After
reading Jane Gilman's article about Barbie’s, it had me interested in
doing research on the Barbie’s today since that was something I played
with as a child. Growing up I never really realized that the majority
of the dolls were white, blonde and flawless. As I got older I obviously
knew that the Barbie collection isn't as diverse as the world is. I
went through several pages on different shopping websites and saw that
the world of Barbie’s is pretty much the same
as when Gilman wrote her article. The makers of Barbie are still
portraying that "perfect" human image and aren't considering all races,
ethnicities, and body types.
With that being said, there
is a model from Russia named Valeria who has changed her body to look
like a Barbie doll. She has spent over $800,000 on all of the surgeries.
Since last year she has been named the ‘real-life
Barbie’. It’s not that she looks bad, but to me, it’s sad to think she
spent all of that money just so she could look like a plastic,
unrealistic doll. When she does her makeup she definitely looks like a
doll and to me that’s a little bit scary. I personally
don’t want to look like my child hood toy. This video I posted below
shows her transformation from a 21 year old blonde to a 21 year old
Barbie.
Since Barbie is the "human
idol" and are what girls look up to, I found an article that disagrees.
It talks about how odd Barbie would look if she were actually human. It
compares her proportions to the proportions
of an average American woman. One part I found humorous was that she
would be too thin to hold her vital organs and that she would have to
walk on all fours because her feet are too skinny. Her neck also
wouldn't be able to support her head. It also shows Barbie's
without make up. This article even compares Barbie to an average
model; which I thought was interesting since models would be the closest
people to compare a Barbie with. It’s interesting to think that
Barbie's are supposed to portray this idealistic image,
but they wouldn't even survive if they were actually real.
Very interesting, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder, however, how much of the data used can be attributed to a realistic expectation versus how much can be attributed to "whales" or, perhaps easier to follow, what is known statistically as an "outlier."
I bring this up because, at least from my perspective when I was a child, I find that I never really felt the need to be like any of my toy figures. Sure, I played with G.I. Joes and action figures as much as any other guy, but at no point was I sitting there thinking to myself, "Yes, I think I should be exactly like this super buff psuedo-superman when I grow up." So, with that in mind, I wonder how much research can be applied to the general population between how many people think like me (in terms that Toys are just that, toys), and how many individuals believes that toys are direct indications of what society believes we should, and possibly could, be.
The best way I can think to explain the concept at the current time is with economics. Take a mobile app that has in app purchases. On average, statistics show that each user will spend ~$1.70. These people include individuals who wont spend anything, as well as people who are willing to spend upwards of $10,000 dollars a year. The numbers are skewed because on average about 90% of general users will spend nothing at all, but the outliers (or whales, pick your favorite term), spend so much that the average for everyone is brought up.
So we apply this idea to the social idea that barbie is an "icon" which will affect perceptions of what people "should" look like. I think, in general, it would be safe to assume that a large majority of people, especially when they are younger, do not look at Barbie (in all their absurd proportions) and think, "Hey, I want to be like that." On the other side, we have people like Valeria, who spend almost a million dollars for that specific purpose. Thus, the average of individuals that research would claim do such a thing is offset somewhere in the middle. Data, in general, is just that; an average.
In the end, I suppose it's simple to wonder if the data collected, especially in a social setting, can be skewed like in an economic setting. I believe it can be, and I think that the socialization value (the value researchers are placing on just how much of an effect things like Barbie and G.I. Joes can have on the perceptions of children) may be a bit over dramatized.
Regardless, interesting articles. I thoroughly enjoyed them. It is quite amusing to imagine running into someone on the street that would go through the surgeries required to look like a real life Barbie doll, and at the same time immensely disturbing.
Regards,
Hunter Smith
Even though we may not idolize the appearance of a Barbie toy when we play with her during our youth, her effect on us appears soon after we give her up. It is hard to imagine that when given the choice, a young girl would choose a short chubby brunette doll in comparison to a skinny blonde Barbie. As young girls, we are exposed to what society believes to be 'beautiful', even if we don't realize it yet.
ReplyDeleteOnce girls hit puberty, we become extremely self conscious and aware of our changing bodily figure. This awareness is compared to the images portrayed to us through the media, the women we know, and yes, the dolls we once played with.
I found an article online titled The Negative Effects of Barbie on Young Girls and the Long Term Results in which Stephanie Hoskins wrote about an experiment conducted on the long term effects of playing with Barbie dolls. The experiment exposed girls ages 5 to 8 with either a Barbie doll, an oversized doll comparable with a size 16 woman, or no doll at all. The girls were then questioned on their thoughts on body image and those who had seen the Barbie doll stressed the importance of low weight. The study showed that although the young girls did not show low self-esteem effects immediately, it became more likely that they would later on in life.
http://www.divinecaroline.com/life-etc/momhood/negative-effects-barbie-young-girls-long-term-results
As a little girl's toy, Barbie seems to be the most popular of all doll options. I remember when I was little, a new doll brand by the name of Bratz came onto the toy market. My parents bought me a Bratz doll and eventually I stopped playing with her because everyone said 'her head was too large' and 'she didn't have real feet'. As a child, I accepted that my doll wasn't normal so I had no problem casting her aside.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BGgaV7tm6_U/TbCflo2MQaI/AAAAAAAAB2w/vvIbgUxWlwY/s1600/doll.jpg
So what does this teach us? I know that self esteem issues evolve from more factors than just playing with Barbies, but it's the toys like Barbie that begin to spark these issues. No wonder we have girls struggling daily with their self esteem, trying to achieve what is thought to be 'beautiful' by society. But what is beautiful? To girls, beautiful is an idea that stems from Barbie herself and although her looks may be unachievable, girls compare themselves to her daily. Some girls will even pay $800,000 to look just like her.
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ReplyDeleteI had the same thought when I read the article. I thought of Valeria. I have read articles and watched videos about her before and it is unbelievable what women will do to become who they think society wants them to be.
ReplyDeleteI had tons of Barbie's growing up, they were my favorite toy to play with. I use to get so excited when I would go to the store with my parents and they would let me get a new one. Looking at them at the store I always wanted one that looked similar to me but there never were any short, tan, medium body type with brown hair. Seeing that I could not find a Barbie that looked like me made me get the thought in my head that maybe I was suppose to look like her. Even at a young age it does have some kind of influence on you. Barbie's were pretty and had nice bodies and had nice clothes, and for the most part every little girl had at least one and that makes you want to be like them.
Everything around us as we grow up from the toys we played with when we were little to the models that we watch on television and even our friends influence what we want to look like or act like and how we want people to see us. I know personally when I was little I thought that Barbie's were perfect and it had a little impact on me but the thing that had the biggest impact on me were my friends that I grew up with and what I saw on television and in magazines.
I would never go to the extremes as some women go to such as Valeria to completely change my body and who I am just to look like something that in reality is not and could not be real. We all have things about ourselves that we do not like and would like to change but we are who we are and we should embrace that more and stop trying to change or "fix" ourselves to try to fit into what society thinks that we should look like.
As a guy, I never played with Barbie's growing up but we had tons of them in my house still from my older sister. Thinking back to it, every single one of the dolls was a beautiful white woman. As a child, I would have never made the observation that Barbie's were an unrealistic interpretation of how women are supposed to look. I highly doubt a little girl would understand or be able to see that a Barbie is unrealistic also. It makes sense that little girls grow up wanting to look like the gorgeous dolls they played with as children because that is the beauty norm that was set in their head from a young age.
ReplyDeleteI found it almost humorous that it is physically impossible to look like a Barbie. I do not understand why a company, who I'm sure is well aware of the standards they are putting in young girls heads as to how they should look, would create a doll that is impossible (without hundreds of thousands of dollars in surgery) to look like. At the same time, I do not think making short, fat, or chunky Barbie's would be a good idea either. That might make girls think being overweight and unhealthy is acceptable and I doubt any little girl would want to play with a fat Barbie anyways. The Barbie company should start making dolls that portray an actual realistic woman with features that are possible for women.
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ReplyDeleteBeing a boy, I haven’t had as many experiences playing with a Barbie than the average girl, however my younger sister had multiple Barbies lying around the house so I always saw that “perfect” doll. My sister did also have some of the other versions of Barbies that had black hair, different colored skins, different features, etc. from the “original”. So I don’t feel as strongly that girls model themselves after their Barbies. I think that there is a degree to which girls look at their doll and want to be like it, but I don’t believe that it is significant enough to cause women to take big measures to look like the doll. I believe that women try to look skinny and flawless from other influences rather than a Barbie, but if it is true, I don’t blame Mattel (the company that creates the Barbies), I blame the parents.
ReplyDeleteNow my sister no longer plays with Barbies so she couldn’t really even model herself after the doll. However, things could be different in other households and maybe I just don’t understand because I am a boy. I can understand how Susan (from her article Klaus Barbie) would want different types of Barbies to be created so that if girls are really that influenced by them, things would change. However, I feel that the author needs to understand that there can only be so many Barbies.
In Susan’s Article she talks about how she wants there to be many different types of Barbies like “Bisexual Barbie, Harley Barbie, and some others like Blue collar Barbie”. Susan basically said that if more Barbies were created that represented a more “average” woman, there wouldn’t be as many girls doing terrible things like starving themselves to look like their childhood doll. Even if this is true, Mattel wont just add a whole collection of new, “different shaped” Barbies. Mattel is a business, so there needs to be a demand for different shaped Barbies, Mattel can’t just go an create them if nobody will buy them, they would go bankrupt. So I believe the problem needs to be fixed from the parents by buying more of the “different shaped” Barbies and less of the “perfect” Barbies. So even if there is, in fact, an influence of looking “perfect” created by these Barbies it could be eliminated, but it must be done by the parents hand, in my opinion.
Growing up with two other sisters, playing with Barbies was an everyday event in my household. We had Sea World Barbie, Pizza Hut Barbie, Barbie's Sister Kellie, her boyfriend Ken, and any other doll that was on the market at the time. Even though each Barbie had a different hair color, eye color, or wardrobe, their physical build all remained the same: unattainable. Not only are some of us at a genetic disadvantage to obtain Barbie's height and waist line, as Diana mentioned above it, would be impossible for an individual to survive with the body proportions of our current Barbie doll. In Susan Gilman's piece titled "klaus barbie, and other dolls i'd like to see," she writes on page 73 that she is frustrated that the attention brought to the outrageous appearance of the Barbie has failed to lead Mattel, the creator and supplier of the doll, to issue any changes; Gilman writes that "I see a new of little girls receiving the same message I did 25 years ago."
ReplyDeleteI remembered reading an article on Yahoo's homepage a while ago regarding a Barbie that was created to mimic the average proportions of 19 year olds in 2013. Artist Nickolay Lamm photoshopped the characteristics of a Barbie onto a woman with the average body frame to create a doll that better represent the population. The new proportioned Barbie looked natural next to its rival. While still having the beautiful facial features and hair, the doll could easily be one that Mattel could make a profit on. Unfortunately, the company will continue to produce the original prototype as long as it continues to turn a profit for the company, continuing Gilman's fear of future generations receiving the same message from the doll that she did as a child.
Artist Rendition of Average Barbie Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/normal-barbie-nickolay-lamm_n_3529460.html