Now that’s growing up without a childhood. Jane Smiley seems like a great parent who cares about her children but to allow her daughters to put on makeup even entering their teenage years just isn’t right. Her girls where prematurely growing up, where behaving beyond their age, and with their only priority being beautiful at all times it seem to help them in the long run. As they burned off the “Barbie stage” and grew into more important things down their lives. Like for example Smiley talks about her older daughter, “Now she is planning to graduate school and law school and become an expert on woman’s health issues, perhaps adolescent health issues like anorexia and bulimia” (377).
I mean how could we expect a four year old to deal with the stress of a pageant without a full body massage? The more pampered the better! These days it’s become simple to turn a living breathing toddler into a barbie doll. Not only pretty like a barbie doll, but also the fake, plastic-like perfection of a barbie as well. Their skin is perfect with the help of fake tans and more makeup than the average woman will wear in her entire lifetime.
Life as Plastic Both today and yesterday's society have created a mold that young women are expected to fit in to. Tall, tan and slender girls are often looked at as the beautiful members of society. The positive and wonderful qualities of both women and men are often overlooked because of physical appearance and image. Marge Piercy accurately portrays the unreachable standards placed on women to be beautiful from adolescence into adulthood by her use of fluctuating tone and effective symbolism in her poem “Barbie Doll”. The poem follows a young girl from her childhood to her adulthood in a third person omniscent point of view.
Those who have played with Barbie dolls at some length can grasp what Prager was talking about. Prager chose this audience because she is well aware that Barbie was the most popular doll for girls. She knew that subliminally every girl or woman was thinking the same thing
Regardless if it’s 2012 or 1950, young girls struggle with self-confidence issues. Marilyn Monroe was not the skinniest girl ever and she loved her body. She put out the message that tall, short, skinny, fat, white, or black you should always love the body you were given. One of her famous quotes was, “I’m living proof that you can still be adored by thousands, even
Ironically, the dimensions that Barbie would not even be anatomically possible on humans. A women with her dimensions of 36-18-38 would not be able to live. The perfection Barbie portrays has influenced many women attain Barbie's body by having operations to make themselves "look like" Barbie. Cindy Jackson, founder of the Cosmetic Surgery Network, is a famous Barbie Doll human. She had more than twenty operations and dispensed more then $55,000 in her attempts to look like Barbie.
English 101 13 June 2012 “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” - Alice Walker Essay How does a person learn to accept herself after her image is altered? It took Alice Walker half of her life to learn to accept her altered appearance after an accident at the age of eight. Alice Walker’s journey from confidence as a beautiful little girl, through insecurity as a scarred young woman, and eventually to acceptance of her altered appearance is a journey that readers travel on with her. As a little girl Walker had an abundance of confidence. She writes, “Whirling happily in my starchy frock, showing off my biscuit-polished patent-leather shoes and lavender socks, tossing my head in a way that makes my ribbons bounce, I stand, hands on hips, before my father.
Akeelah is a young black girl from south Los Angeles living with her widowed mother, her sister, and her niece. Needless to say, Akeelah is in a low-income household. However, although Akeelah lives in a poor household, she is extremely intelligent as this is evident through her unique ability to memorize and spell a vast majority of words at her young age. Without the consent of her disapproving mother, Akeelah enters her school’s spelling bee and wins. The movie continues with Akeelah gradually reaching the national level of spelling bee tournaments with the help of her coach, Dr. Larabee, her principal, and the community she lives in.
Hello Kitty was soon on her way to become a celebrity. “Although, Hello Kitty was originally conceived as a character that would only appeal to pre-teen girls. She is no longer regarded as for children only. Along with the likes of Coke and Nike, she has become a brand of recognition.” (Walker) Not only was she popular among the young girls, she is now loved by everyone of all shape, size, and color. “The sales of Hello Kitty merchandise now account for half of Sanrio’s billion dollar empire with her face adorning over 50,000 products, and being sold in more than 60 countries.”(Walker) Simple products such as coin purses, jewelry, and skateboard decks have became popular in sales.
The Wonderful Life of Miley Cyrus Miley Cyrus is such an inspiration for young teen girls. She is still a teen Phenomenon, being nominated for three categories in the Kids Choice Awards, Favorite TV actress, Favorite Movie actress, and Favorite female singer. She is liked world wide, but what makes her so perfect? She has constant accountable mistakes that she apologizes for, but then turns around and does something worse. She is easily forgiven for anything she does wrong just like any other celebrity.