The fate of the world is in the hands of one beautiful girl
by
Luz Elena Camacho
by
Luz Elena Camacho
Did you know the Barbie doll your little girl plays with was inspired on a prostitute? Barbie has an awful influence on female children because the doll sends the wrong message to female children who mistake the anatomically fantastic Barbie dolls as the true ideal of beauty. Barbie promotes materialism, eating disorders, and lack of intellect, racism, promiscuity, aggressive behaviors and emptiness.
To begin with, the biggest selling doll in toy history was inspired in a prostitute. Ruth Handler, the creator of this toy used to watch her daughter play with paper dolls, most of the time giving the dolls adult roles. Later then, on a trip to Europe, Handler became fascinated with a German doll named Lili, who used sex to get what she wanted. This wasn’t even marketed as a doll, it was more like a joke type of toy and in essence it was inspired on a prostitute. When Mrs. Handler returned back home, Lilli was a success with Barbara. That gave his husband Elliot Handler, owner of Mattel, an idea. They bought the marketing rights to Lilli and changed her name to Barbie, named after their daughter Barbara of course. Barbie was introduced to the world at the New York International Toy Fair in March 9, 1959.
Barbie was a hit almost instantly, promoting and quickly spreading the idea of materialism and superficiality among young innocent girls. Let's face it; there is not a humble Barbie. She has lots of clothes, cars, houses, and even her own credit cards. She is extremely thin and good looking, fashionable, and the star of numerous movies. Her feet were made for heels and her hair made for styling. She obviously spends every penny she makes. Barbie clearly promotes materialism and portrays this life as being fulfilling which gives kids a stupid and false sense of what life is, and an empty goal for them to pursuit. Barbie’s shallow lifestyle encourages girls to follow her example, and it is more than clear that Barbie is every little girl’s role model.
Barbie’s negative effects don’t stop there, if scaled into real life proportions, she would be 5 feet, 9 inches, (1.75 m) measuring 36-18-33. According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the requisite 17 to 22 percent of body fat required to menstruate. The atrocious part is that girls’ idea of beauty is not even anatomically possible. Her figure is not a realistic goal for 99% of women, but most of them truly believe they need to have these ridiculous proportions to be beautiful, leading to eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia.
A recent study by two British universities concluded that Barbie does indeed have an effect on the way little girls perceive body image. Perhaps the most startling result of the study: when girls ages six and seven were shown pictures of Barbie they were more apt to want to be extremely thin, more so than after seeing other pictures. Barbie sends this type of messages and by the time a girl is 17 years old, she has received over 250,000 similar messages through the media. Body image disturbances, typically the result of such exposure, are clearly dangerous to our youth not just because their preoccupation denies clarity of thought, the ability to concentrate and learn, but also because they typically lead to the fear of being overweight, and therefore to dieting and food restriction, to becoming malnourished and excessively thin, and ultimately to eating disorders. Barbie’s unattainable image helps and increases these problems. Eating disorders are the most lethal of all of the mental health disorders, killing 6-13% of their victims, 87% of whom are under the age of 20. 75% of normal women think they are overweight. 90% of women overestimate their body size, and 50% of American women are currently dieting. One study found that 75 percent of women are unhappy with their physical appearance and wish their bodies were different and Barbie only helps increase these statistics.
Barbie’s poor intellect is another negative effect, giving a terrible example for little girls, encouraging children to be mediocre and incompetent in life. Teen Talk Barbie proves this point. People who were already upset at Barbie’s anorexic figure couldn’t believe their ears when Barbie’s electric voice box giggled: “Math is hard!” People believed it made the science and math gap between males and females worse. "If Barbie gives the message that math is tough, Barbie could be turning off girls to math and science, and that's a mistake," says Anne Bryant, executive director of the American Association of University Women. Once the story was picked up by news outlets nationwide, Mattel soon felt the public pressure. As the New York Times reported on Oct. 21, Mattel decided to remove "Math class is tough" from the programmed selection of sayings of Teen Talk Barbie.
Assistant Majority Whip from District 19 in West Virginia, Jeff Eldridge, proposed a bill to ban the sales of Barbie in his state on March 3, 2009. "I just hate the image that we give to our kids that if you're beautiful, you're beautiful and you don't have to be smart," Eldridge says, "and I'd like to send a message to not only our children but parents and educators that let's push education over the importance of beauty."Mattel declined to comment.
To add to the list, Barbie also promotes racism. Barbie initially existed only in blonde and brunette version, when the company began receiving criticism for not having African American barbies, they created the first black barbie. Now days black barbies are more common due to the pressure that lead Mattel to create them in the first place, but recently people were enraged when Wal-mart was selling black dolls for less than half the price of the blonde doll. Barbie promotes segregation and even though Barbie now has some African American friends, the racism is still felt.
Barbie also encourages aggressive behaviors in both female and male children according to several studies. Studies show that Barbie generates a feeling similar to hate, children feel this towards the doll’s perfection, causing the need and wish to destroy such perfection. The types of aggression and violence are varied and creative and range from removing the hair to decapitation, mutilation, burning, breaking and even microwaving. Kids justify their actions by saying: “She was too perfect” or “She was too pretty”. This is certainly one of the most alarming negative effects of the doll.
Finally, Barbie promotes promiscuity, first of all because it was inspired on a prostitute, in the second place because of her on-again and off-again boyfriend, and the fact that she always appears with different males, Steven, Blaine, Devon to mention a few, and let’s not forget Ken. That’s not a very good example. Also, she’s supposed to be a grown women who in fact has a daughter named Kelly, she should not be wearing mini-skirts and showing so much cleavage, her wardrobe is not mother appropriate, and it’s not okay have little girls believe it’s correct to go out only wearing a pink bra, a skirt and high heels. It gives the impression that you have to show your body to be accepted, have friends and be pretty. Her life gives an allusion to that of Hugh Hefner’s. She’s rich, wild, she does whatever she wants, has kids, still parties like an 18 year old, has lots of friends, and she’s still not dead.
According to The Manufacturer magazine, every three seconds a Barbie doll is purchased. Barbie has been said to touch every girl's life, and now you know in what ways. So, next time think twice when buying a Barbie doll, because if you are, remember what you are contributing to. Barbie is currently at number 43 of “101 most influential people that never lived” of USA Today. We don’t even realize how much of an influence Barbie is, it’s time to make conscience and see what truly matters. Barbie is a bad influence on little girls and society. Today is the day to change our perspective and educate our future, and remember you can make a difference in your daughter’s life.
To begin with, the biggest selling doll in toy history was inspired in a prostitute. Ruth Handler, the creator of this toy used to watch her daughter play with paper dolls, most of the time giving the dolls adult roles. Later then, on a trip to Europe, Handler became fascinated with a German doll named Lili, who used sex to get what she wanted. This wasn’t even marketed as a doll, it was more like a joke type of toy and in essence it was inspired on a prostitute. When Mrs. Handler returned back home, Lilli was a success with Barbara. That gave his husband Elliot Handler, owner of Mattel, an idea. They bought the marketing rights to Lilli and changed her name to Barbie, named after their daughter Barbara of course. Barbie was introduced to the world at the New York International Toy Fair in March 9, 1959.
Barbie was a hit almost instantly, promoting and quickly spreading the idea of materialism and superficiality among young innocent girls. Let's face it; there is not a humble Barbie. She has lots of clothes, cars, houses, and even her own credit cards. She is extremely thin and good looking, fashionable, and the star of numerous movies. Her feet were made for heels and her hair made for styling. She obviously spends every penny she makes. Barbie clearly promotes materialism and portrays this life as being fulfilling which gives kids a stupid and false sense of what life is, and an empty goal for them to pursuit. Barbie’s shallow lifestyle encourages girls to follow her example, and it is more than clear that Barbie is every little girl’s role model.
Barbie’s negative effects don’t stop there, if scaled into real life proportions, she would be 5 feet, 9 inches, (1.75 m) measuring 36-18-33. According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the requisite 17 to 22 percent of body fat required to menstruate. The atrocious part is that girls’ idea of beauty is not even anatomically possible. Her figure is not a realistic goal for 99% of women, but most of them truly believe they need to have these ridiculous proportions to be beautiful, leading to eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia.
A recent study by two British universities concluded that Barbie does indeed have an effect on the way little girls perceive body image. Perhaps the most startling result of the study: when girls ages six and seven were shown pictures of Barbie they were more apt to want to be extremely thin, more so than after seeing other pictures. Barbie sends this type of messages and by the time a girl is 17 years old, she has received over 250,000 similar messages through the media. Body image disturbances, typically the result of such exposure, are clearly dangerous to our youth not just because their preoccupation denies clarity of thought, the ability to concentrate and learn, but also because they typically lead to the fear of being overweight, and therefore to dieting and food restriction, to becoming malnourished and excessively thin, and ultimately to eating disorders. Barbie’s unattainable image helps and increases these problems. Eating disorders are the most lethal of all of the mental health disorders, killing 6-13% of their victims, 87% of whom are under the age of 20. 75% of normal women think they are overweight. 90% of women overestimate their body size, and 50% of American women are currently dieting. One study found that 75 percent of women are unhappy with their physical appearance and wish their bodies were different and Barbie only helps increase these statistics.
Barbie’s poor intellect is another negative effect, giving a terrible example for little girls, encouraging children to be mediocre and incompetent in life. Teen Talk Barbie proves this point. People who were already upset at Barbie’s anorexic figure couldn’t believe their ears when Barbie’s electric voice box giggled: “Math is hard!” People believed it made the science and math gap between males and females worse. "If Barbie gives the message that math is tough, Barbie could be turning off girls to math and science, and that's a mistake," says Anne Bryant, executive director of the American Association of University Women. Once the story was picked up by news outlets nationwide, Mattel soon felt the public pressure. As the New York Times reported on Oct. 21, Mattel decided to remove "Math class is tough" from the programmed selection of sayings of Teen Talk Barbie.
Assistant Majority Whip from District 19 in West Virginia, Jeff Eldridge, proposed a bill to ban the sales of Barbie in his state on March 3, 2009. "I just hate the image that we give to our kids that if you're beautiful, you're beautiful and you don't have to be smart," Eldridge says, "and I'd like to send a message to not only our children but parents and educators that let's push education over the importance of beauty."Mattel declined to comment.
To add to the list, Barbie also promotes racism. Barbie initially existed only in blonde and brunette version, when the company began receiving criticism for not having African American barbies, they created the first black barbie. Now days black barbies are more common due to the pressure that lead Mattel to create them in the first place, but recently people were enraged when Wal-mart was selling black dolls for less than half the price of the blonde doll. Barbie promotes segregation and even though Barbie now has some African American friends, the racism is still felt.
Barbie also encourages aggressive behaviors in both female and male children according to several studies. Studies show that Barbie generates a feeling similar to hate, children feel this towards the doll’s perfection, causing the need and wish to destroy such perfection. The types of aggression and violence are varied and creative and range from removing the hair to decapitation, mutilation, burning, breaking and even microwaving. Kids justify their actions by saying: “She was too perfect” or “She was too pretty”. This is certainly one of the most alarming negative effects of the doll.
Finally, Barbie promotes promiscuity, first of all because it was inspired on a prostitute, in the second place because of her on-again and off-again boyfriend, and the fact that she always appears with different males, Steven, Blaine, Devon to mention a few, and let’s not forget Ken. That’s not a very good example. Also, she’s supposed to be a grown women who in fact has a daughter named Kelly, she should not be wearing mini-skirts and showing so much cleavage, her wardrobe is not mother appropriate, and it’s not okay have little girls believe it’s correct to go out only wearing a pink bra, a skirt and high heels. It gives the impression that you have to show your body to be accepted, have friends and be pretty. Her life gives an allusion to that of Hugh Hefner’s. She’s rich, wild, she does whatever she wants, has kids, still parties like an 18 year old, has lots of friends, and she’s still not dead.
According to The Manufacturer magazine, every three seconds a Barbie doll is purchased. Barbie has been said to touch every girl's life, and now you know in what ways. So, next time think twice when buying a Barbie doll, because if you are, remember what you are contributing to. Barbie is currently at number 43 of “101 most influential people that never lived” of USA Today. We don’t even realize how much of an influence Barbie is, it’s time to make conscience and see what truly matters. Barbie is a bad influence on little girls and society. Today is the day to change our perspective and educate our future, and remember you can make a difference in your daughter’s life.
