4. In her last paragraph Prager compares and contrasts the ways the toy company depicted the sexuality of Barbie and Ken. What are the differences? What ideas of cause and effect emerge from the comparison?…
Take a stroll through the Brandenburg Gate; to the banks of the River Spree and you will be spell bounded to see so many classical sculpture and masterworks at one single place, a rare sight! There stands one of the world’s most intriguing and fascinating cultural treasures, the Berlin’s Museum Island.…
In "Our Barbie's, Ourselves" Emily Prager discover that Barbie was created by a man; inventor and designer Jack Ryan (para1). Emily Prager acknowledges that Barbie appeared about the same time during the feminist movement when women fought equality and small breast were king. Prager examines three different reasons why Barbie's anatomy is the way it is. First, she argues that there are millions of women who are subliminally sure that a thirty-nine inch bust and a twenty inch waist are the epitome of lovability, which attributes to the popularity…
Since March 9th, 1959 the United States has had a very influential piece of plastic, called the Barbie. Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, of Mattel Inc. after discovering a doll in Germany named Bild Lilli. The Barbie doll was named after Ruth Handler’s daughter, Barbara. The Barbie was introduced to the United Sates at a time when the word “teenager” was becoming a popular trend on television and in movies. A teenager is the time between childhood and adult life. Mattel took the opportunity to release Barbie at this ideal time. It was released as a teenage fashion model. Although the Barbie was pricey, many girls loved the idea and the Barbie doll became a very popular toy. With becoming popular Barbie had a huge impact. Barbie has negatively influenced body image, stereotypical female rolls, and enforced commercialism. Although, it has modernized…
I’ll admit it; I absolutely loved playing with Barbie’s as a child! I must have had like twenty of them. She had everything: a dream house, Ken, plenty of friends, and a slender body with all the right curves, everything I dreamed of having when I grew up. “En Garde, Princess!” by Mary Grace Lord, challenges why every girl loves Barbie. Her article appeared in the online magazine Salon under the “Mothers Who Think” department on October 27, 2000, before the launch of a new doll line called the Get Real Girls, which were created by Julz Chavez. In this article Lord uses repetition, ethos, comparison and name calling to convince the reader that Barbie will soon encounter a fierce competitor, a better role model, which may finally dethrone her as the best selling doll of all time, or at least “punch a few holes in her sales” (423).…
Barbies are one of the dolls in today’s world that can be seen as both a positive learning tool and a negative way of how girls see themselves. To children, especially young girls Barbies are seen as role model, the Barbie is something that children can look up to. Barbies have a wide range of jobs; including: astronaut, nurse, veterinarian, police officer, chef, surfer, princess, fashion designer, rock star, olympian, and many more. Instead of Barbies only teaching the idea of running a household, the doll has opened up a whole new field of different things that a young girl can aspire…
Something that was important to me when I was younger was Barbie dolls. When I was younger i played with a lot of dolls and would not let my sister touch them. I would beg my mom for every doll and extras that I thought was cute. For Christmas I got a lot of Barbies and since then i started having a lot of them. As I got older i stopped playing with them and gave them to my little sister.Even she dosent play with them no more,they just sit in a toy…
The worldwide role model for generations of women, Barbie, does not fall short of perfection. Although, what many girls do not know, are the horrors of what a real, life-size Barbie would be like. Dr. Margo Maine, in her book, Body Wars, reveals the truth behind a human Barbie: “If Barbie were an actual woman, she would be 5'9" tall, have a 39" bust, an 18" waist, 33" hips and a size 3 shoe” (“Barbies” 1). While these characteristics might sound appealing to some women, this “perfect” frame would cause a woman many problems (“Barbies 1). With these proportions, Barbie would not likely menstruate and would need to walk on all fours as if she were a household pet (“Barbies 1). The doll’s head, hands and feet…
The past few years there has been quite a controversy involving Barbie Dolls and the influence they have on young girls in today’s society. Some people claim that Barbie promotes anorexia, citing her impossible body measurements and the Baby-Sitter Barbie weight loss book that simply says “Don’t Eat!” Other’s claim that Barbie supports racism due to the fact that “Colored Francie”, the first African-American doll released in 1967, was simply the original Barbie made from different colored plastic therefore lacking all other African characteristics. While these are relative and justified criticisms, they completely ignore what Barbie actually represents. Barbie teaches girls that they have the opportunity to be anything they want to be, whether…
“Seen through Rose-Tinted glasses:” The Barbie Doll in American Society. By Marilyn Motz; supports the highly debated topic that the toy Barbie produced by Mattel is a bad influence, on young girls. Motz is claiming that the young female child envisions herself as Barbie, and with Barbie resembling an older more mature woman. Something that Barbie’s age group cannot obtain, in till they grow older and more mature themselves. However, Barbie is just a toy, her resemblance, her actions, as a doll is, solely up to the child. Adults looking into their daughter’s childhood are simply over thinking what a three to eleven year old can produce inside her mind.…
In the past, women were always considered the subordinate gender that was expected to powder their nose and stay at home to be a homemaker. Even now, despite the movement to liberate women from stereotypical gender roles, women are still seen as the inferior gender that is discriminated against in society. As suggested by the popular Barbie doll created by Mattel, the idealized image of a woman in our patriarchal society is one who takes care of the home and is flawlessly beautiful with perfect skin, long legs, small waist, and slender figure. The Barbie doll is used as a tool for patriarchy in that it reinforces the notion that women should be domestic workers and maintain a feminine outer appearance. Also, patriarchal values affect girls starting at a young age as they unconsciously begin to believe that Barbie is what a woman should look and be like. With the appeal and popularity of this doll for the past several years, it is difficult to alter the notions of womanhood suggested by this doll. This implies that patriarchy is something we can not permanently overthrow because it is so deeply rooted in our society.…
Since the beginning, boys and girls have been put into separate groups and as children they are very different, especially when it comes to the toys they play with. One of the first teachings of a child’s gender role can usually be found in their toy chest. Boys had race cars, building tools, guns and action figures all being apart of their preparation for manhood. Girls had makeup sets, kitchenware, stuffed animals, and dolls. Although boys get their share of subtle societal conditioning, I am going to focus more on society’s psychological pressures on young girls through seemingly harmless toys. Barbie can be considered to be one of those toys, she programs young girls to think that her body image is normal. Though Barbie is just a children’s toy, she is a very controversial figure produced by Mattel. Barbie is the man’s ideal woman and young girls are playing with her. Barbie is more of a sex icon rather than a children’s toy.…
A. Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara at play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel's directors.…
In different countries, Barbie has faced different oppositions on political, religious, and social grounds. For Japan, Mattel enlisted the services of Takara, a Japanese toy specialist. Through focus groups, Mattel learned that Barbie’s legs were too long and her chest too large-in short, Japanese girls…
Halcik, B., Turner, A., Fonseca, J., & Timmons, J. (Comps.). (n.d.). History: How Barbie Came to Be. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://iron.lcc.gatech.edu/~gtg818w/history.htm…