The rhetorical stance that Prager conveys is that Barbie is one of the many reason that young adolescent girls today have body image issues. The intended pathos for “Our Barbies, Ourselves” is directed to those who can relate to Prager’s feelings towards Barbie. Young and middle aged girls can understand Prager’s reasoning for her mixed feelings. Prager gives examples of how she played with Barbie when she was younger and how she felt knowing that Barbie and Ken could never become romantic. Those who have played with Barbie dolls at some length can grasp what Prager was talking about.
Giovanny Sanchez May 5, 2012 Ms. Collins Barbie’s World In everyone’s childhood there is always that one special non-living figure in their personal lives, a figure we admired, something we looked up to be, like an idol. In “You Can Never Have Too Many,” Jane Smiley thanks Barbie for the effect she had on her daughter’s lives as they were growing up to be young adults; by teaching them the feminine side of woman at an early stage, which ultimately allowed their minds to have a lot more options when it really came down to figuring out who they wanted to be at an adult stage. Smiley however, does not effectively support this argument because she gives a lot of credit to Barbie for the way her daughters turn out to be but she’s forgetting
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.
Critically examine the argument that Barbie represents middle-class, white ‘emphatic’ femininity. Blonde hair, blue-eyed 11.5 inches tall and the easily the most popular doll for sale in the world. Debuted in 1959 Barbie turns 50 this year and still continues to dominate the toy doll market. ‘According to the manufacturer, every three seconds a Barbie doll is purchased. Barbie has been said to touch every girl's life’ (Rogers, 1999).
M3 girl designs have also created “Sparks of Life” which is tailored towards mature teenage girls. “Spark of Life” products include stackable bracelets and necklaces. At 10 years old, Maddie was having trouble finding cute magnets to put in her school locker. Just as most entrepreneurs do, she created a solution to a simple problem. She made the decision to create her own.
“ Seen Through Rose-Tinted Glasses”: The Barbie Doll in American Society Wether we realize it or not the toys our kids play with everyday have an immense impact on their behavior and development. Motz essay describes the perfect example of what these toys do to our society. In her essay, Marilyn Ferris Motz describes how Barbie portrays an image of a woman that lives based on her appearance, her popularity and her status. When playing with this dolls, girls take on the role of a teenager or an adult woman, letting them imitate adult female behaviors they see on other people and on the media. Girls take on the role of the doll enabling them to participate in dating and other social activities.
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.
All of these things helped conform little girls into thinking that their role in life was to be something pretty for a man to look at. Modern times are not that much better. Little girls are still given Barbie dolls and feel pressure from an adolescent age to look a certain way. This epidemic is causing girls to succumb to eating disorders, face bias when it comes to their appearance by others, and have a general low self-esteem. Stereotyping people is just as dangerous as bullying
Playing with the toy it helped me explore my creativity and imagination more. Some people may think that a perfect looking toy known as the Barbie may have a negative effect on some girls’ self esteem. As a young girl growing up Barbie had no impact on my self esteem. I believe that Barbie has a huge impact on my creativity and imagination. With many different styles of clothes and accessories to choose from, it gave me a chance to explore my creativity.