Female Body Image and the Mass Media Essay

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the Barbie Doll, and the positive and negative impacts she has on society. Central Purpose: I will discuss how Barbie has effected women and the pedestal she has set upon us career wise since our youth. Introduction Quote; Once a wise female said “The first 10 years of a girls life is spent playing with Barbie, and the next 10 years are spent trying to look like one”

During the time of development and release of Barbie, the feminist movement was in full swing. The concept that Barbie may have been manufactured as a weapon against these feminist groups is plausible as the image of Barbie exploits the female body and challenges the values held by active feminists. Though, from a slightly different perspective, one could argue that Barbie with her freedoms and luxuries supports the ideals of women's equality and rights. Barbie may have been the transition piece of the decade, setting a new path for women and young girls.

As I was on the hunt for the perfect gift for an 8 year old’s birthday, I discovered the doll market is quite different than my coming of age. Undoubtedly, Barbie is still problematic, but now she has competitors, including Bratz, and Monster High dolls, who are noticeably thinner than barbie and dressed up to look like grown women getting ready for a night of clubbing than a game of tennis. As I pick up the first doll box, I find a doll chained up in a slither of clothing with a blank expression on her face, a prominent thigh gap, with the tagline “GREAT for girls ages 5 and up!” By all means, I never imagined in my life that I would miss Barbie. For that reason, I begin to sit myself down in the toy aisle to start googling everything I could about these dolls on my

Today’s society raises young women to conform to archaic practices with total disregard towards a child self-progression. In Barbie Doll poem by Marge Piercy it is portrayed a young girl who was attacked by society because of having unruly features on her appearance and body. To make clear, Piercy uses the title “Barbie Doll” in her poem to symbolize the cultural American traditions of making young girls live in a fairy tale world; where everything they see or do is perfect. The girl in this poem played with Barbie toys since she was little, but when she reached her puberty people started to criticize her of having imperfections on her face and body; which made her commit a really wrong decision for herself. In today’s society there are a large number of women having plastic surgery, because they do not feel comfortable or confident with their own appearances. Women are not just beauty queens and home makers; they should retreat from female stereotypes at a young age so they do not confront society pressure.

In the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, we read about a young girl who has self image problems. Due to the expectations of society, she is not happy with her physical appearance. She had many good qualities but is unable to see these for herself. Instead she only sees is a “a great big nose and fat legs”(Piercy,1936). In order to conform to society’s idea of beauty, the young girl was “advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and

In conclusion, Barbie’s changing fashions, interests and views have altered in response to suit pop culture throughout the years. Barbie is a physical personification of popular culture throughout the years, and she has grown to fit the world around her, to change with the ‘fads’ and ‘fashions’ of the time. However in some cases it seems as though she has transgressed us on some levels. Barbie is a palpable representation of the amount of change that has taken place over the decades, a change in social thinking, social constructs, fashion and beauty. The Barbie doll is the perfect representation of popular

Everyday we see young girls look to idols such as people and even play toys. Such thoughts make young girls feel they are not good enough and to strive to look like a doll a very important topic is slightly broken down in an article written by Cynthia Tucker called Barbie Madness. While she touches on the topic of how kids love their toys such as Barbie dolls, she discusses how obsessed they become in looking like them. However, even though she points out that children look up to Barbies, she turns it back around on the parents, stating that they play a much bigger role in their lives than any toy would. Breaking down the article the writer really shows how children are influenced by their environment, their parents, and how its important to encourage them to be themselves.

In “Barbie Doll”, the speaker is fighting herself with accepting who she really is versus who society wants her to be. Piercy uses exaggerated diction and is very sarcastic with her writing. This shows readers that it is a silly thing to feel so unaccepted because of physical appearance but the reality of it is that these things do actually happen to people. And this is a major issue in society as a whole. The writer tells a story of a girl who is born just like any other girl but grows into this body that is so unaccepted by

Since the emergence of the Barbie doll in 1959, Barbie has been a populous choice among young children, and more specifically young girls because of its monopolization of the toy market. Barbie is a doll that has been outwardly controversial and debated upon for years and most likely will be for many years to come. The idea of the Barbie doll is a toy for which young girls model themselves after and aspire to be like when they mature and grow up. DuCille states, “more than simple instruments of pleasure and amusement, toys and games play crucial roles in helping children determine what is valuable in and around

As such, most girls’ childhood stories are filled with their experiences with Barbie such as making Barbie their number one companion by always having her wherever they go, cutting off her long blonde hair, and feeling devastated if a sibling or a playmate ripped Barbie’s head off. Moreover, whether Americans are willing to accept it or not, the Barbie has significantly transformed American culture in so many diverse and subtle ways to comprehend fully. Although some have sweet nostalgic memories about Barbie, most girls’ lives have been negatively affected by beholding Barbie as a major female icon during their childhood (Battistoni 26). Despite being a mere plastic toy, to the young girls, the Barbie life is all they ever want and strive to be in life; hence, most use Barbie as the guiding standard against which they have to measure and assess their lives on all spheres. Nonetheless, since attaining the Barbie blonde status in real life is an elusive endeavor, most girls have subjected themselves to immense pain leading to poor mental health and low self-image. This is because they are convicted

Young Girls look up to many people as role models, one role model that plays an immense part in their lives is Barbie. Barbie is defined as being pretty, beautiful, and even perfect. But is she really that wonderful as she seems? Her body shape is completely inaccurate representation of the female body and people get easily influenced by these unrealistic standards. If no one steps up to help young girls realize that Barbie is not perfect then they will have dissatisfaction with themselves forever. Body dissatisfaction is becoming more and more popular and one reason is that Barbie presents an unrealistic body image that affects young girls and their idea of a perfect life.

[In American society there is an extreme want for women to look perfect on the outside. There is a extraordinary amount of importance and anxiety placed on women to surrender to becoming Barbie dolls. After rereading and analyzing the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, I identified the main theme as appearance and that Piercy uses irony to convey the stereotypical views of feminine beauty throughout society.] When first reading the title of the poem, “Barbie Doll,” I suspected that the speaker was describing a little girl’s toy. However, as I started reading the poem, I realized that the title was referring to the outer beauty and perfection society expects of women.

Overall, the theme of “Barbie Doll” is self-image. Self-image is something that every woman will face and struggle with. “She went to and fro apologizing (10)”, suggests that the young woman does struggle with her natural beauty. “Her good nature wore out (15)”, shows that eventually the young woman gave up on being herself. The tone is sardonic in the fact that her classmates are now satisfied with her once she is dead. “To every woman a happy ending (25)”. The image of a beautiful woman is a matter of opinion. Society has gotten to the point where a woman will lose in the end. Her natural beauty will fade as she grows older, gaining wrinkles, grey hair and becoming feeble.

From her height, weight, and perfect figure, she seems to be able to do it all. With such a large amount of young girls in possession of a Barbie doll, many have questioned the effects it has on them and the way Barbie causes them to view themselves. For the most part, it has been decided that Barbie impacts