Barbie

       This week we talked about feminist and masculinity that our society has created. As a teenager the images we are exposed to affect the way we feel about ourselves. So many girls who are skinny consider themselves fat because of the photo shopped images we constantly see of unrealistically skinny people. I have heard plenty of my friends who are definitely not fat say all the time that they need to work out more or go on a diet because they are not skinny enough. I was searching around when I found this. I  was shocked. She is so young, yet she is being put in a pageant where she is to become beyond perfect.

ToyRUs.com/TLC.com

                                       Barbie just can’t seem to get a break, despite celebrating her 50th birthday this month. A West Virginia lawmaker, Democrat Jeff Eldridge, has proposed the Ban Barbie Bill because he believes dolls like this place too much importance on physical beauty, and not enough on intellectual and emotional development. “I just hate the image that we give to our kids that if you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful and you don’t have to be smart,” said Eldridge. Other dolls that are believed to send this message will also be banned if the bill is passed. Eldridge admits some Barbie dolls, like Doctor Barbie and Veterinary Barbie, are better, but would nevertheless be outlawed in West Virginia also. Forget the fact that Eldridge is perpetuating a sexist double standard—action figures teach little boys that aggression, physical prowess, and weapons trump intellect. If he’s looking to place blame for kids thinking beauty is the be all and end all, maybe he should look at the parents in his own state, where mothers enter their daughters in pageants like the “Toddlers & Tiaras”-featured Southern Celebrity Beauty Pageant in Charleston, West Virginia. These mothers primp, bleach, and tan their daughters, as young as six months, into sashaying and dancing living dolls. That’s got to be more damaging than child play. [MSNBC.com]

        Most of those pictures we are seeing have been photo shopped a way to make them more skinny and less flawless according to society. The beauty we see is fake. I remember being showed a picture of what someone would look like if they had Barbies proportions. The result was ridiculous.

        There are so many teenage girls with eating disorders and we wonder why? These images and advertisements are creating ideal people that young women think that they need to become. The images and Barbie Doll's create a ideal women that if not matched by us is lowering self-esteems of many women. There are few women who are truly comfortable with their body. I think it is said that we aren't happy with the way we are. So many people get plastic insurance to try and eliminate flaws.
         I remember playing with barbies when I was little. I always would imagine I was Barbie. My sister, friends, and I would sit and play with Barbies for hours. We would create what we thought to be the perfect life. I remember thinking of how Barbie had the perfect life and how I wanted that. Barbie had her big house, a car, and a beautiful family. She was skinny as well and she always had the perfect hair and she had her make up all done. I remember thinking that I wanted to just wake up and be able to have everything she had. I never even realized or related her  the fact that her image added to our societies view of what women should look like until we talked in class about it.