Thursday, October 2, 2014
Dolls and Body Image
I feel like the idea of women and girls feeling that they have to change their appearance to look more like Barbie or other dolls is extremely dramatic. Although I agree that women can feel pressured to have certain body types, I definitely don't think that the dolls have caused this. In The Onion video we watched in class about the Bratz dolls, the video is making fun of the idea of women feeling like they have to look like the doll and that is a far fetched assumption.
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I agree. I did not think that anyone could really take a doll to the point that it was really affecting real life. I guess it is possible that someone may think that barbie is perfect and it would be ideal to look like her but I just do not see it. Same thing with the Daniel Katz video on woman and men and the pre-conceived ideas on them, That was never even something i had thought about until we watched the video, but i suppose it is something that is a problem in real life.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I mean, gender stereotypes are a harmful part of everyday life, and maybe some of it can be traced back to Barbie and her ilk—but I think it's more likely that Barbie is a symptom, not a cause. She reflects men's unobtainable and impossible standards for women, she doesn't inspire or enforce them. The dolls aren't the root cause, they're just a small part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about it being a symptom and not a cause. Although I don't think that Barbie is a direct cause for women feeling that they have to look a certain way, I definitely think that it could be taking the idea a little further. Like you said, they aren't necessarily the cause but they do take part in the extent of the issue.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the changes could be a little dramatic, but I think that it could be true to a certain extent. I thought this article was pretty interesting: http://www.teenink.com/opinion/pop_culture_trends/article/175098/The-Barbie-Effect/
ReplyDelete(It doesn't let me hyperlink a comment). I don't think that the solution is to make Barbie the ugliest doll on the market, but giving her some imperfections couldn't hurt. Just like magazines cause some influence on both men and women, I think that dolls have the same influence. It seems as if everything Barbie does it perfect, so it is definitely possible that the little girls exposed to the dolls could strive to live a life that is similar to Barbie's.