Barbie has been criticized for many years for setting an
unrealistic, idealized, negative example of physical appearance for young
women. The company has answered this criticism by releasing dolls with 7 skin
tones, 22 eye colors, and 3 body types. These dolls are an entirely revamped
line of Barbies that offer a much healthier and much more realistic example of
the female image. As we learned in our reading about Cultivation and Beauty,
media and public images set expectations about women’s bodies and impact young
girls’ self esteem. Hopefully these Barbies and their promise of diversity will
improve girls’ self esteem.
I think this is a interesting topic, because growing up all you would see was this beautiful blonde model that was not realistic to the average female so I think Barbie making new female images is good for girls growing up in this generation. This could give the definition of beautiful a different meaning.
ReplyDeleteThis article speaks to the concerns that we discussed in class last Tuesday about how impressionable girls are at such a young age. I applaud the creators of Barbie who have taken this step to increase diversity in their product while giving young girls a variety of ideas of what beauty is.
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