Barbie-Q The story, which was chosen to explain theme, was written by Sandra Cisneros. The main purpose of Barbie-Q is trying to expose the evils that young girls experience by playing with an immensely popular toy, the Barbie doll. The doll, which was once viewed as being an iconic positive figure, proves to be the contrary in this story. It shows the obsessive nature of two girls hunt to have and act like an image created by these fictitious plastic dolls. The theme of the story is to show how Barbie dolls are negatively influencing young girls and the drastic change they had on young girl’s observations of relationships, self-image, and childhood innocence.
The Dastardly, Unobtainable Quality: Perfection With the abundance of super models, Barbie dolls, and other symbols of perfection in the world today, it is no surprise that women and young girls have insecurities, as well as self-image issues. Girls grow up playing with Barbie dolls and creating fantasy worlds for them, pretending to be them and un-knowingly psychologically convincing themselves that they need to be like that Barbie doll to have the fantasy life and a Prince Charming. The challenges of the idealization of perfection do not get better as a young girl progresses in life. In fact, it gets worse. Between the perfect Barbie dolls, the perfect girls on social media, the perfectly airbrushed celebrities in popular magazines, and the less than perfect friends who point out all of one’s flaws, how can these girls not feel less than perfect and, therefore, strive for an unfortunate, unobtainable, dastardly goal called perfection?
3-Page Essay #1 “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy On a daily basis the media feeds us images of what they describe as perfect and beautiful people. From magazines, television, films, and even toys, society provides a mold of how women should look and act. More and more everyday woman are surrendering to the pressures of society and mold themselves into what they believe is ideal. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”, the girl in the poem is very young when she hears a few careless words about her nose and weight. After that, she can only view herself as a big nose and fat thighs.
In the third stanza I could tell by the descriptions that she is a young adult, and is being pressured by the real world to be “perfect” in every way. The last stanza is the stage in life that everyone goes through, but maybe not as soon as this young girl, which is death. At the beginning we see her youngest, purest years of life. She did the things that most young girls do. She had “dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry red,” (1-3).
Sonia Aggarwal 211712064 Ruby Newman Women and Aging GSWS 3504 November 12, 2014 Old Women in Fairytales Walt Disney is one of the world’s largest entertainment enterprise that is targeted to young children, especially girls. Disney consists of many stereotypes of race, sex, and age, which get passed down to the children who read the books and watch the movies. Many people think that Disney is just a bunch of fairytales with lovely, gorgeous, and young princesses; however, these people need to start looking a little harder. Disney portrays many different archetypes of characters other than princesses, and one of the popular character types is the old lady who is either a mother, or a woman with no children of her own bloodline. This essay will argue that Disney portrays two types of old women: the first is the ones who follow the norms of an ideal woman, and the second is those who deviate from the norms.
14 Feb. 2009. 2 June 2009 This source discusses the topic of children beauty pageants. Young girls are exploited in beauty pageants and are placed under harsh conditions. They must receive a total body makeover and spend hours preparing when they should be out enjoying their childhood. This source was one of my favorites because it proves so much information that backs up my idea on child pageant; I am going to refer to this source later on.
In “Barbie Dream House,” there are 3 Caucasians, 1 African, and 1 that doesn’t show her face. One of the blonde girls is the main character because she gets to play with the doll house first while everyone in the background are non Caucasians. The blonde girl gets all the attention. As a leader of the commercial she gets to play with the doll. We need to be aware of what’s taking place in children programming’s.
She had more than twenty operations and dispensed more then $55,000 in her attempts to look like Barbie. Barbie's image of being abel to do it all may have put pressure on many women. In today's society, there is pressure on women to work, have a marriage, make money, take care of the kids, and still try to look beautiful. Barbie's attitude idealizes the hardships women must go through to try and be
Parents teach their girls the proper way ladies are expected to behave from crossing their legs when they sit to not getting dirty while they play. Young girls are exposed to playing with dolls and playhouses that are preparing them for society’s idea of women’s duties. As young girls age the media influences enforces what the parents have already taught. Not only do the media encourage girls to except their gender role as women it also influences what society wants women to look like. Television shows, movies, and commercials express the idea body as thin, clear skinned, and large breasted.
“Barbie-Q” In “Barbie-Q” Sandra Cisneros writes a creative, childlike reality in a short story. The setting takes many girls back to their younger years when they would have play dates and dream about the new Barbie’s being released. With the point of view of children excited for any toy they can play with brings back many memories for people and she can reminisce about their childhood. The plot shows the struggles of a family who may not be able to afford more than the next family which is why the girls only have one a piece. The setting being so life like can be a familiarity for so many women.