In class we have been reading a lot of articles about gender. In almost every article that we have read, Barbie has always come up. Of course when I was younger I had a million different kinds of Barbies. I loved dressing her up and playing with her hair. I thought she was a very pretty doll, but I never really thought that I should grow up looking like Barbie. A Barbie was just a toy that I played with and never really had any influence on me about how girls should look. Do you girls now a days really look up to Barbie that much? Barbie was just a doll, I never thought of her as an attractive doll. I guess now that I am older and becoming more aware of the world around me, I can see how now Barbie could have been and influence on young girls, but I feel like when girls are young they are too niave to think of Barbie more then just a doll they can dress up and brush her hair.
While growing up did you have any dolls that you played with? Do you think they had any influence on how you look at yourself today?
4 comments:
I grew up playing with Barbie's. We actually still have a huge bin filled with them. I had an American Girl Doll and a bitty baby. When I had my American Girl Doll, the only thing I wanted was more cute clothes for her. There was a whole magazine based off of different cool looks you could get for your doll, which goes back to advertising. It really worked because for Christmas or my birthday all I wanted was an outfit from the catalog. In my opinion, dolls are dolls. I don't think dolls are going to make little girls feel insecure about themselves. I don't think it's that big of a deal that Barbie's are meant to look perfect. I always played with them growing up and they didn't have a negative affect on me. When I was younger I never thought of Barbie as what girls should grow up to look like.
I too, like Jaymie, had many different Barbie dolls when I was younger. When I was younger I didn't think about growing up and wanting to look just like her. When I was younger, I just played with Barbies to pass the time, and because i liked dressing them up and doing their hair. I didn't notice the way she looked, how skinny she was or anything like that. Now that I am older, I also realize, like Jaymie, how much Barbie has influenced generations younger than me. There are thousands of young girls that think that they need to grow up and look exactly like Barbie. Along with Barbie, teen magazines also stress how important it is to look a certain way, which is horrible. Girls shouldn't have to feel like they have to look a certain way in order to fit in. With girls thinking that they need to look like Barbie and the girls that they see in magazines, it is just making their lives harder. Trying so hard to be something that they arn't hurts their self esteem and may drive them to do harmful things that will effect their health. In a way, I guess you could say that Barbie is harming young girls more then they are helping them.
I loved barbies while i was growing up. When I would buy them and play with them I never thought about their so called "features" i just enjoyed having every single one of them. Buying the outfits and different accesories that come with the dolls was the best part. Now I cannot believe how much barbie has changed to... new boyfriend dolls and new clothing. It is rediculous to think that 4 year olds are playing with these dolls. I never thought to myself... "I want to be Barbie" and I hope girls don't think that way now.
As I grew up I played with tools and GI Joes. When I turned 4 my little sister was born. This meant that their where more girl toys in the house, which meant that I played with them. I think it’s more nurture than nature, as you’re brought up. I played with all kinds of boys and girls toys but I don’t think it messed me up because it was the way my parents brought me up. This issue between male and female is something that will never be resolved. Males are better than females at certain things, and females are better than males at other things.
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