March 9, 1959 was the Barbie Doll debut, and since then she has become one of the largest cultural icons for women that America has ever seen (History). The fashion doll was in the hands of a great deal of young girls, and Barbie was a part of their lives—she soon their idol. Although, with the idolization of Barbie came “fixed gender roles, heterosexual norms and consumerist values to which women must strive” (Toffoletti). The effects of Barbie on women’s culture lasts longer than just childhood, and translates into adulthood as we idolize professional cheerleaders, celebrities, and models—comparing women to Barbie dolls. Barbie is an artifact to Women’s culture in America because she is what so many women strive to become, and what numerous
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This affects their body image. The doll ends up being around one-sixth to scale, and her “statistics” include a 36 inch chest, 18 inch waist, and 33 inch hips and Barbie’s personal scale sets her at only 110 pounds (Rossner). Achieving a body with these measurements is near impossible, unless there is surgical intervention, along with unhealthy lifestyle choices regarding diet and exercise. To add, the first African-American Barbie doll “Coloured Francie” appeared in 1997 but was modeled after the original white doll, losing key features in African-American women (Rossner). There are distinct differences between the traditional European white women, whom Barbie is created after, and an African-American women and such differences include: body shape, as African-American Women are more curves, differences in hair texture, and differences in the construction of the face. Simply taking the original white Barbie, and changing her skin color is doing a disservice to the doll and the culture it is emulating. Young black girls owning an African-American Barbie are getting the wrong ideas about how she should look, and is idolizing a figure that does not even represent her own culture, as if something is wrong with her culture and she should become “more …show more content…
First, there was an inspirational commercial titled “Imagine the Possibilities” running two minutes long aimed at younger viewers showing young girls careers such as being a professor, veterinarian, men’s soccer coach, and as a traveling business women. Barbie was not mentioned until the very end of the commercial as we then see a young girl acting out the scenes shown in the commercial using Barbie Dolls. At the end of the commercial it then says, “When a girl plays with Barbie she imagines everything she can become” (YouTube video commercial). This does contradict the research previously mentioned regarding the results of playing with Barbie vs. playing with Mrs. Potato Head since the research shows that young girls do not imagine themselves in male dominated fields, or having less career options than men. There have also been efforts to change Barbie by expanding their race, body shapes, and hair colors. Most recently Mattel is releasing on-line a set of “Fashionista Barbie’s” that come in tall, petit, curvy, different hair, and with different ethnicities. A solid attempt by the company to expand the Barbie’s that girls can look up to. This new line came out in this past year, and if this line expands and keeps going it could change the face of this cultural artifact, making it about body positivity, not striving to be the one particular mold that society accepts. This is
This affects their body image. The doll ends up being around one-sixth to scale, and her “statistics” include a 36 inch chest, 18 inch waist, and 33 inch hips and Barbie’s personal scale sets her at only 110 pounds (Rossner). Achieving a body with these measurements is near impossible, unless there is surgical intervention, along with unhealthy lifestyle choices regarding diet and exercise. To add, the first African-American Barbie doll “Coloured Francie” appeared in 1997 but was modeled after the original white doll, losing key features in African-American women (Rossner). There are distinct differences between the traditional European white women, whom Barbie is created after, and an African-American women and such differences include: body shape, as African-American Women are more curves, differences in hair texture, and differences in the construction of the face. Simply taking the original white Barbie, and changing her skin color is doing a disservice to the doll and the culture it is emulating. Young black girls owning an African-American Barbie are getting the wrong ideas about how she should look, and is idolizing a figure that does not even represent her own culture, as if something is wrong with her culture and she should become “more …show more content…
First, there was an inspirational commercial titled “Imagine the Possibilities” running two minutes long aimed at younger viewers showing young girls careers such as being a professor, veterinarian, men’s soccer coach, and as a traveling business women. Barbie was not mentioned until the very end of the commercial as we then see a young girl acting out the scenes shown in the commercial using Barbie Dolls. At the end of the commercial it then says, “When a girl plays with Barbie she imagines everything she can become” (YouTube video commercial). This does contradict the research previously mentioned regarding the results of playing with Barbie vs. playing with Mrs. Potato Head since the research shows that young girls do not imagine themselves in male dominated fields, or having less career options than men. There have also been efforts to change Barbie by expanding their race, body shapes, and hair colors. Most recently Mattel is releasing on-line a set of “Fashionista Barbie’s” that come in tall, petit, curvy, different hair, and with different ethnicities. A solid attempt by the company to expand the Barbie’s that girls can look up to. This new line came out in this past year, and if this line expands and keeps going it could change the face of this cultural artifact, making it about body positivity, not striving to be the one particular mold that society accepts. This is