Body Vs. Barbie

Growing up, I played with Barbie. Barbie had her own house, car and airplane. She had clothes and shoes for every occasion. She was independent and successful. She was tall, blonde and beautiful. She was everything I hoped to be as an adult. Barbie continues to be a role model for many little girls today. Little boys have their own role model, G.I. Joe. He is strong, a warrior, the good guy. Unfortunately, these iconic role models represent the unobtainable physique. Their body shapes are unrealistic. Perceiving these toys as physical role models has become detrimental to the health of children because when they fail to size up, or down, to these figures, serious illnesses, disease and even death can occur.

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

It gives the idea you have to be thin to be beautiful. Although, the thinness often resembles being unhealthy. The ultrathin image that Barbie contributes to these young minds is a negative body image and unhealthy eating patterns (Dittmar, Halliwell, & Ive, 2006). “In an exposure experiment three main questions were addressed: Do images of Barbie have an immediate negative impact on girls’ body image? Does exposure to images of a doll with more realistic body proportions result in the same detrimental effects?

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.

The poem, "Barbie Doll," written by Marge Piercy tells the story of a young girl growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. The author uses imagery and fluctuating tone to describe the struggles the girl is experiencing during her teenage years, and the affects that can happen. The title of this poem is a good description of how most societies expect others, especially girls to look. Constantly, people are mocked for their appearance and expected to represent a "barbie-doll"-like figure. Few are "blessed" with this description. The female gender is positioned into the stereotype that women should be thin and beautiful. With this girl, the effects were detrimental. The first stanza describes the

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

Unfortunately, it also is highly unattainable and instills unrealistic goals in girls’ minds. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, there are up to 24 million people suffering from eating disorders and 86% of those are under the age of 20 (anad.org). That being said, negative adverse effects are often the results of our world placing the upmost importance on body image. At Radboud University, Doeschka Anschutz and Rutger Engels conducted an experiment designed to test the effects of playing with thin dolls on body image and food intake in 6-10 year old girls. After splitting the girls into three different groups where they either played with a thin doll, an average sized doll or a slightly oversized doll, as seen in figure one, the results yielded that indeed there were significant differences between the girls’ body image and food intake which was completely dependent on which doll they played with (Anschutz, Engels 625). For example, a girl that played with the thinnest doll, the Barbie Doll, consumed the least amount of food following playtime when girls that played with either the average sized doll or even slightly larger doll consumed significantly more food. This experiment explicitly highlights the unknown dangers associated with playing with Barbie Dolls at a young age. Immediately the doll caused young girls to see themselves as ‘too big’ or

A website stated that “58% of girls that are currently attending college stated that they are not satisfied with the size of their body” (qtd. in DoSomething). Throughout the world, little girls are being negatively affected by the assumptions set forth by companies and society that being fat is bad for oneself. The creation of Barbies have set unrealistic and unobtainable goals for little girls, which won’t allow them to reach the good life because they will never reach this “Barbie” body. The central argument being addressed is analyzing how a girl’s image of herself affects her ability to reach the good life. Even though society and companies have engraved into us that the shape and size of our bodies is so important, Prager and Whittal show us that to achieve the good life one must focus on their self image rather than letting society influence them.

However, that isn’t true, Barbie is playing a huge role in eating disorders in women. It’s estimated that 8 million people have eating disorders and that only 10 to 15% are men and the rest are women. Out of that percentage, 80% of the women are below twenty. Author of “The Barbie Effect” says, “Many admitting that they started worrying about their weight when they were between the age of four and six years old. That is around the age that a girl usually gets her first Barbie doll, and many of the girls who have or had an eating disorder admitted that Barbie played a huge role on their influences in behavior and looks.” (“The Barbie Effect”) Another example would be a victim of an eating disorder, Galia Slayen, and how she created a ‘Real Life’ Barbie doll to raise awareness. Slayen had created it out of chicken wire and some other things from the store to make her according to the statistics of what Barbie’s size would actually be like if she was real. Slayen was feeling pressured by her peers and with the obsession for perfection that she had had since a young age. After it all, Slayen said, “Despite her appearance, Barbie provides something that many advocacy efforts lack. She reminds of something we once loved, while showing us the absurdity of our obsession with perfection.”

In the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, we read about a young girl who has self image problems. Due to the expectations of society, she is not happy with her physical appearance. She had many good qualities but is unable to see these for herself. Instead she only sees is a “a great big nose and fat legs”(Piercy,1936). In order to conform to society’s idea of beauty, the young girl was “advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and

At first as she brings the readers in she explains how the Barbie doll seems harmless. It’s just something she plays with, some would say. What people don't realize that at a very young age children notice the world around them. They not only see it in their toys but television ads, the radio in the car, and even from friends at school. It’s installed in their minds that the world expects you to look a certain way and if you don't fit the profile your not pretty.

In “Barbie Doll”, the speaker is fighting herself with accepting who she really is versus who society wants her to be. Piercy uses exaggerated diction and is very sarcastic with her writing. This shows readers that it is a silly thing to feel so unaccepted because of physical appearance but the reality of it is that these things do actually happen to people. And this is a major issue in society as a whole. The writer tells a story of a girl who is born just like any other girl but grows into this body that is so unaccepted by

The short story 'Barbie Doll ' starts off by painting an image of a young girl, who grows up with the image of a woman 's life and duties planted in her mind. “Presented with dolls, and miniature GE stoves, and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.” (Piercy) Immediately, she was placed unknowingly into the place of a girl, the standards that we are born to do, born to be. Growing up with this most likely put that idea into her own mind, and transitioning into puberty made it all the worse. She began to change, displayed the knowledge, health and strength anyone would be lucky to have. Yet, going into puberty, “everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.” (Piercy) I remember being that girl, not glamourous, yet not horrendous looking. I was average,

Barbie has become a pillar of the children’s toy market since her inception. Forbes reports, “Ninety percent of American girls ages three to ten own at least one Barbie, according to the doll’s maker, Mattel톖.” The doll has an impactful reach on kids today through both the dolls and other products that have been inspired by or created to accompany Barbie. This exposure, which has been proven to damage the self-esteem of women (American Psychological Association 1), impacts the development of kid’s views of themselves and other people. Comparing real women to these images causes these girls to have negative views of themselves as they grow older and judge other women harshly. It also causes boys to hold girls to an unreasonable standard of their appearances, which further damages the girl’s self worth when they don’t meet these standards (ScienceDaily 1). Consequently, the

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