9.10.08
Should Barbie be a "Role Model"?
When you think of what a young girls favorite toy is what do you think of? When I thought of this I pictured Barbie. The classic doll that has been around for several generations. Barbie is supposed to be the perfect women other than her being made of plastic of course. She has the perfect figure and a perfect family. She also has had every career imaginable. Some women would say she is a role model. However the two words “role model” have a heavy cost. In class we read several articles that attacked the little plastic doll. Saying she’s to perfect. No girl could ever live up to her standards. I do not agree with these attacks. Women need to realize she’s just a doll. It is hard to find any doll that isn’t picture perfect. Even action figures for boys have the huge muscles and supposedly perfect man figure. I think that people need to relax. However the Barbie company has been working on making Barbie a more typical women figure. She has larger hips and a somewhat smaller chest. What do you think of Barbie?
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2 comments:
After reading several articles in class, I got a little riled up about the role model Barbie was setting for so many young girls. Barbie’s figure was flawless and she had the perfect family. Both of these things are very hard to achieve. I began to think how many girls look up to Barbie as a so called “role model”. It upset me that they had such a false imagine. As I continued to think about Barbie as a role model I began to questions these writers’ stances. First of all, Barbie promotes that girls can have any career they want. Barbie is a lawyer, nurse, business woman, and many more. She also promotes independence and not needing a man. Barbie is not married and therefore promotes that women do not need a man. Pleasing a man is a popular thing to do and girls typically think is very important and it is not. Women should please themselves and make sure they are happy before a man. Barbie’s company is also changing her figure to smaller chest and fuller hips. As a child I had many Barbies. I do not remember having them as my “role models”. I think my mother or grandmother were my role models at that age. I never thought a doll was something to look up too. I believe that these writers should rethink their opinions. I do not believe that Barbie is a role model and if people think she is one, I do not think she is a bad one.
Barbie is the trademark doll for little girls. Almost every girl has had at least one Barbie in their lifetime. I remember having a Barbie when I was little but it was never my favorite toy. The authors of the articles we read in class made it seem like every little girl looked up to Barbie and wanted to be just like her. I don’t think this is true, and like Allison said they were trying to make this sound like a bad thing. Barbie lets little girls know that they can be independent and do what ever they want to do. I also don’t think many girls think of Barbie as a role model, they see her as a doll, a toy. Barbie lets them use their imagination and just have fun playing “pretend”. The articles were getting very repetitive and a little irritating because it was making little girls sound ignorant or like they couldn’t tell the difference between real life women, and plastic dolls.
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