With more than a third of American children and adolescents overweight, you would think that Mattel’s slender Barbie doll would be a good role model for little girls. Not so, according to some critics. If Barbie was a real woman, she would have less than 17 percent body fat, a neck too thin to hold her head up, a waist too small to house a full liver and intestines, and ankles and feet too tiny to walk. One group of researchers estimated the likelihood of a woman having Barbie’s body at one in 100,000. Yet some women strive for impossible bodies, with more than 20 million suffering from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Other research has shown that 40 to 60 percent of pre-adolescent girls are concerned about their weight, and almost 70 percent of elementary-age girls who read magazines say the pictures of thin models influence their perceptions of an ideal weight. Statistics like these cause consumer advocacy groups such as the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) to call for action, especially when targeting young girls. For example, the CCFC is concerned about Mattel’s Barbie Be Anything, Do Everything partnership with the Girl Scouts, in which Daisy and Brownie scouts (that is, kindergarten through third-graders) can play an interactive game on the Girl Scouts’ Web site and earn Barbie participation badges to wear on their uniforms. 1. Do you think it is wrong for Mattel and other doll manufacturers to market dolls with unrealistic body proportions to young girls? Explain why you think that way. 2. Discuss one other example of marketers targeting females (or males) with unrealistic body concepts.
With more than a third of American children and adolescents overweight, you would think that Mattel’s slender Barbie doll would be a good role model for little girls. Not so, according to some critics. If Barbie was a real woman, she would have less than 17 percent body fat, a neck too thin to hold her head up, a waist too small to house a full liver and intestines, and ankles and feet too tiny to walk. One group of researchers estimated the likelihood of a woman having Barbie’s body at one in 100,000. Yet some women strive for impossible bodies, with more than 20 million suffering from eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Other research has shown that 40 to 60 percent of pre-adolescent girls are concerned about their weight, and almost 70 percent of elementary-age girls who read magazines say the pictures of thin models influence their perceptions of an ideal weight. Statistics like these cause consumer advocacy groups such as the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) to call for action, especially when targeting young girls. For example, the CCFC is concerned about Mattel’s Barbie Be Anything, Do Everything
1. Do you think it is wrong for Mattel and other doll manufacturers to market dolls with unrealistic body proportions to young girls? Explain why you think that way.
2. Discuss one other example of marketers targeting females (or males) with unrealistic body concepts.
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