Can Barbie Teach A Man To Be A Woman

Can Barbie teach a man to be a woman?

Barbie's curvy figure, long legs, straight blonde hair, flashy clothes and perfect lifestyle encourages values which are inconsistent with reality. This lifestyle does not portray what most people come in contact with on a daily basis; therefore it is not Barbie who teaches a man to be a woman.

Barbie was introduced to the world during a toy fair in New York in 1959. She was the first of her kind, there were no teenage dolls at the time, they were only baby and toddler dolls, and so the co-founder of Mattel decided to launch Barbie. Although there was a lot of scepticism as to whether she would sell or not, Mattel stood firmly behind their idea and launched an advertising campaign that made her known all over America. Soon Barbie was the most wanted toy by little girls just as she is today.

Barbie has changed a lot throughout the years but her overall appearance and that she portrays has remained the same. She has changed with fashion; each decade has seen a new Barbie that mirrored the fashion style of that particular period of time. She has even had the privilege of having her own designs created by the likes of Bob Mackie, Nolan Miller, Vera Wang, and Christian Dior.

She has always been at the forefront of fashion and each fashion trend has seen a Barbie that imitates it, this has made Barbie a representation of a 'perfect' life and in most little girls eyes something they want to aim towards or achieve as this is what every young woman should posses. Although many believe this inspires a child, I believe it takes away their childhood, there is no such thing as a perfect lifestyle and children, if without their parents guidance, followed this ideal would constantly be uneasy with their life. Bullying or singling out would occur for those children who did not have the latest doll, or couldn't afford the doll. Just like Barbie a child will feel the need to have everything. She owns everything from all types of transportation, cars, boats, yachts, motorbikes, buggies, horses, to every sort of pet, appliance and beauty kit. As Shirley Steinberg has said, 'The bitch who has everything'!

Although I say this, it is not only this that makes a child's identity; it is family, culture, society and media. We need to understand that a child only grows up the way the environment and genetics have allowed them to. At a very young age they begin to form their first relationships which are very important as this is when they begin to make connections and begin forming bonds.

By the age of six months children usually begin to recognise people and imitate noises such as 'mama' and 'papa'. In the current view of psychologists just as a baby of six months can imitate these noises it also begins to form images of corporate logos and mascots. Just as these become engraved in the mind of a child so do mental pictures of their parents and the roles they play.

There have been many studies done to find the reason as to why transsexuals want to be of the other gender and what has influenced them. As they are born with bodies that seem perfectly normal to other people, psychologists suspect that the source of these deep-seated feelings about their bodies arises from their brains. One particular study was done by Swaab, Zhou, Hofman and Gooren in 1997 to find the sex difference in the brain and its relation to transsexuality. They examined the brains of many individuals, this included homosexual men, heterosexual men and women and six transsexual men and women. They found that a tiny region of the central region of the bed nucleus of the stria terininalis(BSTc) was larger in men than in women. But the BSTc of the transsexual men was as small as that of women, about half the volume of the BSTc of other men.this they believe seems to coincide with the conviction that they are women. We begin to question why when and how the BSTc of transsexual men became smaller, whether it shrank or stopped growth at a particular period in their life, if it was during childhood, adolescence or adulthood? They can not measure this yet until the person has died and the brain can be removed from the body to check this. .

Men go through many stages in life, he has his own strengths, issues and insecurities which each man faces differently. Each according to the morals, values, childhood experiences or environmental influences will react differently in a given situation. It is their characteristics that form their identity, these are mainly built from childhood to adulthood.

Parents and guardians play a major role in forming the identity of their child. Many transsexual men when questioned have reported a more feminine identification.

A group of transsexual men were examined using the 'Leary test' in which a list of descriptions are given and you mark the ones that relate to you, these are then transferred onto a circle which will show you which qualities you have or whether you have extreme levels of behaviour in that field. The findings done in this particular test on transsexual men were measured against the exact test done on heterosexual men. It showed that the fathers of the transsexual men were more hostile and less dominant. As a child is growing up it relates to a particular person whether a parent or guardian, they will relate to particular traits in this person. They will usually have had some interaction or affection from this person that has created along term relationship, this would naturally and unconsciously become the identification model for the child.

As Barbie can not provide this kind of care, understanding and affection the child will not look to it as a role model in life, just as a childhood pastime. A child may look up to the doll and aspire to be like Barbie but as they grow environmental factors usually make them realise that Barbie is just a toy. Their identification model will be a more desirable person that they have received affection from, one with whom they have built a relationship with, just as a mother is with her child. The mothers of transsexual men were close to the ideals of a person, they were stronger, more dominant but still kind and affectionate. The fathers, as they were more hostile, tended to push the child away from himself and therefore showed the child less ideals in themselves. To help a boy attain a healthy sense of maleness he needs to replace the primary identification model from being his mother and must instead relate to his father. This step is a normal psychological process that usually occurs in the preoedipal years (first two years in a boys life). There are many difficulties that are inherent with this step which