In my last blog post I talked about the medias influence on Americas definition of beauty. I'm going to narrow my topic in this blog to one of the earliest influences on young girls perspective of beauty: Barbie.
As a young girl I had dozens of Barbie dolls. They all had perfect little clothes, cars, pools and boyfriends. But most of all they were pretty...or perfect. As a young girl I loved playing with Barbies because for those moments in my imagination it was like I was the one with the perfect looks and life.
Looking back I feel like Barbie was my first introduction into the world of beauty. She was the first (or at least one of the first) things that influenced my definition of beauty: unattainable perfection.
I think it's sad that as young girls the most common toy we get only serves to set us up for failure, disappointment and a completely distorted view of beauty. As young girls our favorite toy shows us that our only value as humans is our looks.
Below are measurements comparing what Barbie would look like in real life to the average sized woman. I got these measurements from an article by Jacqueline Urla and Alan C. Swedlund called "Measuring Up to Barbie Ideals of the Feminine Body in Popular Culture".
Barbie Average Woman
Height 5'10" 5'4"
Chest Circumference 35" 35.7"
Waist Circumference 20" 31"
Hip Circumference 32.50" 38.10"
Hip Breadth 11.6" 13.49"
Thigh Circumference 19.25" 22.85"
The fact that Barbies measurements don't even reflect that of a normal person make matters worse. If little girls are going to look up to a beautiful doll as their idea of beauty she should at least have the proportions of a normal human.
I don't think we should get rid of Barbie or anything like that. I just think that she should be made a little more realistic so that young girls don't grow up thinking that one day they too should look perfect like Barbie.
I believe the media has definitely been influencing young girls who may already be struggling with confidence, to make some very bad decisions to attain the "perfect" woman body. I can also see how barbie may have the same effects. As a young girl, I never played with barbies, I played with baby dolls, by choice, not for any particular reason. However, my cousins played with barbies and never experienced any long term problems. I think that a parent's role in a young girls life has a lot to do with this.
ReplyDelete