"Barbie, real life stories."

Both Gilman and Higginbotham’s texts discuss the modern portrayal of women and society. Barbies and Teen Mags, as Higginbotham calls them, create girls “fantasy life and extend their ambitions”, making them aspire to an ideal, which is somehow false.

Barbie dolls have formed part of girls childhood since the late 1950’s; a very westernized toy that ‘human beings actively try to mimic’, making it not only a children’s doll, but ‘an adult cult and an aesthetic obsession’. As Gilman says, Barbies portray this perfect woman with ‘white blond hair, burnt orange Malibu skin, unblinking turquoise eyes and hot pink convertibles; completely stupid, perfect, and of course false. I remember discussing with my parents about Barbies, and asking them why they did not buy me these popular and beautiful dolls; ‘I don’t like the image they show’, would say my dad. I thought it was crazy; Barbies were perfect and I envied my friends that would own tons of Barbies, hundreds of different outfits, the mansions, the convertibles, the jeeps, and of course the guy. I can now understand what my dad was trying to say, and I agree on what Gilman says; Barbies create a stereotype of the perfect woman, an impossible model for a girl to reach.

Because of this image girls no longer feel content with who they are or what they have. I quote Gilman here”if you didn’t look like a Barbie, you didn’t fit in. Your status was diminished. You were less beautiful, less valuable, less worthy”.

What about the other side of Barbie? Gilman gives a list of Barbies she would like to see in the market: Dinner Roll Barbie, Bisexual Barbie, Birkenstock Barbie, , Body Piercings Barbie, and so on and so on. Barbies that show what life really is about, that being different isn’t bad, but good, being smart, being voluptuous, dressing in your own style, not the pink girly way Barbie is, is something to be proud of and that makes each and anyone of us special. Not only that but that we can’t be perfect. A friend actually conveyed this idea through art, using a Barbie Doll. She called it ‘BARBIE, real life cases’. In her pictures she shows alcoholic, menopausic and single mom Barbies. 

It’s not only Barbies that portray a false perfect image to girls, but also Teen Magazines. These magazines also tend to create an ideal of a woman, where she gets the boys, is popular, thin and dresses well. Magazines like YM, Seventeen, Sassy, Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Mademoiselle in some way restrict girls to grow into their what THEY want, in order for them to sell. Thin girls that follow their restricted ‘seven day diets’, follow their advices after Love Crisis’, etc. What struck me the most is how these magazines contradict themselves. Higginbotham explains how teen magazines ‘tend to encourage girls to love their bodies, no matter what they look like’, however they only show ‘stick thin, flawless faced white models in expensive outfits’. Higginbotham’s title resumes everything ‘Teen Mags: How to get a guy, drop 20 pounds, and lose your self-esteem’. Because in this transformation and aspirations to be ‘perfect’, we lose our true identity, trying to become someone we are not but someone that society wants us to be. 

What happens if we don’t want to be like Barbie or the skinny girl in the front cover of Seventeen Magazine? These magazines should start featuring what’s really happening in the world, ‘show the whole spectrum’; not discriminate against any racial, physical or sexual differences, and admit that being who we are, we are just as perfect. No need to get the perfect guy, drop 20 pounds. Just be ourselves.

Articles:

‘Klaus barbie, and other dolls I’d like to see’ by Susan Jane Gilman

‘Teen Mags: How to get a guy, drop 20 pounds, and lose your self esteem’ by Anastasia Higginbotham

Picture:

Anais Freitas - 'Barbie, casos de la vida real'