Barbie vs. Body Image

A. When I was growing up, Barbie dolls were my FAVORITE thing to play with. I had too many to count with suitcases full of their clothes and a basement full of their “necessities”. There was never work in their world, yet somehow they always had more than enough money. The lives I made up for them were always glamorous and exciting and surrounded around beauty.

B. For many decades there has been a running debate as to if Barbie actually has an affect on youthful girls’ images of themselves and to what extent the effect goes.

C. I am not an extreme feminist (or much of a feminist at all)… I

1. “Barbie depicts the doll that [had and] could do anything” (Johnson, 1). Many women look to her as the ideal everything that they want to be… she has the ideal body type, ideal life, ideal relationship. And little girls look up to Barbie as the symbol of what they want to become when they get older (Johnson, 1). Barbie has an “unattainable figure” for most girls (Gilman, 17). Did you know, that if Barbie was to be depicted in real life she would have the measurements of 39-18-33 and be 7 feet tall (Robins108)…that’s like putting Anna Nicole Smith’s breasts on top of Kate Moss’ waist, on a Cheryl Miller’s frame (Jervis, 1). Or think of the impossibility of her build this way… if in real-life Barbie was to have an 18 inch waist, it would only be 3 inches larger than an average cat’s waist.

1. It has been attempted in the past that Barbie companies have tried to create more realistic Barbies that lean towards looking more like the average body-type. But they have all failed in selling sooner-or-later. Even the ethnic Barbies did not sell as well as the original Barbie. What I propose the Barbie companies do is to slowly introduce more “average” looking Barbies and not make the change too apparent. I think the reason that the previous Barbies didn’t sell well was because their appearance changes were too apparent. By subtly incorporating a smaller bust and bigger waist and larger frame, the intention is for the children to not pick up on it and subconsciously change their opinions of what “perfect” should look like.

A. There are 3 billion women in the world that don’t look like supermodels and only 8 who do (Jervis, 2). By throwing the image of “perfect” Barbie into the lives of our children…in particular little girls…there is an impact as to how they view themselves in comparison to little girls that are not around Barbies. “Barbie may not be the cause of eating disorders and body hatred, but her universally recognizable profile makes her a flashpoint, an image of female perfection, a symbol of the drawbacks of any such images, and a convenient scapegoat for out cultural troubles with them” (Jervis, 2). “I know better than to claim that dolls are nothing

Some topics in this essay:
II Introduction, IV Conclusion, Barbie Barbie, Cheryl Miller’s, Proposed Solution, Girls’ Self-Esteem, Barbie Ken’s, Barbie Jackson, Getting Device, Promoting Capitalism, johnson 1, little girls, 1 barbie, barbie sexist classist, barbie extreme, sexist classist, damage girls’, barbie sexist, effect girl’s, promoting capitalism, damage girls’ self-esteem, johnson 1 barbie, johnson 1 2, barbie doll,