StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

Barbie as devil:deconstructing an american cultural icon - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Barbie is an icon of American culture, a touchstone with whom every woman relates. Whether her feelings are positive or negative, practically every American girl owned a Barbie if she was born after 1950…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94% of users find it useful
Barbie as devil:deconstructing an american cultural icon
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Barbie as devil:deconstructing an american cultural icon"

Download file to see previous pages

Barbie is an icon of American culture, a touchstone with whom every woman relates. Whether her feelings are positive or negative, practically every American girl owned a Barbie if she was born after 1950. Created in the 1950s, Barbie typified the stereotyped image of the ideal woman. Even in the 1950s, she was at least a decade behind what the “true American woman” was living. Part of the love/hate relationship American women have with Barbie is that she flawlessly pursues the American dream of happiness is material wealth, all the while “perfectly” formed and always ready for a good time.

Barbie has been the role model for millions of American girls. Mary Frances Rogers quotes John Greenwald in her work, Barbie Culture, that “99 per cent of all girls in the United States have at least one Barbie” (Rogers, 1999, p. 13). Unfortunately, most women believe that Barbie teaches the wrong values. Barbie’s desire for high dollar merchandise, Barbie’s hedonistic pursuit of leisure activities, Barbie’s stereotypical career choices, and Barbie’s “popularity” image all strive to teach a young girl that popularity and good looks, the “right” clothes and accessories, are all the measure of a successful woman (Nachbar, 1992, p. 212). There was so much public outcry in the 1960s and 1970s about the Barbie values that in the 1980s Mattel Corporation undertook a major campaign to update Barbie’s look and focus. . Barbie is credited with causing body image distortion, anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders in young girls striving to get and maintain the “Barbie” look.

(Rogers, p. 24) Chronic dieting, the desire to be thin, and the loathing of “fat people” are a universal characteristic of girls raised to emulate Barbie. Barbie is undoubtedly heterosexual. There has not been an image associated with Barbie that was gay, except for underground magazines like Mondo Barbie. Her lifelong companion is Ken, almost as perfectly built as Barbie, but not quite the same impossible standards. Barbie is also white, middle class, and without physical or mental handicaps.

Although a nod was given to other races with the addition of the African American Barbie, the Native American Barbie, the Hispanic or Latina Barbie, there were only a few models introduced in these variants. The majority of Barbie dolls that come down the assembly line are white; thus Barbie “sells” not only her gender identity, but also her race. She erases all other cultures and values by ignoring them. Barbie’s perpetual age is also a cultural problem as Barbie never grows up, never gets old, doesn’t get sick, and doesn’t age.

Plastic surgeons report countless women who ask for surgical remodeling so they can look like Barbie. Many women start the endless dance with the knife, and get updated every few years. What starts as a self-improvement “fix” ends up looking like a grotesque Michael Jackson. Barbie doesn’t color her hair, there has not been an issue yet of a prematurely grey Barbie, collaborating with Miss Clairol to imply gray hair is admission of age and no longer beautiful. Obviously, Barbie is a

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Barbie as devil:deconstructing an american cultural icon Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1425636-barbie-as-devildeconstructing-an-american-cultural-icon
(Barbie As devil:Deconstructing an American Cultural Icon Essay)
https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1425636-barbie-as-devildeconstructing-an-american-cultural-icon.
“Barbie As devil:Deconstructing an American Cultural Icon Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/gender-sexual-studies/1425636-barbie-as-devildeconstructing-an-american-cultural-icon.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Barbie as devil:deconstructing an american cultural icon

Barbie as a Sexual Archetype

To begin with, it is well known that Barbie's history as a cultural icon began in 1959 when Ruth Handler realized that her daughter, Barbara, needed a better doll to play with.... Date barbie as a Sexual Archetype For decades, there have been prominent sexual icons that have set an unrealistic bar for women as the ideal for the ‘perfect woman.... Truly, one “could regard barbie as one of the most successful creative products by a woman and one of the most widely disseminated women's artworks in Western European human history, thus ranking Handler alongside the Brontes and Jane Austen in her universal cultural currency and influence” (Peers 11)....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Superman: The American Icon

It took decades and several socio-cultural and socio-economic activities followed this transportation of the comic superhero into an emblem and cultural icon of America.... THESIS STATEMENT The essay intends to throw light on the journey set by the first accepted comic figure of America transformed into a cultural icon.... The essay also throws light on the multitudes of scholarly activities which haloed the comic figure and manifested it into a cultural icon....
8 Pages (2000 words) Research Paper

Our Barbies, Ourselves by Emily Prager

This article takes a critical look at one of the most cultural icons in American history – the Barbie doll.... As much a criticism of Barbie, the essay is a criticism of society at large for allowing a flawed concept to take such strong cultural roots.... While admitting to the popularity and appeal of the barbie doll across generations, Emily Prager finds certain faults with what it symbolizes.... She contends that barbie's fulsome breasts and thin waistline accentuate her sex-appeal, thereby reducing femininity to the contours of body shape and skin color....
3 Pages (750 words) Article

Resentment and the Genealogy of Morals

This essay discusses that the concept proves crucial to the sociological and cultural dynamic that pervades modernity.... ne might question the leveraging of a fictional text, Melville's in order to explicate a real cultural phenomenon, the existence of con artists....
23 Pages (5750 words) Essay

Superman - an American cultural icon

To understand how and why Superman has become a cultural icon and why he will remain so for many years into the future, it is necessary to understand what is meant by the term ‘icon', how this term applies to Superman and why this character fits a particular need within today's social structure.... The first step in discovering how and why Superman is a cultural icon of both past and future is identifying exactly what is meant by the term ‘icon'.... Fortunately, Margaret Kenna (1985) has already gone a long way toward identifying exactly those elements that define the true make-up of the icon....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Deconstructing Racial Identity through African American Literature

… African – Americans began to move against the main concepts that were related to this mentality and showed a side of America that was unique to the African – american experience.... The divisions that occurred in America through the Civil War not only caused lines between the regions and in political arenas....
12 Pages (3000 words) Research Paper

Summary of Deconstructing America

It is a nation without moorings, with no common heritage, no common language, and nothing to bind as a nation or as a cohesive cultural and social force.... There must be something tangible that holds american people together.... The article “deconstructing America,” is from the book “Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed are Tearing America Apart,” by Patrick J.... English, Essay Topic: Summary of "deconstructing America" The article “deconstructing America,” is from the book “Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed are Tearing America Apart,” by Patrick J....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

BIM in Civil Infrastructure Planning, Design, Construction and Management

"BIM in Civil Infrastructure Planning, Design, Construction and Management" paper critically reviews the presentation made by Ian McGregor on the topic BIM in civil infrastructure planning, design, construction, and management who is a product manager.... nbsp;… To conclude it can be said that it is not the amount of the technical details that will be included in a seminar that will make the people interested in the subject but rather the opposite....
10 Pages (2500 words) Report
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us