Image In Society

We are influenced by what is around us. Movies, music, and magazines have brainwashed us into the illusion that beauty is one sided, that it can be defined in only one-way. Beauty has been defined as being tall, skinny with big breast. Dolls have even become a huge impact on our idea of beauty, with their sleek bodies, perfect hairdos and stylish clothes. These dolls have caused children as young as the age of 5 to become aware of a body image. Ruth Handlers the creator of Barbie, one of the world’s most successful and enduring toys on the market since 1959, felt that her long lasting invention was a “project to every girl’s dream of the future”; that Barbie was an inorganic object that little girls could look up to and believe “We can do anything.” There is truth to her statements, over the years Barbie has been depicted as a doctor, an astronaut, a lawyer, a veterinarian, etc. Subliminally, however, the physical image of Barbie is what shows the truth about how our society thinks; that looking and appearing a certain way or being “beautiful” allows you to be able to do all those certain things that Barbie is able to do. But what is beauty? It’s said that beauty is seen in the eye of the beholder. That then creates our standard of beauty? Is it the media? Our parents? Our peers? Barbie? If Barbie was really supposed to be an icon for little girls to look up to or model their lives after, then she should look like the women we see everyday, whether those women are tall, short, skinny have black, blonde or brown hair. Barbie should portray these women as heroes, regardless of how they look.

Originally, Barbie was created for Barbra Handler, the creator of Barbie’s daughter. Barbie’s purpose was to be a more realistic toy that girls could relate to rather than baby and paper dolls that were common during the 50’s. Ruth Handlers inspiration occurred while visiting Japan in the summer of 1957. Lili, Japan’s three-dimensional curvy toy doll caught Handler’s eye while shopping. Lili, however, was created as a sex toy for men. With its voluptuous curves, it had a sexy appeal to draw men to an object that seemed almost human. Still, however, this inspired her to come back to America with a doll with similar physical features, but for little girls. Handler wanted her daughter Barbra to be able to play with more than just paper. “My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be”; “Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.” (Handler) Ruth allowed little girls around the world to open their minds and use their imagination to dream about their futures, while taking away practicality. A doll that was physically appealing to the eyes, but had aspirations and goals that girls would want to relate to. An idea that was brilliant yet lacked realism for its image, an image which was a big busted, small-waisted super model. Barbie was, and clearly still is a Betty.

Ruth Handler created Barbie dolls to “help children realize their dreams and goals through play” (Oregon State), but Barbie demonstrates to little girls what society expects them to look like and what they should expect of themselves. Barbie is a role model for girls to achieve unrealistic body proportions and appearances. She causes little girls to believe that they should have a certain size of breasts, waist, hips, behind, and feet. The research study “Beauty and the Beat”, shows that in order to obtain Barbie’s proportion in a healthy adult woman she would have to grow by 24 inches in the chest, 3.2 inches in neck length, and shrink 6 inches in the waist. Although Barbie’s body is described as perfect, it is genetically impossible for a human to live with such physical attributes.

Originally most Barbie dolls had white-blond hair, bronzed skin, unblinking turquoise eyes, long legs and gigantic breast. Only a small part of women truly looked like this, which left more than half of the girls in the world upset if they didn’t. Fortunately many issues have been raised sense the creation of Barbie and accommodations have been made to fit a more realistic individual. Barbie has become diverse; however the African American Barbie includes even bigger controversy. What appears to be a black Barbie really is the original Barbie with darker plastic. This raises an issue because African Americans tend to have stronger features and curlier hair. As an African American I know personally the lengths my ethnicity goes through to have straighter hair. Along with the difference of hair, a physical feature such as the nose is sometimes different. African Americans tend to have wider noses yet the black Barbie has a slimmer smaller nose. This portrays to young African American girls who idolize Barbie to want to change themselves. If Barbie is a doll for girls to look up to, shouldn’t it make them want to love themselves for who they are? Girls might feel as they won’t fit in if they don’t look like Barbie. Everyone has a different and unique body of their own unlike this doll. She promotes plastic surgery, the concept of cutting and molding your skin into what American society has allowed us to believe is beautiful. Girls and women at any age continue to try and perfect themselves to achieve Barbie’s appearance, they grow up believing that this is the only way they will ever be beautiful.

Barbie’s beautiful life is what many people would consider perfect; with a gorgeous boyfriend created male model-like, a big beautiful house that is in every girl’s dream, hundreds of different brand new cars, a personal stylist and so much more, how could anyone argue that Barbie doesn’t have it all. “Barbie is seen as a women who grocery shops, cleans the house, cares for children, and works, all while maintaining a daily life with friends” (Beauty).