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1950s Beauty Pageants

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The 1950’s was a very controversial time specially for woman, during that era they symbolized the traditional gender roles; housewife’s, submissive and conservative. Surprisingly, Marilyn Monroe, Barbie and beauty pageants became very popular even though they challenged the image of an ideal woman at the time by portraying more beauty and sexuality. These icons symbolized various messages while still upholding some of the traits that dominated that era.
The beauty pageants portrayed various messages regarding woman’s beauty and sexuality a very dominant one was the qualifications to be considered a candidate for Miss America. In the 1948 Miss America Pageant Contract, one of the rules and regulations is the following “5. Contestant must be of good character and possess poise, personality, intelligence, charm, and beauty of face and figure.” (American Experience). Most of these characteristics represent the ideal woman during that era, except they …show more content…

More specifically she represents the embodiment of the mainstream beauty standard (Klein). She became a very significant role in gender socialization among young girls and woman. In the first Barbie commercial ever, if you carefully scrutinize the lyrics, it says “…someday I’m going to be exactly like you, until then I know just what I’ll do, Barbie beautiful Barbie I’ll make believe I am you” these lyrics informs us that Barbie represents a dream to every little girl, how their future should look like. Barbie was able to remain popular in the conservative times of the 50’s by captivating the attention of little girls, they all aspired to look just like her. Barbie was able to uphold some of the messages that dominated that era by represents the gender roles that belong to woman, in the first Barbie commercial, you can see Barbie wearing a wedding dress, symbolizing that every girl/woman desires to become a

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As Friedan points out, “...industry glorifies the American woman” (Document 2). During this period, women fought an image of the “perfect woman.” One such instance is the rally organized by the New York Radical Women to take place on September 7th, 1968 outside of a Miss America Pageant. (Document 4). The goal of the protest was to put an end to pageants and boycott cosmetic and feminine products.

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In my opinion, I feel as though she symbolizes a life she experienced or grew up in, in the form of Barbie, Ken, and Allen. She gives each doll their own persona; Barbie wanting the dream life and dream husband that everyone wants, but instead she settles for Alan who is a drunk and does nothing. However, she makes it sound as though Barbie does not like the feeling of not having someone, so she continues to be with Alan, hoping he will become better and maybe more successful. One of the biggest strengths of this poem is how people can relate to this in different ways. People can either relate because they know someone like this, or has been through this.

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Barbies were initially created with the western features and characteristics which were desirable at the time: like blue eyes, blonde hair, and gentle curves. They represented the beauty standards which were considered ideal and favored by society. However, these unrealistic standards are difficult to achieve by the average woman. Similarly, Jews also do not fall into a category which represents the quintessential Jew. Jewish people have a wide variety of cultures, customs, traditions, and beliefs which may not fit into the ideal Jew represented by the Jewish faith.

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In Vertigo (1958), the European beauty Carlotta Valdes, the subject of a portrait is withdrawn and refined, a cultivated look , an object for the dominating prerogative of the male gaze as Berger John notes. The woman in the portrait suffers reduction, subjected to appraisal in general, she is primped, tailored, adjusted, clipped, coloured and smoothed and bedecked all to make for beauty and is regarded central value of Old Europe. American culture does not regard beauty as principal value, for them beauty is related to function, practicality and to mobility. If an American can admire European beauty it is only with respect to the foreign. For an American beauty is superseded by “effort and accomplishment, the ability to make and do and the success that comes when objects and situations are put together, produced, effected, and charged with the power of function” (Pomerance 162).

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In Gerald Early’s essay “Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America pageant,” Early talks about his experience of watching Miss America pageants with his family. The issue explored in his essay is the way black culture in society is affected by America’s standard of beauty and the difficulties black women experiences when trying to find one’s identity because of this. Early believes that America’s standard of beauty is white, the look that is most praised in the beauty pageants. He uses rhetorical strategies such as allusion, ethical persuasion, and emotional persuasion to emphasize that America's standard of beauty has an effect on black women.

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The Blonde Bombshell “When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want, and if they care enough to bother with what I’m doing, then I’m already better than them.” (marilynmonroe.com), as once said by the classic and beautiful Marilyn Monroe. She changed the way that we look at ourselves, but most importantly, she changed the way we view life and how we view the world. Marilyn is best known as being the most famous “sex symbol” of the early 1960s.

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During the 1950’s The Golden Age era seemed to be a simple way to live life. The way that Americans lived life in the 1950’s seemed simple because of what was represented especially TV, which became a really powerful medium of how reality should be in living life (The 1950’s PowerPoint). The messages for developing and labeling for females have always seem to be a complex from the beginning. When it comes to beauty pageants appearance seems to be the biggest influence. The Barbie doll 1959 first commercial seems to represent how young girls should be more like a Barbie doll image.

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Barbie is a doll that was introduced in 1959, she took the world by storm with her fashion and changing careers. She greatly influenced pop culture and the thoughts and beliefs of people. Barbie has been involved in many controversies over the years due to her body image and the high body expectations that she sets for young girls. She has had a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence. Barbie has had positive and negative influences on fashion, interests and beliefs of a certain year, which continually changed throughout the decades.

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The fashions of Barbie have altered due to the changing fashions in society. The interests of people, such as music and career options have become different too. Society’s views on how women should look and behave have also altered, and Barbie has changed to fit with this theme. Barbie has become a huge part of the lives of young girls, and has been a toy that many people have grown up with. Barbie will continue to evolve and become popular in many new ways in the

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Barbie a famous American doll... “If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5 '9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips and a size 3 shoe! her weight at 110 lbs.” The imagery associated with the title a "Barbie Doll" …. imagine perfect hair and legs, chances are you 're thinking about unrealistic aspect of what it means for a woman to be beautiful.

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In such a way that, Barbie has displayed multiple career paths, offered in various ethnicities but always displayed in the same way and with the use of Logos and Ethos. Although the whole idea behind the Barbie doll was to encourage young girls to be able to dress Barbie how they wanted to with the various wardrobes, it was not until quite recently that Barbie was able to hold more “leadership like” rolls in society. With advertisement of the Barbie doll, gender equity closely intertwined with the portrayal of the doll. “Consistent with other commercial advertising formats, males were found in the leadership and authority roles, while females were generally portrayed in more passive roles. When women were the only individuals in the advertisement, the ad copy usually reflected a biased message toward the abilities and function of the women in their roles as professionals.”

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Barbie is a doll of controversy and changes to suit the times. She has always been fashion forward and kept up with the celebrities at the time. Barbie continues to change in characteristics to fit in with society’s interests by recently creating a new line of dolls that have realistic body shapes. Barbie has never let the expectations of society crush her dreams and so she has had many careers such as president, astronaut and computer engineer.

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Barbie is a bad role model for young girls. Barbie has a perfect appearance, she is very stereotypical, and she causes girls to have poor mental health. To begin with, Barbie is a bad role model, because she has a perfect appearance. She has flawless skin and this causes many girls to have low self-esteem. She is also usually tan and this has led many girls to go tanning at the beach.

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One of the main points brought up to support the outlaw of child beauty pageants, is the idea that they oversexualize children; a misleading generalization. This concept comes from what the public 's view of televised sensationalize pageants, that are not accurate depictions of what child beauty pageants represent. Reality shows like "Toddlers and Tiaras" and "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" introduce millions to the pageant world and create the negative stereotypes that the majority tend to believe. Individuals like Anna Berry and her daughter Ashley, long term pageant competitors, consider pageantry a hobby and suggest it’s not all the media makes it out to be. Anna Berry says she “understand[s] why public perspective tends to be so negative” due

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The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy suggests that girls are fatally and ultimately entrapped by society's definition of what feminine beauty and behavior is. In our society we believe that women should be perfect. We want women to be as flawless as a Barbie doll and in doing so we create many struggles for women because no one can ever achieve that goal. The poem gives off a sense of irony when “society” compares a young girl to a Barbie doll. Our society has an ideal that was created by the influences of popular media and culture that is impossible for anyone to reach.

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