Barbie: Should the Doll Be Modified?
- Submitted by: jordantaylors
- Views: 323
- Category: English
- Date Submitted: 06/05/2014 12:33 AM
- Pages: 6
- Report this Essay
Barbie:
Should the Doll be Modified?
Since Barbie was first launched by Mattel in 1959 over 10 million have been sold. “Somewhere in the world, a Barbie is sold ever half-second”(Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive). Out of all Mattel profits, Barbie makes up approximately 80% of them. Barbie brings in such a high profit because she has always been seen as the 'perfect woman': perfect house, boyfriend, wardrobe, but most importantly a perfect body. However stated by Sakima Laksimi in 'The Barbie Effect', “the problem is little girls are growing up admiring this unrealistic icon. Barbie shows girls that to be perfect you need to be skinny. In today's media being skinny is favored, but are these little girls any less because they don't resemble this unrealistic doll? Of course not, but when skinny is all they see, that is what they want to be. The effects of being self conscious and unsatisfied with their body can follow a little girl even after childhood”. Many people do not see the underlying problem with Barbies, so it is important to bring awareness to her true message because it is extremely unhealthy for girls to follow. While young girls should be able to freely play with Barbie-dolls, it is sometimes necessary to make sure those dolls aren't harmful to their self views.
Barbie provides young girls with stereotypical gender roles. Abramason says,“Significant results would mean that exposure to Barbie could lower self-perceived ability and makes female stereotypes more salient”. This put the idea in girls heads that they will never achieve the same status of knowledge as boys, and if they do it is not “cool”, and if you aren't “cool” you certainly can't be
“perfect” like Barbie. Many girls look at Barbie as an idol, so seeing her lack the brains in math makes them want to pursue the same. Girls should not count themselves out of school because a doll teaches them otherwise. If parents don't believe Barbies have a negative impact on their daughters...
Should the Doll be Modified?
Since Barbie was first launched by Mattel in 1959 over 10 million have been sold. “Somewhere in the world, a Barbie is sold ever half-second”(Dittmar, Halliwell, and Ive). Out of all Mattel profits, Barbie makes up approximately 80% of them. Barbie brings in such a high profit because she has always been seen as the 'perfect woman': perfect house, boyfriend, wardrobe, but most importantly a perfect body. However stated by Sakima Laksimi in 'The Barbie Effect', “the problem is little girls are growing up admiring this unrealistic icon. Barbie shows girls that to be perfect you need to be skinny. In today's media being skinny is favored, but are these little girls any less because they don't resemble this unrealistic doll? Of course not, but when skinny is all they see, that is what they want to be. The effects of being self conscious and unsatisfied with their body can follow a little girl even after childhood”. Many people do not see the underlying problem with Barbies, so it is important to bring awareness to her true message because it is extremely unhealthy for girls to follow. While young girls should be able to freely play with Barbie-dolls, it is sometimes necessary to make sure those dolls aren't harmful to their self views.
Barbie provides young girls with stereotypical gender roles. Abramason says,“Significant results would mean that exposure to Barbie could lower self-perceived ability and makes female stereotypes more salient”. This put the idea in girls heads that they will never achieve the same status of knowledge as boys, and if they do it is not “cool”, and if you aren't “cool” you certainly can't be
“perfect” like Barbie. Many girls look at Barbie as an idol, so seeing her lack the brains in math makes them want to pursue the same. Girls should not count themselves out of school because a doll teaches them otherwise. If parents don't believe Barbies have a negative impact on their daughters...