).
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.