Barbie
Since the beginning of time, toys have often been an indicator of the way a society behaves, and how they interact with their children. For example, in ancient Greece, artifacts recovered there testify that children were simply not given toys to play with as in the modern world. The cruel ritual of leaving a sick child on a hillside for dead, seems to indicate a lack of attention to the young (Lord 16). The same is true of today's society. As you can see with the number of toy stores in our society, we find toys of great value to our lives and enjoy giving them to children as gifts. Ask just about any young girl what she wants for Christmas and you'll undoubtedly get the same answer: "A Barbie." But what exactly has caused this baby boomer Barbie craze, and how did the entire world get so caught up in it? The answer lies in Ruth Handler's vision for the first children's adult doll. Mrs. Handler's eleven and one-half-inch chunk of plastic began causing problems even before it's public debut in 1959, yet has managed to become one of America's favorite dolls. Ruth Handler and her two young children, Barbara and Ken, were merely sightseeing in Lucerne, Switzerland, when Mrs. Handler first saw the doll she herself had been
Handler's version of the doll was not as racy or alluring as Lilli, her imitation of the "German streetwalker" would come back to haunt her many years later ("Bad Girl" 2). Instead of their original feminine comments, the newly improved Barbie dolls screamed "Eat lead, Cobra! Vengeance is mine!" On the opposite side of the toy store, the once dangerous and masculine G. Barbie sales have also done guite well--so well that Mattel estimates that two dolls are sold every second, somewhere in the world (Lord 7)! A Barbie hate group calling themselves the Barbie Liberation Organization arranged a protest against Mattel's new "Talking Barbie's" during the Christmas of 1993 (Lord 252). By giving the female population an unreasonable dream to achieve, Barbie gives young girls and women alike the impression they are not good enough for society if they are not up to Barbie's standards (Benstock and Ferriss 33). Handler's primary motives behind the creation of the Barbie doll was to increase a child's self-esteem and help them gently progress into the adult world by making friends and becoming independent (Tosa 12). She has endured painful chemical peels, tummy tucks, facelifts, eye-lifts, breast implants, liposuction, and two nose jobs to create a life-size Barbie with her own body (Lord 244). Actually, another reason for Barbie's anorexic figure can be traced back long before Kate Moss and the fashion runway. In fact, many children's therapists often use Barbie dolls as tools in their work. But for now, the Barbie doll would launch Ruth Handler and her company, "Mattel Creations", into what was soon to be a successful national corporation. It was 1956, and within three years, Mattel Creations began marketing the "teenage fashion model" as "a new kind of doll from real life" (Tosa 30). In order for her waist to appear "life-size" in her skirt made from four layers of human fabric, her waist must be disproportional to her body, or with clothes on, her waist would look wider than her hips (Lord 12). As Barbie gets ready to turn the big 4-2, it is unreal to think that she has completed her last makeover. Barbie actually seems to be the "view of how women of all races and economic classes should appear: with long slender legs and body, wasp-thin waists, large eyes and delicate features, basically straight but curled hair, elaborate living spaces, flashy cars, and state-of-the-art leisure equipment" (Benstock and Ferriss 32). It is because of this false portrayal of beauty that, sadly, links Barbie to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia in teenage girls and to breast implants and cosmetic surgery in adult women ("Bad Girl" 2). Whether we love her or hate her, she will always be a part of us all.
Common topics in this essay:
Bad Girl,
Benstock Ferriss,
Kate Moss,
Cindy Jackson,
,
Mattel Creations,
Experts Barbie,
GI Joe,
Bestock Ferriss,
Jane Bahor,
bad girl,
barbie doll,
girl 2,
benstock ferriss,
bad girl 2,
barbie dolls,
lord 252,
bad girl 3,
kate moss,
girls women,
2 barbie,
breast implants,
bad girl 1,
girl 2 barbie,
|
Acceptance Essays
