Barbie Doll Sociology

The body is vital to identity. It is through the body that people first identify themselves and identify with each other, and Barbie, in most cases, facilitates the ideals of the body. Barbie is one of the most iconic toys portrayed as the conventional and quintessential female body image. I asked a friend to describe his portrayal of the body and the facets of Barbie and his characteristic of the doll included long, blonde hair, blue eyes, white skin, curvaceous, white-pearly smile, long legs, and a “unhuman-like hole in between the legs” or the thigh gap that so many girls strive for. Girls are the targeted groups that from a very young age acclimate to the idea that not having similar attributes to Barbie implicates imperfect. This gives
I know my parents did the same and the doll gave me great joy, especially when ornamented with expensive looking jewelry and exquisite dresses. However, looking back, I did not register the sociological implication behind Barbie. For example, gender decimation and stigmatization on a sociological level is portrayed by the possession of Barbie dolls predominantly by girls; for guys, the Barbie equates to action figures. From a very young age, children of the different genders are constantly told or impelled to own commodities such as toys that speak for their gendered based identities, thus stripping away their agency. Their roles are already in place even before they are born as described by Harro’s description of ascriptive characteristics or the characteristics assumed to what one is born into (2000). For example, it is unnatural and almost questionable to see a young boy play with the blue-eyed, long haired plastic doll. By doing so, the boy is refuting the conventional ways of what his expected of him and may encounter informal social sanctions by his peers. The society reinforces young boys to engage in toys and games that induce manliness, strength, power, dominance, and violence (Kane,
It is “reviewed and remade continuously”. Barbie later became a commodity for the low culture made available to masses. Now, however, our culture is focused on promoting a healthy body image and promoting diversity. Therefore, the embracing of the different body types evokes a positive body image and allows for a wider and more diverse range of girls to play with the doll. This modification of Barbie delineates the amending of an entire organization in a system to promote healthier responses instead of the changing the individualistic mentalities, because ones the system alters, the individual mentality changes with it, thus augmenting the dialectic relationship between individuals and