Barbie Pop Culture

While Barbie is known for giving off a bad message for children's body image, however she also has a very empowering massage. Many grownups believe that barbie has unrealistic body standards for young girls to look up to. Yet, many 6 to 10 year olds are not worrying about their body at this time of their life. Barbie was created in 1959, based off of Ruth Handler’s daughter’s fascination with an older doll. Her daughter wanted a teenage or grown up doll(“History”). Barbie was created by Ruth to show that a woman can do any job or any profession. "My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact a woman has choices."(“History”). In the 60’s and 90’s this was big because of all the women equality movements going on in America. Barbie also helps girls imagination. In a video recently released on Barbie’s website, it shows how Barbie can help a girl's imagination. In the video multiple young girls are seen doing grownup jobs. In the end it shows a little girl acting out the same jobs with her barbie dolls(“Imagine”). This shows that Barbie can help a girl imagine she can do anything just like the Barbie catch phrase, “Be who you want to be”. Barbie also has diversity. Christe, Barbie’s African American Best friend, was created to help make Barbie more diverse(Sherrow). There are even Latino Barbies

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.

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.

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

“My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices,” Ruth says. (Inc, n.d) Ruth and Elliot Handler are the founders of Mattel creation and in 1959 the world was given the “Barbie” doll. (Inc, n.d.) The Barbie doll was introduced to a small toy fair costing $3. The Barbie doll was the first doll to be sold that doesn’t look, “like a baby” but more like a woman. The Barbie doll is an iconic doll available for anyone, anywhere. After further research, the Barbie doll has influenced body image and society that there is a “right way to look” to fit in consists of blonde hair, blue eyes, 5’8 or taller, long legs, small waist, big boobs and butt. This encourages women to think what they have is not good enough and they need to change it to look the best or the “norm.” The influences the Barbie doll has had on body image are the “unrealistic Barbie,” and increasing eating disorder percentages.

Barbie is the controversial toy every big news outlet loves to poke and prod about. Barbie was created in 1959 after Ruth Handler observed her daughter, Barbara, playing with paper dolls. “Ruth immediately recognized that experimenting with the future from a safe distance through pretend play was an important part of growing up.” Even though some may be "intimidated" by Barbie's seemingly perfect, tanned, thin body, Barbie is only a doll; In the end, she is just a hunk of plastic.

Ever since Barbie made its first debut in 1959, these little 3-D molded statuettes have been an icon for little girls for many generations. People look at Barbie dolls and portray them as beautiful, perfect and has no flaws. A lot of times you hear people call other people Barbie dolls when they think someone is pretty or flawless. In the poem “Barbie Doll” the author Marge Piercy suggests that an American Barbie Doll typically presents herself as being the "perfect" woman and this leads to people being jeered at for their appearance and expected to have a Barbie-doll-like figure. The doll is symbolic of the ways that women themselves have been made to think that's what they should look like and what they strive for.

With a perfect face, long blonde hair, permanent makeup, and a tight waist; Barbie is teaching girls that this is an acceptable standard of beauty. An article on Daily Mail UK’s website, Barbie’s proportions are broken down to outline how she would look as a real woman. If Barbie were life size and human, she would have a thirty-eight inch bust, sixteen inch waist with room for only half a liver or a few inches of intestines, and would have to walk on all fours due to her six inch ankles and top heavy distributions. When looking at the big picture, Barbie is the furthest thing from perfect. Nina Golgowski continues in the article, “In addition to comparing Barbie’s body proportions to the average American woman’s, it also compares them to the average anorexic woman.”

The doll also influenced young girls lives in a materialistic way within only a short period of time after she was released. Barbie’s wardrobe was extensive, perfectly accessorized, and updated frequently. Girls wanted to run to the store and buy more clothes for the doll and themselves. Not to mention she had two houses, a nice car, pools, jacuzzis, dogs, and horses. It seems almost impossible that impressionable young girls could ever be content with their life again after seeing Barbie’s perfect

In fact, the Barbie doll was so popular that three years after her release in 1959 Mattel was still filling orders from her first year (Long 17).

Barbie, at the age of 41, is one of the longest living toys in America. Analyzing her early history can give a person a look into the societal trends and culture of the late 1950's and early 1960's. There is evidence of fashion innovations in Barbie's wardrobe. Also, one can see the perception of females by society, such as what they should look like, how they should act and dress, as well as what their future goals could be. The following essay follows Barbie's history from 1959 to 1963, covering her development, her appeal to children, and her existence as a cultural artifact of the time period.

Barbie is one of the most successful fashion dolls with a worldwide annual income of $1.5 billion sales (Mattel, 2003). Its popularity is astounding, with 99% of children aged three to ten in the United States own the minimum of one Barbie doll, whereas the average number of dolls owned eight (Rodgers, 1999). The Barbie doll is viewed as a fashion icon, its long term success can be attributed to the fact that Barbie lives an extremely glamorous life by having eighty careers and numerous pets, has the most stylish clothing as trends are kept up with by producers by creating nearly one billion designs every year, and embodies the ideal standard of beauty of being tall, skinny and beautiful. Together, these factors make a Barbie doll very desirable,

II. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for fifty years.

The whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the Barbie doll little girl could be anything she wanted to be. But, now in today’s society little girls look at Barbie and think, I need to be tall, skinny, and blonde like her.

The doll "Barbie" has been around for generations to generations. Barbie is a popular fashion doll bought by parents and children all around the world. From "Dr. Barbie", to "Barbie Life in the Dream House", many individuals proclaim that she has the perfect body, perfect hair, perfect skin, and perfect clothes. The children who are big fans of Barbie, especially think this. Throughout the years, the makers of Barbie "Mattel" have made a few changes such as different body types, and different ethnicities. But, Barbie is just an unrealistic image of what some people would like to look like.