Barbies Negative Impact on Society

Barbies Negative Impact on SocietyCindy capital of Mississippi currently holds first place in the Guinness Book of World Records for undergoing the most consecutive cosmetic surgeries. While growing up, Cindy considered herself plain and unattractive next to her well-favoured sister, so she decided that she had to do whatever(prenominal)thing. At fester six Cindy was obsess with prospecting retort c be Barbie. Cindy stated, I looked at a Barbie hiss and said, this is what I want to look alike(p), I want to be her, (Leung 1). At age cardinal-one Cindy packed up and moved to London, England, where she wanted to start a new, prettier disembodied spirit. It took over thirty-one surgeries, fourteen years, and five hundred thousand ladyars to construct the human Barbie. Now she has her own website, book, and multi-million birdar friends, at the expense of her torso.Cindy Jackson is an ex size adequate of how far people are willing to go to look absolute in this society . Beauty is distorted by the media and by the stigma for industry. In todays society skinnier is better, and people are willing to go through anything to achieve this. Children should not be undecided to these ideas. Instead, children should just be kids. set the Barbie doll into the hands of children teaches them that they collect to look like her perfect. Although, Barbie is not the unaccompanied sole cause of low self satisfaction scarce is a contributing factor. Barbie has been proven to give children who play with her write down self- admiration and engender increased desires to look skinnier. Barbie has banish influences on soundbox image and causes lower body satisfaction levels among young girls, by giving children false predecadeses and pressures slightly being skinny and perfect.Barbie is the most successful bring of the twentieth atomic number 6 and the alleged icon of female beauty (Kuther 39). Most girls from the ages three to ten have at least had one dol l growing up. Although, shes popular forthwith she is actually based off of an early(a) popular doll from Germany. The dolls name was Bild Lilli she was an original cartoon character of an explicit comic teddy designed for adult men. On August 12, 1955 Lilli was first sold in Germany, usually found in smoke shops and a a couple of(prenominal) toy stores, (Bild 1). Barbie was based off of the Lilli doll by Ruth passenger car she journeyed to atomic number 63 on vacation and bought a few Lilli dolls. When she returned back to New York Handler re-designed the doll to make Barbie, which was named afterwards her granddaughter Barbara. Now Barbie is the most sold doll in the world, Barbie is a 1.5 million dollar per-year industry (Dittmar 283).Barbie gives children a yield wit of low self-esteem. Three developmental psychologists exposed one hundred cardinal English children from ages five to eight to a study of how Barbie influences body image. They were exposed to either Barbie dolls, Emme dolls (a to a greater extent normal proportioned doll), or no dolls and then correct assignments based on what they saw. Helga Dittmar concludes, missys exposed to Barbie reported lower body esteem and greater desire for a thinner body human body than girls in the other exposure conditions (284). Dittmar continues, even out if dolls cease to function as shoot for role models for older girls, early exposure to dolls epitomizing an wildally thin body ideal may damage girls body image, which would contribute to an increased attempt of disordered eating and freight cycling (290). This study proves the fact that Barbie has some kind of hold over kids. Since girls play with these dolls they are the most influenced by her since they are so young. If we manoeuver our children these images and tell them to play with them, they will show some sort of idolizing to the dolls.Handlers granddaughter Stacey has written a book ab prohibited her complications with spirit in th e shadows of the Barbie doll. She has had many challenges maintaining her weight to blend into the family. Stacey Handler has experienced the life after Barbie as it has been in her life personally. Her book The organic structure Burden, reenforcement In the Shadow of Barbie reveals her personal story of a lifetime skirmish with body image. She openly discloses her own feelings about the Barbie doll, her grandmothers seemingly innocent perfect creation. She shares her moments of low self-esteem, including fears, insecurities, and distorted body image that have been bestowed on her (213).She discusses societys unrealistic body images and how hard it is for girls to adjust and love themselves for who they are (215). For the first few chapters she expresses her feelings through poems and rhyming songs (1). Handler writes, They never see behind the curtains that peel all my imperfections I was removed from the shelves where the perfect me remained without a single tide rip I worked all day and night to get rid of my glut cellulite until I looked perfect in the eyes of society (12-13). Stacey felt overwhelmed by what her grandmother had invented. She was constantly dieting and practicing un goodish habits of losing the excess weight.Secondly, includes the controversial entropy of the Barbie. This includes the real life Barbie and her timements. Barbie was designed to look flawless because why would a child play with a doll with blemishes or cracked juiceless skin. These dolls are made to look perfect and almost robotic (one looking but like the other). Even though Barbie has recently turned liter years old she still looks like she is twenty. She stays so young merely because children would not play with a grandmother looking doll, it would be out of their likely hood to play with her. The children would not look up to her. Her body figure is very controversial because it demonstrates a tiny waist, long legs, ample bosom, and flowing blond locks (Winterm an 1). Some argue her body shape would be unobtainable and unsustainable if scaled up to life-size.Denise Winterman states, They claim she would not be able to stand up because her body frame would be so unbalanced. A real life Barbie would simply fall over .A study at Southern Australia University suggest the likelihood of a womanhood having Barbies body shape is one in one hundred thousand so not impossible, but extremely rare ( Winterman 1). Winterman claims, Researchers at Finlands University Central Hospital in Helsinki say if Barbie were life size she would lack the seventeen to xxii percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate. So again, not an unachievable figure, but certainly not a healthy one . If Barbie were a real person, she would stand five foot cardinal inches and weigh approximately one hundred ten pounds. Her waist would measure a remarkable 20 inches, her chest thirty-eight inches, and her hips thirty-four inches (Kuther 322). triad toys give children an influence especially at younger ages. Barbie is indeed denote to children who are young, mainly three to ten year olds. Children who play with toys at aged three to eight are said to be influenced to a greater extent from the toys they play with than the ten year olds advertised too also (Duffy 1). Judith Duffy suggests that girls as young as five worry about their weight after playing with unrealistically slim figures such as the Barbie . Duffys article is a summarization of facts based on girls ideal of beauty within the retiring(a) five years. For example, a recent study performed on one hundred thirty fifteen-year-old Scottish girls has revealed that around fifty two percent considered themselves to be too fat, and twenty-nine percent were actively trying to lose weight . This is outrageous considering that fifteen year olds are just beginning their spunky school career. These teenagers should be more concentrated on their studies than on their need to be perfect and size t wo.Some writers, feminists and psychologists think Barbie is a decreed role model and a healthy image for young girls to have. For example, debutante Mehecke writer of the article Rethinking Barbie, explains that Barbie gives children a chance to use their imaginations and the opportunity to mother something . She also claims, Barbie allows young women to dream about all of the possibilities, Barbie can be a doctor, an astronaut, a banker, a lawyer, a nurse, a gymnast etc . Children do like to mother their toys and pretend they are real, but do we have to give our children such an inappropriate doll. We could give our children a water baby or a cabbage patch doll, why do we insist they income tax return care of such a glamorous doll?Developmental psychologist Julia gryphon stated her idea of Barbie in her article faculty members Like to Play with Barbie too. griffon vulture explains Barbie is essential to a girls development in a social interaction along with social appraise s . Instead of Barbie being the essential take time off of a childs life, arouses should help their children develop social interaction and social value skills. Many people think Barbie has nothing to do with eating disorders and the negative body image in young girls. Mattel, the company that produces the doll denies any and all negative accusations with Barbie and the negative affects it rings to the children who play with her.Solutions are a must with this issue such solutions are alternate dolls for children and young teenagers, parent responsibility and positive reinforcement of body image, and companies need to make dolls more realistic. Some alternate dolls for young girls would be the Groovy misfire dolls, and the pillage Patch Kid dolls, and for the older age groups the American Girl madam and Emme.The Groovy Girl dolls are sold at Target stores nationwide, and lot for about sixteen to nineteen dollars. These dolls can be considered expensive but they resemble childre n, in appropriate clothing and offer great set to children. The editor for the savvymom website and co-founder of the Groovy Girls is Victoria Pericon who appears on the official website she states, With three children of my own, I am constantly trying to filter the messages y kids are get from television, their peers, the Internet, magazines, and movies. My daughter, especially, is surrounded by confusing messages that make it difficult for her to develop a strong sense and a healthy body image. The Groovy Girl dolls helped my daughter bring her inner beauty in a deferential way, (Groovygirls.com). This website has a parents option which has ways to help your daughter learn to make good decisions along with characteristics parents should enforce. The Cabbage Patch Kid dolls are harder to find but they are sold at Wal-Mart and Target stores along with other with other toy stores nationwide. They sell for about ten to fifteen dollars depending on the doll and accessories included . These dolls are positive for little children because they are realistic in their appearance according to the childs age group, and they can care for them properly.The American Girl dolls are by far the most educational and most expensive. These dolls are designed to teach children about a defined time period. For example, The considerable Depression and the 70s dolls Kit and Julie. Although, these dolls are highly expensive and are more classy and high end of the doll market they include a lot of valuable information and insight into the girls influence. The final alternate doll would be the Emme doll. This doll is sold online and in select stores and is priced between twenty and thirty-five dollars. The optional extra outfits can cost anywhere from fifty to ninety dollars. These dolls are the most proportionate to an average healthy woman which makes this doll the best dolls for growing and changing children to teenagers.In conclusion, Barbie indeed became a staple of todays soc iety based on her popularity but she is becoming a factor of low self-esteem in young girls. If we act now we can stop the increase in this matter before it gets even worse.ReferencesAnonymous. Bild Lilli History. 10, Apr. 2001.10, Nov 2009.Dittmar, Helga, Emma Halliwell, and Susanne Ive. Does Barbie Make Girls Want to be thin? American Psychological Associationl.42.2 (2006)283-292. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Academic Search Premier. Web. 3 Oct 2009.Duffy, Judith. Barbies Figure gives Young Girls a Desire to have a Thinner Body. BNet.com.CBS. 12 Jun.2005.CBS, Web. 23 Sept. 2009. http//findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20050612/ai_n14680012/Esteban, Michelle. Full-Figured Doll Transforms Beauty ImageABCNews.com. 25 Oct. 2002.Web. 2, Sept.2009.http//abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=91099page=1Groovygirls.com. 2008. 10, Nov. 2009 http//www.groovygirls.com/parents/raising.cfm.Handler, Stacey. The Body Burden, Living In the Shadow of Barbie. Cape Canaveral Blue Note Publications, 2 000. bring outKuther, Kara L. and Erin McDonald. Early Adolescents Experiences with and views of Barbie. Adolescence. 39.153. (Spring 2004) 39-51 Findarticles.com. Academic Search Premier.EBSCO. Web. 25 Sept. 2009.Leung, Rebecca. Becoming Barbie Living Dolls. CBSNews.com. 6 Aug. 2004.Web. 24 Sept. 2009. http//www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/29/48hours/main632909.shtmlWinterman, Denise. What would a real life Barbie look like? BBCNews.com 06, March, 2009 1-2. Web. 1 Oct 2009. http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7920962.stm