Children are very sensitive and impressionable to the actions of their peers and those they surround themselves with. The media they are exposed to influences their development, which warrants their need for the presence of a positive role mode. Being a young child there are many options as to who may be the role model within one’s life. Whether it is a their favourite doll or superhero. Unfortunately these types of role models provide negative guidance to the younger generation. This essay will argue how Barbie is a poor representation of the ideal female due to the factors of flawed body image, then leading to an unhealthy lifestyle and neglect of more important pursuits. Through course material, and outside research this essay will demonstrate …show more content…
Growing up children always has that one toy that is their absolute favourite. Unfortunately, not always do these toys send out positive messages to the younger generation. As stated by Kuther and McDonald, “some claim that the toy represents the paradigm of adult female beauty to which young girls learn to aspire” (40). Usually when young girls want to aspire to become like their role model it has a positive impact but when these role models are sending off messages that cannot be achieved this could lead to negative outcomes. In the article Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5-to 8- Year-Old Girls by Dittmar, Halliwell and Ive they state, “Barbie is so exceptionally thin that her weight and body proportions are not only unattainable but also unhealthy” (283). For young children especially young girls, playing with their dolls is a vital part of their childhood. Dittmar, Halliwell and Ive state, “The ultrathin female beauty ideal she embodies has been linked with the extraordinary prevalence of negative body image and unhealthy eating patterns among girls and women” (283). Dittmar, Halliwell and Ive conducted a study to see the psychological impact Barbie may have on young girls. They found “Given the recent conclusion that the desire for thinness emerges in girls around age 6” (Dittmar, Halliwell and Ive 283). This is a very young age for young girls to be worried about whether they are thin enough but this is happening because of the unattainable images within society. Young women are constantly pressured with the idea that if you are not thin then you are not “hot” nor “good enough”. As stated in our course notes that Barbie is commonly referred to in a general manner, Barbie’s facts are “big breasts and lips; impossible physical dimensions 36-18-38 that,
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
In a world where many are led to believe that they fall short of what society depicts as “perfect”, it is still true that everyone is beautiful in their own way. There are even more demands on girls now a days than there has ever been before. Some may think they need to fit in, so they become someone they are not or they begin to act like a totally different person. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, illustrates society’s high and unrealistic expectations on the physical appearance of women, while failing to see that a woman’s self-esteem is at risk of being diminished.
Every woman grows up knowing that they one day want to be beautiful. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she gives an in depth look at what negative effects the concept of beauty can have on an individual. From infancy to a full grown adult woman, beauty has been a way of thinking and lifestyle. As a little girl you are given petite shaped, blonde, blue eyed dolls. While boys are given brawny soldiers and mechanical toys.
“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
Martin, Melanie. “Negative Effects of Barbie on Girls.” eHow. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
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.
In “Barbie Doll,” the girl was bullied from a young age into high school. Rather than seeing that she was smart, healthy, and strong, people noticed that she had “a great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy 7). Rather than helping the girl become satisfied with herself, people tried to change her. They told her to play hard-to-get, exercise, and diet. No one seemed to notice anything about her besides her nose and legs.
In a magazine ad for Barbie, in 1965, Barbie is in a box with a scale and a little book. On the front of the book it says, Want to Lose Weight? and on the back, Don’t Eat!. The scale is set at one hundred and ten pounds. This also puts expectations of an unrealistic body type into young girls’ minds. This is a huge problem because girls want to look like Barbie.This is still a problem today. In the 2011 article Get The Facts On Eating Disorder, they say, “Forty to sixty percent of girls in elementary school, age six to twelve, are concerned about their weight or about becoming too fat.” I believe this is a very high percentage for such young girls, and it could be a result from them seeing unrealistic body
This source is about a study involving Barbie dolls and how it affects young girls. 162 girls where involved in the experiment, where they choose to play with a Barbie, a Emme doll, or no doll at all. The Emme doll had a more realistic body image then a Barbie. The researches hypothesis that these dolls can functions as aspirational role models for young girls, and they wanted to see how the Barbie doll affected the girls. This source helps my argument that the very popular Barbie dolls help internalize the thin ideal into young girls. The researchers concluded that Barbie is a powerful socialization agent of an unhealthy, ultrathin, and unachievable body ideal. The Barbie dolls represent a distorted, and unhealthy thin ideal. This study is
Barbie has become a widespread toy played with by children all over the world. They are taught they can be anything you want to be, but then if you try to find an athletic Barbie doll, you will mostly only find cheerleaders (Devora, 2015). Barbie dolls also provide an unrealistic and rather unhealthy view of female body image. “Some researchers have suggested they wouldn’t allow for menstruation, in a cis woman. Others have claimed that the size of her liver would mean Barbie would have to walk on all fours” (Devora, 2015).
The overwhelming idea of thinness is probably the most predominant and pressuring standard. Tiggeman, Marika writes, “This is not surprising when current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of thinness, an ideal accepted by most women but impossible for many to achieve.” (1) In another study it is noted that unhealthy attitudes are the norm in term of female body image, “Widespread body dissatisfaction among women and girls, particularly with body shape and weight has been well documented in many studies, so much so that weight has been aptly described as ‘a normative discontent’”. (79) Particularly in adolescent and prepubescent girls are the effects of poor self-image jarring, as the increased level of dis...
The study concluded that “early exposure to dolls epitomizing an unrealistically thin body ideal may damage girls' body image, which would contribute to an increased risk of disordered eating and weight cycling” (Does Barbie Make Girls Want to Be
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.