How popular she is and perfect she is, and so naturally these girls are beginning to want to be just like Barbie, happy and perfect all of the time. There is always so much to look, act and dress. And young girls worldwide feel the need to fit in and the only way to do that is to look and act a certain way. Barbie has always been there to set the trends. Feminist say that Barbie is the cause of worldwide eating disorders, low self-esteem and false perception of beauty.
Instead they show praise towards her and her whiteness by buying white baby dolls, even for black girls. “The big, the special, the loving gift was always a big, blue-eyed Baby Doll….all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured.” Not only do the girls of this novel learn that whiteness is superior through the white baby dolls and the idealization of Shirley temple but adult women too have learned to despise their own color and learn as they grow that whiteness is the desired color. Whiteness is considered the cleaner color. When Pecola spills berries all over the clean white ladies house this
It is bad that Barbie, a 6 foot tall, 100 pound, size 0, infertile doll is possibly believed to be realistic and perfect (Bennett, Saren). She is one of many reasons young girls eventually develop a low self-esteem and an inaccurate idea of body image. Due to Barbie, young girls have also developed eating disorders, and the lust for unnecessary, unrealistic material objects. Girls should not be pressured about the way they look, act, and dress (Bennett, Saren). By definition, Barbie is a trademark doll representing a slim, shapely young woman, especially one with blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin (Barbie).
The problem is this standard is so unreal and changes from day to day that how can any woman truly be this so called perfect woman? “Then the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a big nose and fat legs.” This line tells the truth of every teenage girl, and boy, in the world. At this age is when we come to “know” what it is that is beautiful and how to hate ourselves for not being that pictured image of it. We look in books and magazines on TV and the internet and see the images of models that are so skinny, nipped and tucked to perfection. Also we have Photoshop now; no one can look as good as some one that is enhanced by a computer to be something they are not.
That was a good demonstration of how sadness is inherent in life. I think much of who we are as adults has to do with how we socialize, interact and are raised as children. The first four line of the poem “Barbie Doll” speaks about the child’s innocence. “Entertaining toys such as dolls, lack certain ingredients that teach cause and effects but will have psychological effect on how a girl child interprets what is beautiful and eventually how she see herself” says Dr. Hall, a child psychoanalyst with twenty years experience (preschooler.thebump.com). The following two lines and second stanza speak of puberty and what her class mates think of her.
Barbie Doll clearly displays a strong sense of feminism. It specifically attacks the modern day pressures that women are faced with as far as appearance goes. The author seems to have the opinion that women are pushed to make themselves perfect in the eyes of society. I think this is why this poem has a very negative and almost angry tone to it. Barbie Doll has a few main themes that can be easily recognized; the main ones that Piercy addresses are the pressures of being a female and the desperate attempts to please others.
Artificially Perfect When invented in the late 1950s by Mattel, the Barbie doll was considered the model woman. For many generations little girls have played with this doll and some even thought that’s how they were supposed to look and act. The Barbie doll was everthing. She was the perfect housewive, she had a career for herself, and she was even the party girl all while mainting her perfect hair, makeup, and tiny wasitline. Within the past few years the idea of the Barbie doll has been questioned by society: is Barbie what every woman is to suppose to look and act like?
Child Beauty Pageants Should Be Banned When you were younger, you probably played dress up, for fun and games. Well, some irresponsible mothers in the United States are taking the concept of dressing up and turning it up several levels, and transforming their children into replicas Barbie dolls. The young pageant model is adorned with fake tans, hair extensions, 50 layers of make-up and fake teeth. After being put in extravagant, often inappropriate costumes, being fed health derogatory substances such as sugar packets and mixtures of high-energy drinks that even children twice their ages don’t even drink and performing tantrums of her reluctance to do her pageant, the juvenile Prima Donna is ready to go. Plastering on an over-exercised smile, the six year old walks on stage, cheered on by the joyful screams of her most-likely overweight mother.
Most people who are familiar with Cinderella have little understanding of the subliminal messages associated and the consequences involved. To many, Cinderella is a harmless story of a young girl who struggles through life, is finally able to achieve her dreams, and lives happily ever after. In reality, the patriarchal gender expectations and rewards associated with Disney’s Cinderella can be damaging to young girls and their self-image. Therefore, in order to render the misogynistic ideologies of these stories invalid, modern pedagogy should be recreated to incorporate potential empowerment for both genders. Most people believe fairy tales to be harmless to a girl’s development, unable to comprehend the reality of the situation: the gender stereotyping involved in these stories can be influential in several ways (Bonds-Raake 232).
Beauty pageants are a needless aspect in society simply because they put a big emphasis on money, set unrealistic beauty standards for easily influenced young girls, and they encourage judging on appearance, rather than on a person's character. Child beauty pageants are fun to watch. The cute little girls all dressed up in their tiny gowns, dancing, singing, and prancing around. The pageants consist of modeling sportswear, evening attire, dance and talent. For most parents and their little girls it is just good fun.