What little girl didn’t grow up playing with a Barbie doll? Well many of you may not know that Barbie was, in fact, an actual person. The original Barbie’s name was Barbara Handler (nicknamed Barbie). One day Barbie’s mother, Ruth, watch her daughter & friends play with paper cutouts of women, which were very popular at the time. Ruth realized all the dolls on the market at the time were baby dolls. Ruth suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband, Elliot, a co-founder of Mattel toy company. He wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea. Neither were Mattel’s directors.…
The most important thing developing at that age is their imagination. Barbie acts as a gateway to new stories and adventures for young girls. The new clothes, shoes and gadgets provide a change of pace for them. And what little girl did not think of herself as a mother when she was dressing and feeding their Barbie doll; but I mean God forbid 5 year old girls view themselves as anything other than the “modern woman”. Parents are so quick to put their children in a box these days in order to ensure that in the future they are well adjusted to those boxes. And then when the box does not quite fit their children in the way they had hoped they panic and take to their blogs and invent the new parental craze like blaming a toy that their children does not even play with anymore to explain their poor adjusted…
Marge Piercy says “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (7-9). All of those positive things did not matter because all other people saw was a big nose and thick legs. In this patriarchal society Barbie is a model of what little girls aspire to be. Thus women are stereotyped with these impossible “Barbie” standards. Despite the fact that Barbie stereotypes women in a feminist way, she is possibly creating a new perspective to the traditional gender roles of women. She is an example of a very independent…
Since Barbie was first launched by Mattel in 1959 over 10 million have been sold. “Somewhere in the world, a Barbie is sold ever half-second”(Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive). Out of all Mattel profits, Barbie makes up approximately 80% of them. Barbie brings in such a high profit because she has always been seen as the 'perfect woman ': perfect house, boyfriend, wardrobe, but most importantly a perfect body. However stated by Sakima Laksimi in 'The…
What if I told you that little girls everywhere idolized a woman who is five foot nine and weighs only 110 pounds. Her bust in 39 inches, her waist only eighteen, and her hips measuring in at mere 33 inches. You may think me a little crazy. Her name is Barbie. Created in March 1959 Barbie was used to fill a gap in the ever growing doll market (Barbie). But should little girls really be idolizing this woman? A life size barbie would have a body mass index of only16.24 which falls into the category of anorexic (Barbie). With society emulating such a being, we are forced to ask ourselves, does society's view of the ideal human being affect an individual's view of them self? The answer is yes. Due to the stress society puts on perfection, the individual is forced to put that same stress on them self.…
It is plastic, it is just a toy, it is a doll, a non-human item, and it is called Barbie. A popular toy to see little girls holding, adoring, and idolizing. Can this tiny “Pink” American icon, really be responsible for all this negativity? Can she really be helping to impose negative stereotypical gender roles, while also influencing girls into developing a negative body image, and helping to keep oppressing girls? That is a lot to blame on one doll, however, there is past research that is supportive of these suggestions. This paper will discuss and explore past research and provide findings to three participating parents during a semi-structured interview. The overall goal is to see if…
The making of Barbie starts when a couple Ruth and Elliot Handler realize that their daughter Barbara, prefer to play a mature-looking doll rather than playing with a baby doll. The reason behind this preference is because she (Barbara) can get an imagination about her future. Mattel also has focused more on "story" Barbie lines for younger girls, and in recent years Fairytopia, Rapunzel and Nutcracker Barbies have been winners as much for the loads of accessories -- like DVDs and horse-drawn carriages -- as for the doll itself.…
Icons like Barbie recognized for their popularity and effects on society. Barbie is a subject of obsession all over the world. Collectors, consumers and even some designers become enthralled in the Barbie world. Designers create special designs to fit a specific trend of the high fashion runways. Collectors all over the world collect and spend amazing amounts of money to have the original Barbie in their collection. The consumers have made Barbie a true icon in American culture.…
Mattel Inc. is the induction industry of the Barbie dolls. The first Barbie doll was invented in 1959 and since then, the Barbie dolls have been around for decades and have become some of the most popular dolls in the world. Young girls often enjoy playing make believe with their Barbie dolls through the way they dress, and make the dolls behave during play time. Most young girls see themselves through their dolls and so the young children view the Barbie dolls as their idol and future self when they grow older. There have been many arguments concerning the female representation of these dolls since it was first introduced. In recent years, the messages convey in these Barbie’s ads are now extreme. The most common arguments about the representation of female body in Barbie’s ads include self-esteem, sexism, and feminism among different people. The Barbie doll ad “Barbie Little…
“Come on Barbie lets go party”, goes the popular song by Aqua, a song that is loved by many but when listened to carefully this song has some very demeaning messages towards Barbie. “I’m a blonde single girl in the fantasy world,” is a message that many people claim her to be, living in a fantasy world. Unfortunately too many girls young and old want to follow in her footsteps. Barbie is indeed a negative public icon. Not only is she a negative influence towards young girls but she also promotes an impossibly perfect body figure and a fantasy lifestyle which is unrealistic to achieve.…
Blonde hair, blue eyes, business woman, rock star, princess and doctor, can you guess who? It’s Barbie. To be beautiful is to possess qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction, and for most, Barbie is the epitome of beauty. For years Barbie has been a doll that has been living in the hands of girls of all ages. Some girls start getting Barbies as young as three years old and continue to collect these dolls sometimes into early adulthood. But are these dolls a positive influence on young girls? Barbie is harmful because she gives a false perception of beauty that effects the self esteem, health, and ethnic concerns of young girls.…
Toys started out as children’s entertainment, but have toys always just been for entertainment? Or can they affect the way a child develops, or interprets the world around them? The toys you play with as a child send messages that can influence your idea of what is socially acceptable. Toys teach you how to become who you are because of the roles they play. Media plays a major role in that, if you have a certain toy that comes out in a TV series, you play with the toy the way the media portrays the toy to be used. There are many different examples of how toys reinforce social norms. For example, Barbie is a doll that many young girls praise for her beauty and the social life media puts on her. Barbie is only one of many popular toys that subliminally sends a message of female gender roles to young children. Even though Barbie just seemed like a doll to play with, she makes it desirable to grow up to the cult of domesticity, which reinforces the traditional lifestyle that has been imposed upon women.…
It has been 55 years since the first Barbie was born. Almost every girl in the world has had at least one Barbie in their life. Statistics show that every second at least 2 Barbies are sold around the world! Yet how is this perfect doll impacting millions of teenage girls and women’s around the world? While researching this topic I stumbled upon a very disturbing picture, this teenage girl was holding a Barbie and was comparing the doll to her body. What kind of messages are we sending to young girls that this is how bodies are supposed to look like? How can a doll for children have such negative influence? Mainly Barbie dolls give unrealistic visions of the human body, she has a power of influencing young teens to become anorexic and also she inspires women to spend so much money on cosmetic surgery.…
The poem “Barbie Doll” is a poem concerning a young girl who has let the societal expectations that America puts on young women destroy her. The poem starts out by explaining a small female child who is just like all young girls. She had dolls and miniature ovens and lipsticks for the dolls, but when she hit puberty and her body began changing a classmate called her fat (Piercy, 687). This seems to be the beginning of all of her internal battles and self-esteem issues. The next stanza describes all the wonderful characteristics that this young woman should have been very proud of. She was a healthy intellectual who was also quite strong and skillful with her hands (Piercy, 687). The second stanza is predominantly sad to me because she possesses many of life’s more important qualities and it is a shame that she was unable to comprehend that. By my standards intelligence is a more prestigious quality to possess over beauty. The image that she owns is not incorrect in an empirical sense, but it is one that America does not accept as being the definition of the perfect woman. The girl’s human…
A popular culture is a shared set of practices and benefits that have attained global acceptance, and which can be normally characterised by: being associated with commercial products; developing from a local to a national to a global level; allowing consumers to have widespread access to it and; is constantly changing and evolving.…