Social Stereotypes In The Boy And Barbie Doll

"Be anything, Do everything", says Barbie. This slogan is widely represented in most Barbie commercials. Barbie is a toy fashion model doll that was created by Ruth Handler and manufactured by the American toy company, Mattel Inc. Recently, Mattel Inc. had dropped a new Barbie commercial called, "Imagine the Possibilities". The true purpose of this commercial was to grasp the audience in a diverse way than other Barbie commercials. By the visual aspects this promotional commercial argues that a Barbie doll can be a significant factor to young girls and help them realize they can achieve anything in life.

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.

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.

This poem dramatizes the conflict between society’s perspective on normal and what is actually normal when it comes to appearances. The name of the poem “Barbie Doll” is an allusion to barbies. The speaker of this piece began by stating “the girlchild was born as usual” meaning the child that was born was the image of normal. The speaker states that a girlchild was born and was a normal little girl that played with barbies by saying “as usual” (line 1). A classmate of the child informed her that she had a “great big nose and fat legs” (6).

Toys and sports also promote gender appearances. Male appearances are characterized by being physically fit, strong and aggressive whereas females are to be beautiful, feminine and nurturing. Jane Smiley describes Barbie as being slender, stylish and most of all popular. Barbie is often dressed in pink and wears make up. Models in today’s society fit this description which makes other females want to achieve the same look. The appearances for females set by society‘s norms are presented in toys that gives off the message that ‘if you do not look like this’, it is considered unattractive. “Frilly, sexy, pink, purple, bedizened, and bejewelled were the preferred Barbies,” (Smiley 238) shows that females should have these characteristics in order to be seen as

Like Georgiana in “The Birthmark”, women often find themselves striving to reach society’s expectation of beauty and perfection. In Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll”, a young girl is finally able to reach society’s version of beauty but she must die to do so. Piercy criticizes the ways “women are socialized into stereotypical feminine behavior” (“Overview: “Barbie Doll”, para. 1) in this poem and suggests that the pressure put on women to meet certain standards of beauty and behavior is destructive. The poem opens with the birth of a “girlchild” and all the “typical toys” that go along with it. When the girl hits puberty, her classmates begin to make fun of her big nose and fat legs. The girl is intelligent and healthy, but the other children only see the imperfections in her appearance. She is told she should behave “coy” and always wear a smile, but the teasing takes its’ toll. She cuts off her nose and legs and offers them up

At a very young age, children are molded by their adult influences into what society perceives as normal or socially acceptable. Even before a baby girl is born, the mother is showered with pink clothes and gender-specific toys to announce to the world that there is a set role her daughter must fill to be accepted. However, as times have shown as of late, people are not clay figures that can just be manipulated as how others see fit. Marge Piercy's use of literary devices shape the theme of an adult-enforced patriarchy in her poem, "Barbie Doll". Piercy's distinct use of referring to the protagonist of the poem in line one as a "girlchild" help shape the reader's perception of the child (Piercy 533).

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.

From an early age, young girls are expected to obtain an unrealistic, idealized beauty. Society places women under subjugation to these appearance standards, which are exemplified through magazines, television advertisements, billboards, and even childhood toys. Airbrushed models in photo shoot spreads and Barbie Dolls of unnatural proportions belie how the average, real woman looks. Marge Piercy criticizes society’s quixotic “beauty” through a satirical account of a girl who succumbed to the pressures of society and ultimately ended her life due to her shortcomings of how the world expected her to appear and behave. In her poem, “Barbie Doll,” Marge Piercy utilizes metaphors in order to indirectly mock and condemn the image that society views as beautiful for women.

[In American society there is an extreme want for women to look perfect on the outside. There is a extraordinary amount of importance and anxiety placed on women to surrender to becoming Barbie dolls. After rereading and analyzing the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, I identified the main theme as appearance and that Piercy uses irony to convey the stereotypical views of feminine beauty throughout society.] When first reading the title of the poem, “Barbie Doll,” I suspected that the speaker was describing a little girl’s toy. However, as I started reading the poem, I realized that the title was referring to the outer beauty and perfection society expects of women.

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

A little girl’s world begins as such a wonderful place. Makeup, dresses, tea parties and prince charming are what little girls dream of. Marge Piercy uses a variety of poetic devises to convey the theme of stereotypes and the struggle girls face is brought to attention in this free verse twenty-five-line, open-form narrative poem titled “Barbie Doll.”

In Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll" a young girl is troubled by the classification of what it takes to become a beautiful woman. "Barbie Doll" details the image that society projects upon women. From an early age young women struggle to conform to the standards that society has defined for them. Beautiful dolls such as Barbie are frequently the first source of association that young girls have with the image that society has placed upon them.

From the time they are born, girls are influenced by society as to who they should be, how they should look, and how they should act. Americans believe that women should be to a certain standard; pretty, feminine, and especially, thin. The pressures derive from family, media, and friends. Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll” depicts a girl who was never recognized for her character and spent her life trying to be accepted for who she was, rather than how she looked.

“ideals are developmentally ingrained in children and adolescents”( Englis 1). The idea of beauty and ideal looks are engraved into people at a young age. The little girl being given a Barbie doll shows this in the poem. The idea of beauty and how a woman should act are represented in the Barbie doll. The primary take away is beauty is not everything.