Barbie Dolls : A Of A Societal Female Identity Has Been Established And Reinforced Time And Time

Motz’s asserts that the dolls give young girls the power the essentially be anything they wanted to be though they “reflect traditional, outdated roles for women”. The Barbie doll gives young women the idea that life can be spent with leisure without much effort. Considering the dolls have a different outfit for every task/event and portray a life of luxury, even while working or going to school. Motz’s says that the dolls are a symbol for modern American success which emphasizes “wealth, beauty, popularity and leisure”. The message these dolls convey negatively impact the identities of American women.

Sandra Cisneros’s short story, “Barbie-Q”, describes the life of a young girl never identified by name and the less-fortunate life she and her family lead. The child explains how new toys are a rare find, but she loves Barbies. While entailing the family’s trip to the local flea market, she and her sister find Barbie dolls with water and smoke damaged. The main girl states the flaws of the Barbie, but counters with the positivity of having any dolls to play with. Through this struggle, however, the girl learns to cope with the gender roles and standards set by her peers and neighbors, particularly for women. Cisneros writes with these ideas in relation to her own childhood, motivated by the social standards of gender roles and body image in relation to the Barbie.

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 toy section at Target had many clear differences in the toys for boys and the toys for girls. The types of toys that were out on the shelves were different, but also the way the toys were presented were different. Girls toys mainly consisted of stuffed animals, dress up clothes, babies and dolls including Bratz, Barbies and fairies. The primary colors of all these toys consisted of different shades of purple, pink, and white. There were bits of blue and yellow but it seemed that all the colors stood out and had a type of feminine aspect to them. Besides color, the girl’s toys were often soft and fuzzy or

Millions of women have gone along with this fantasy and have been entranced by the unrealistic standards of appearance and false qualities of life. Sadly, more and more women have accepted these standards as their own and have even resorted to changing who they are to become what they believe to be real. This may be a major contributing factor to the rise of women seeking breast implants and or plastic surgery. Yet there could be a further explanation and meaning behind Barbie.

To summarize Pollitt’s essay, “Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls,” she talks about the cause and effect of why boys take the role of being strong and macho, and the girls play the role of beauty and gentleness. Pollitt claims that males and females’ personalities and behaviors are copied from social conditioning and that there is no need to do the study on brain chemistry or activity. Looking at the way we raise kids, we can determine how incomplete the feminist revolution really is. A toy such as Barbie are for girls. Starting from childhood for a girl, Barbie, with long hair and thin figure, she

Children learn as early as age two what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl” (Aina & Cameron). This is described as gender identity, a person’s sense of self as male or female. Gender stereotyping emerges hand in hand with the development of gender identity in Early Childhood (Halim). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males and females. When babies are born they are either put in pink or blue, as they grow up they still maintain the same “gender” colors. As young children start to socialize, they are playing with either “girl” toys or “boy” toys. When they get older they

In our society, there are norms of what is considered to be feminine and what is to be considered masculine, but how are these norms constructed? Through the use of toys, books, and clothing, children are socialized into their “appropriate” gender. These objects provide influence over behavior and appearance, showing boys and girls what is appropriate for each gender. After some investigation it was found that the toys, books, and clothing that children use not only foster the norms of gender behavior and appearance, but also construct gender roles in their young minds.

In this essay I am going to be discussing and assessing how the ‘Barbie Doll’ which is a toy for children, mainly for girls has changed over the years since the 1900’s to the present generation and how this relates to other larger contexts like class, gender, race, disability and faith. Below I have inserted 2 pictures of the Barbie doll, One from 1959 and one from 2010, which is fairly recent.

In the past couple of decades, we have experienced exuberant advancements in every category imaginable, including toys. The well-known toy brand Mattel introduced a thin, blonde doll named Barbie in 1959. Since her debut to the market, Mattel has sold well over 1 billion Barbie dolls. But the dramatic changes made to Barbie since her creation are extremely evident. As much as the doll has changed with the times, the most noticeable changes seem to be over the course of the past few decades.

Gender socialization often begins early once parents are shown the sex of their child; from then on, baby showers are planned according to gender “appropriate” colors, which are often pink for girls and blue for boys. Even differences in how children are spoke to can be picked up easily in Western cultures. Girls are called pretty and sweet, whereas boys are handsome and strong. Ultimately, the way children learn to identify with their gender culture is in part due to not only family and friends, media, schools, and religion, but also from the toys that may inexplicitly advertise gender expectations. Gender-typed toys may be bought for children as a way for parents to encourage and reinforce gender-appropriate behaviors. However, recent debates have engulfed toy manufacturers and major retailers, which has brought about changes in toy design and marketing in an effort to make reflect more realistic and gender neutral options.

Primary data will be used to answer the research questions guiding this research. The population, sample and procedure will be covered in the following sections.

Young people of today look to society for influences in how they should look and act. Children are influenced daily by television, Internet and video games, friends, and even the toys they play with. Boys grow up wanting to be like the superheroes and G.I. Joe figures they play with; girls look to their Barbies and dolls to see how society mandates teens and young adults to be. Bratz dolls are also among those Barbie-type toys that girls are looking up to these days. Bratz dolls are similar to Barbie in form; however, Bratz are more fashionable and “hip” than the traditional blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie. In fact, the more fashionable and “hip” the dolls become, the more negative the image becomes that they exude. The outrageous clothing

How does a Barbie influence young girls in today’s world? Young girls are more into Barbie dolls than any other toy. Barbie has become the ideal role models for all young girls. Barbie perfect appearance, perfect clothes, perfect hairs, perfect makeup, perfectly…perfect. Young Girls need someone, who will validate their dreams, inspire, their hearts, and represent all the positive, healthy ideals life and the young girl start thinks Barbie is the one who they want to become. Girls start comparing their own life with Barbie’s. But they don’t think, Barbie is not the one who going to teach you how to live in the society, how to talk to the elders, how to be a girl, how to dress, no, Barbie

Launched on March 1959, the Barbie doll is a toy that was first put on display in New York. It quickly garnered a lot of attention with the target audience of the creators, young girls. This doll was different than its previous dolls because it was a doll that was an ideal representation of a woman. Thus allowing young girls to use their imagination to create and act-out what this doll’s life is like and what their future would potentially be. To successfully understand this toy, we must think like C Wright Mills, a sociologist who asks to use our sociological imagination, the intersection of one’s biography and history. This artifact reflects and perpetuates the dominant ideology of how to perform your gender the “right” way in the early 1960s. I will argue this demonstrates West and Zimmerman’s concept of “doing gender” which is clarified with Judith Butler’s concept of socialization of gender.