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Barbie influence on society
The influence of barbie dolls
Barbie and American culture
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Barbie influence on society
The influence of barbie dolls
Barbie and American culture
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Barbie influence on society
In this essay, I will explore the themes of various poems from “Kinky”, by Denise Duhamel. The poems “The Limited Edition Platinum Barbie” and “One Afternoon When Barbie Wanted to Join the Military”, reflect upon the oppressive beauty standards and gender expectations in our culture and hyperbolize them to a dystopian point. Duhamel uses Barbie as a metaphor throughout these poems, and addresses our culture’s misogyny, while making Barbie a first person character and giving her a voice. The poem “The Limited Edition Platinum Barbie” critiques our culture’s narrow standard of beauty. Our society is consumed by the fantasy and perfection of the idealized body.
Since the dawn of time, expectations and stereotypes have been placed on women that limit them. Among these expectations are maximizing their femininity, or nulling it. The latter is the case in the short story by Sandra Cisneros, “Barbie-Q”, where the narrator's point-of-view while at a flea market with her family, searching for decent remaining toys after a toy warehouse fire, suggests that growing up in a male-dominated society destroys and forever alters women’s view of themselves. Cisneros uses the symbolism of destroyed dolls, typical “men's items” overcrowding the space, and the description of needing to search for pieces of feminine toys.
With the constant fear of ridicule and discrimination, we still try and define ourselves, though we are always under the society’s scope. Marge Piercy, in her poem “Barbie Doll”, gives us a look at the influence of our surroundings and how something as innocent as a doll can trigger these insecurities. Our strive for acceptance and “perfection” can cause major emotional damage on anyone who identifies as a woman. Young girls look at these depictions of “perfect” bodies, such as a barbie doll for example, and compare themselves. In the poem “Barbie Doll”, Piercy talks about a young girl who she described as “...healthy, tested and intelligent...” (247) but, she was picked on by peers who said she had “a great big nose and fat legs.”
The poem Barbie doll by Marge Piercy is about a little girl who grows up only to kill herself for not living up to society’s standards. The speaker shows how she had a normal childhood and was happy playing with here baby dolls and toy stove. However, during puberty, her body changed and everyone noticed. She was criticized for her “fat nose and thick legs”. She tried to change by dieting and exercising, but soon tired of doing so.
A girl walks into the toy store and pulls into the doll section. She stares at the imitation doll and the Barbie doll standing next to it. She contemplates between picking the black hair doll and the perfect blonde doll. In a quick second, she grabbed the doll. The Barbie doll.
Although Barbie has conveyed many beliefs through the clothes and jobs she has had, the most controversial belief has been body image. Since first being brought out into the world, Barbie has had an unreasonably shaped body, with a small waist and large breasts. All of Barbie’s body features have impacted the way society expects women to look. But in 2016, Barbie had a dramatic makeover, she was released in different heights and body shapes, making her more suitable to the way women actually look. Barbie’s new look has made a positive impact on young girls and potentially society’s unrealistic expectations of
The life of a women is difficult at all the stages of life, from birth to death, there is certain clothes they need to wear, they need to act a certain way, and do the chores that society feels are necessary for them to do. Society makes it clear that a woman is different from men and the tasks that they have are different. The author of “Barbie Doll,” Marge Piercy sheds a light of the difference on how people treat girls and women as they go from early childhood to adolescence. Piercy uses the connotation of different words, visual imagery, and the comparison between different elements in the girl’s life to ironize society’s social standards that lead to women’s suicides and deaths.
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.”
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
Many people in today’s society face the challenge of self-acceptance. They either are criticized by the way they look or struggle to be who they really are without getting any criticism by society. Janice Mirikitani’s “Suicide Note” and Margie Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” are two poems that have speakers who struggle with the expectations of society. Although the tone of these two poems and the symbolism are disparate, each poems character has difficulty accepting themselves because of what others expect them to be.
Barbie dolls extend girls an invitation to a ‘‘plastic society’’ that doesn't accept the genuineness each of us possesses. They present a role model impossible to accomplish. The characters didn't have names, they could hold a symbolic representation of society’s judgment. The girls had the first dolls just like they wanted, but they desired to cover all of the imperfections on the dolls damaged in the fire with new clothes such as the ‘‘Prom Pink outfit’’ (Cisneros). Thereupon, no one would notice the
It is very easy to have influence over young people. The more time that is spent with something, the more influence it has over the person. This was perfect for Barbie. She is a doll and is played with by girls all over the world. She has caused big controversy over her appearance and some people want to make her have a more realistic look.
The story tells the reader about how two girls, each owns a Barbie doll with their one outfit piece and they made a dress out of worn socks for the dolls. One Sunday, they both went to the flea market on Maxwell Street, where the dolls of the other characters in Barbie were sold with lower price as a big toy warehouse was destroyed by fire. They did not mind to buy the dolls at the flea market even though the dolls were flawed, soaked with water and smelled like ashes. Barbie is widely pictured as a successful girl, who is perfect in every way; with her beautiful face, a slim body, nice house, secured job and a handsome boyfriend which is the fancy of every girl. The story tells the reader of the expectancy for women to have this immaculate figure, ignoring the fact that each person has different body fat percentage and body mass index which may affect their sizes and weights.
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.
But where did it all start and how did you get to this position? You’re five years old when you receive your first Barbie doll. Your innocent mind looks at the plastic figure as just a symbol of inspiration or a relatable toy used on the playground