African-American Mabie's Negative Impact On Young Girls

In 1980, the first African American Barbie was introduced to the world , 21 years after the original Barbie was created. The African American doll had a small waist and skinny legs, which is similar to the original Caucasian Barbie. (Reel & Soohoo, 2008) Many say that the creation of the first African American Barbie doll was the start of negative body image within the African American community. People say this because the new Barbie promoted certain societal views that are very much still present today. When people think of body image, they automatically relate it to upper class Caucasian women. This association causes people to believe that African American women are happy with the way they look because they do not go the extra mile to look like other ethnic groups. (Reel & Soohoo, 2008) Just because African American women do not always openly talk about their bodies, does not mean they are satisfied with the way they look.

The Barbie doll is an eleven-inch-long plastic doll that was the first representation of an adult woman. The original Barbie doll, built in 1959, looked as such, going from head to toe. The doll’s skin color was white. The hair color was available in either blonde or brunette put up in a ponytail. The face: the eyes were constructed with white irises, heavy black eyeliner, blonde or brown eyebrows, blush, and red lips. As for clothing, she wore a black and white striped swimsuit with gold hoop earrings. Along with her came two accessories of black open toe heels

Introduction Barbie is one of the best-selling dolls in the world. This doll often resembles role models to young girls. What girl hasn’t had a Barbie doll in their lifetime? It is not unusual that at least 99% of girls in the population have or has had a Barbie. The main concern is with young girls up to the age of 10, with the idea image that Barbie provokes to these young minds.

The infamous Barbie doll is still considered to be the most popular toy for girls (and not only for them). However, the image that the doll itself spreads, is harmful for the girls worldwide, considering the false body expectations it represents and the portrait of the girls as being unintelligent. Both of the cases I will explain below.

In the article “Klaus Barbie, and Other Dolls I’d Like to See,” Susan Jane Gilman talks about how we create this doll that sends a message to girls that they have to look a certain way. Gilman talks about how Barbie sets the standard that girls have to be a tall, skinny, blonde, blue eyed, straight, white female (Gilman). It tells girls that if they were anything else, they were never going to be pretty enough or accomplish much because they do not look like the ideal woman. At another point in the article, Gilman talks about how Barbie has introduced other dolls that are different races but are only limited edition (Gilman). With these limited edition Barbie dolls, it furthers the fact that people who are not the stereotypical Barbie, are not as good. Since this ideal woman is now within the

Children’s child play has become a form of an unrealistic world. Although, it is considered for children to begin creating a creative imagination, the mind fascinates children into toys. Some child’s play toys are not ideal for young children, like the one and only “Barbie”. Barbie has become a worldwide toy product for children all over the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole. These dolls have emerged from one ethnicity to another. In Ann DuCille, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Differences” the author talks about the race and gender differences; found in Barbie. She argues; “Is Barbie bad?” her response, was “Barbie is just a piece of plastic” (459). In contrast, this piece of plastic is not just a piece of plastic to young girls; it is much more than that. A piece of plastic that little girls all over the world wish they could be. Even though, it is only a piece of plastic to adults that Barbie significantly means nothing to them. Growing up, I owned a couple of Barbie dolls. The tall, long blond hair, blue-eyed doll was my best friend and my “role model”. I wanted to become exactly like Barbie. As a child, I thought only beautiful people who looked liked Barbie signified beauty. To my little to no knowledge, I soon came to find out no one really looks like Barbie, except people who want to become like Barbie. In my adolescent years, no one taught me Barbie was “unreal”; no one taught me it was just a figure in my imagination.

The first of many changes being the introduction of the first official African-American Barbie and Latina Barbie, both of which were not released until 1980, twenty years after the first Barbie was released. This year the newly-released 2016 ‘Barbie Fashionistas’ are available in four body types, seven skin tones and 22 eye colours addressing long-time criticism that the dolls did not accurately reflect the modern woman. This change means more representation for women of colour, more representation of a normal female body type, teaching young girls that white is not default and anorexia is not beautiful. This links back to the much needed change in social thinking and the popularity of healthy lifestyles and colour representation in 2016. Barbie has begun to represent women outside the thin, white, blonde archetype and represent women as a diverse set of individuals, appealing to a wider range of consumes and the new trend in pop culture. Barbie has reinforced pop culture over time as she has managed to change in response to the opinions of society, whether or not she agreed with the change.

Many toy companies have now made their dolls diverse because of all of the races in America. They have not just changed people with different skin tones or facial hair but also have changed the amount of genders. This is very important because many religions or people don’t look or want the original blonde barbie. Now people want stuff that will make other people and children feel special about themselves.

Todays society has been raised to idolize unrealistic body figures; which in turn, causes harm to women’s lives through their low self esteem, as well as eating disorders, and earning less income for obese working women. Every little girls dream toy when they are young, is to own one, if not many, Barbie dolls. What many parents do not know, or think about, is they are setting their child up for a long battle of self doubt, and low self esteem. Children, without knowing it, look at Barbie and think that is what they should look like, but in reality Barbie is an unrealistic figure. If Barbie was real, she would be about five feet, nine inches tall, and one hundred and ten pounds.

I believe that Barbie has changed massively over the years in skin colour, hair colour and sizes. Piaget has created the theory of learning through play. He says children engage themselves In imaginative play which means that if they see a story or characters they are most likely to imitate them and what they do. When children imitate others they develop a vocabulary which allows them to name the world around them. This relates to dolls because if a child is given a doll which moves and does things around a doll house like cleaning, a child will imitate that around the house and act like a house wife like the doll. This shows that dolls are created in that way to leave a image in the child’s head on what a girl does when she grows up, likewise how the dolls have changed, whilst children grow older they have certain changes in them

they do not meet the image of the doll. It is known that a Barbie doll

When I was younger, I used to played with Barbie dolls. Personally, I never understood the controversy with these dolls until one of my elementary friends pointed out to me the body shape of the doll. Since I am African American female I tried to purchase dolls that resemble me. Barbie fits a negative stereotype of a how an average American woman supposes to look like as you stated in your blog. You provided great evidences to prove the point of the whole blog. As an additional note, I would have like to see an image the new Barbie dolls compared to the old Barbie. Overall I truly appreciate the fact that you chose this topic to write about for your

There has always been a problem with these issues but society had an increased awareness on diversity and gender over the years. Barbie had its back against the wall as it has been widely targeted for promoting stereotypes and shaping children’s sense of beauty. They addressed the issues of diversity through launching the larger variety of products, the 3 extra body shapes, and the variety in hairstyle and eye color shows that Barbie made effort to address the issue of diversity through their products. They gave their best effort to include more ethnic groups in their collection of dolls, they have also done the same in their media. Barbie has included more ethnically different Barbies in their media ads and their YouTube content. However I realized that the Barbie Company is still selectively using Caucasian girls to star in their ads, so Barbie still has work to do in addressing

It is important to have diversity in all kinds of dolls because you want everyone to be united together. In our current generation there are not many different colored dolls so it is good to have different kinds of dolls and toys. A lot of toy companies have been getting feedback and are now changing all of the varieties of toys that they have. The toy companies are realizing that if they do take the feedback and listen they will have more customers. Some of the dolls are even manufactured to look like certain people like, Disney Princesses, Elena of Avalor, Moana along with many more. They did those princesses because they are a different race and they look different compared to the regular blonde haired barbie doll.

Ever since the creation of Barbie in 1959, the doll has been a frontrunner in children’s entertainment. The doll’s humble beginning has progressed until Mattel can now claim, with very good reasoning, that one Barbie Doll is sold every two and a half seconds. Considering the doll’s popularity, one has to wonder how a toy that popular is effecting the children who play with the doll. Some people claim that Barbie encourages young girls to be the best they can be. Others believe that Barbie is merely a toy, and that the doll has no impacts on the child’s life at all. The truth of the matter is that Barbie can have very serious negative effects on how young girls will grow up to view their physical appearance as well as their value as human beings.