Barbie Bad Influence

In the New York Times article: “Barbie- Doll, Icon or Sexist Symbol” it shows how kids see Barbie. With her blonde hair, blue eyes, and perfect body, she is seen as a symbol because it symbolizes that her intentions of having a thin body. The author

The commonly held opinion of the fashion icon, Barbie, has contributed an impeccable standard for young girls--from the unhealthy body images for girls to the low self-assurance Barbie has brought upon them. To counteract the previous statement, with the help of Barbie’s many job titles, women 's equal rights and opportunities have flourished. The creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler, created her so that, “through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices,” (Mattel 2016) to serve a purpose as a role model to show kids to love themselves instead of trying to be like her.The unrealistic self image and lifestyle of glamour and riches were designed strictly for

One study took a group of 6th grade girls and had them play with Barbie’s, then later asked them what their views of Barbie were:

The object under consideration is the barbie doll. A barbie doll is a toy for children who have moved on from developmental toys to more sophisticated toys. Barbie doll fit an unrealistic size and shape figured doll that kids can play with in various ways. They can play dress up and do different things due to barbie having multiple careers paths she is able to take. It does promote a positive image to young girls because it promotes the idea that you can be anything you want to be, however, it still plants the idea of an unrealistic body image. Barbie is slender and tall and barbie dolls do not deviate from thing and this is problematic because it creates a certain kind of standard young girls begin to believe in.

In ads from decades past, Barbie was the stereotypical Caucasian, tall, blonde girl who every young girl desired to have in her toy-box. But the negative effects of the expectations and ideal that she would enforce into the minds of young girls would become an extremely heated topic among parents.

In fact, “...Barbie is so exceptionally thin that her weight and her body proportions are not only unattainable but also unhealthy”( Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive 283). This fact creates potentially dangerous situation for young girl to be influenced to emulate an unattainable body type. One particular research study conducted by Helga Dittmar, Emma Halliwell, and Suzanne Ive in 2006, found out that young girls, ages 5 to 8-years-old, who were exposed to Barbie, experienced self-esteem and body issues. “This is the first study in which an experimental exposure paradigm has been used with young children, thus offering a methodologically rigorous examination of Barbies as a cause of girls’ feeling of unhappiness with their bodies and their desire to be thinner” (Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive 283). When 162 U.K girls, ages 5 to 8, were given picture books with either no pictures of bodies whatsoever, images of Barbies, or images of Emme (a doll with realistic body proportion), they young girls who looked at the books were more unhappy with their body image than those girls who read Emme or non body books (Diep par.4-5). Their study did not find these same finding in the oldest girl, however the evidence that Barbie is not influencing this younger population of girls, still points to the need for some type of change as this early pattern of looking up to an unrealistic body image

Young girls have been playing with Barbie dolls since the dolls inception at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Recently, researchers have been skeptical on whether the dolls have an effect on the self-image of girls who play with them. In order to determine if Barbies have an impact on young-girls self-concept, clinicians have carried out several studies where they monitor the interaction between the young girls and the famous figurine. From these experiments, scientists concluded that Barbies can have a bearing on a girls self-image, making the consumers who buy the doll more aware of the issue Barbie

Emily Prager, in Our Barbies, Ourselves, stated that Barbies have influenced little girls around the world on what the perfect body looks like, when in reality there is no “perfect” body. Our Barbies, Ourselves states “here are millions of women who are

Young Girls look up to many people as role models, one role model that plays an immense part in their lives is Barbie. Barbie is defined as being pretty, beautiful, and even perfect. But is she really that wonderful as she seems? Her body shape is completely inaccurate representation of the female body and people get easily influenced by these unrealistic standards. If no one steps up to help young girls realize that Barbie is not perfect then they will have dissatisfaction with themselves forever. Body dissatisfaction is becoming more and more popular and one reason is that Barbie presents an unrealistic body image that affects young girls and their idea of a perfect life.

Barbie's got a bad reputation. All that is really focused on is her looks. This defeats the purpose of the entire concept of the doll herself, and it goes to show just how women (even of the rubber/plastic type) are portrayed in the public eye. Actions figures aren’t exactly only looked at for their rock-hard abs and meaty arms, but seen for their strength, courage, and all around manliness. This brings us to a double standard, but that’s another essay topic in

In the article, “ Influence of Barbie on Gender Identity” Barbie is considered to have a negative impact on households in America because of the way Barbie looks, discriminated as from other minorities, and the roles she has as a woman which are stereotypes. Many feel as though Barbie gives young girls insecurities at a young age and that when young girls interact with a Barbie they are supposed to act and think in a mature way. One person wrote in this article that Barbie has never influenced her gender identity when she was growing up. She never thought about Barbie as a bad influence. As she stated, “ All I was worried about was whether or not Barbie had all her accessories and looked pretty once I clothed her” (qtd.

In 1959 Mattel Toy releases a womanized figure called Barbie, a doll with unrealistic body proportions. Little girls all over the world idolized this toy, wanting to grow up just like Barbie. The blond hair, skinny waist and blue eyes toy. Parents were thrilled by this toy but little did they know it created a big self-esteem drop and brought their child’s insecurities up.

It wasn’t until the late 1960’s that critics began “comparing Barbie to a Playboy Bunny and calling her a corrupter of youth” (”Bad Girl” 3). One woman commented, “She’s an absurd representation of what a woman should be” (“Bad Girl” 3)-–and that’s exactly what many others thought she was, too. With such impossible real-life measurements of 5’9” tall, 36”-18”-33” bust, waist, and hip (Benstock and Ferriss 35), it’s easy to see why mothers across the country banned the doll from their homes and refused to let their impressionable young daughters be influenced by a piece of painted plastic (Bestock and Ferriss 35). Since dolls have often been responsible for teaching children what society deems important or beautiful, many concerned parents wondered why Mattel did not design a doll that taught more valuable lessons than dressing pretty and being dangerously skinny (Edut 19)? Who said a runway model was best suited for teaching a child what is beautiful anyway? “According to a Mattel spokesperson, a Kate Moss figure is better suited for today’s fashions” (Edut 19), and that is one reason why Barbie must be so disproportional. Actually, another reason for Barbie’s anorexic figure can be traced back long before Kate Moss and the fashion runway. Barbie was

Barbie is one of the most popular toys, cherished by young girls across the globe. Individuals are so quick to judge Barbies influence on young girls without realizing that young girls view the world in a totally different way than women do. Throughout time, Barbie has taken a lot of heat for damaging women's body images, or at least being a symbol for it. Because of this, it has been stated by many that Barbie is a negative role model for young girls.  Having been on the receiving side of body shaming and body image issues, it can be said that I consider body shaming to stem more from individuals, rather than the appearance of a toy.

Studies made by Suzanne Ive compares girls exposed to images of Barbie dolls with girls exposed to images of Emme dolls that represent a more realistic body shape. They find that "very young girls experience heightened body dissatisfaction after exposure to Barbie doll images but not after exposure to Emme doll (or neutral control) images (Ive, 290)." Therefore, the evidence suggests that the body shape of Barbie does affect girls ' view of their bodies. Because girls admire Barbie 's unattainable body shape, they become disappointed at their own bodies.