Barbie

1
Barbies Effect on Young Girls

• Lauren Mortenson
• English 102, Section 5232

2
Why This is a Big Issue

• Barbie is a popular doll that is commonly the
  first thing that young girls play with.
• Certain celebrities are changing themselves into
  real life Barbie dolls.
• Body image is a popular issue in todays society.

3
Barbie

• The Barbie doll is one of the most successful
  toys of the 20th century and, arguably, the icon
  of female beauty and the American dream (Rogers
  1999).

4
Barbies Proportions

• Among the changes necessary were for the female
  to increase 24 in. in height, 5 in. in the chest,
  and 3.2 in. in neck length, while decreasing 6
  in. in the waist, and for the male to increase 20
  in. in height, 11 in. in the chest, and 7.9 in.
  in neck circumference (Brownell Napolitano
  1995).

5
Girls Reality

• Girls may not get full negative effect when very
  young.
• As girls get older they realize that they are
  able to change the way they look.
• Girls become more aware of what society thinks is
  the ideal body image.

6
Body Dissatisfaction

• It has been proven that many girls have a higher
  body dissatisfaction when playing with Barbie
  dolls.
• The graph to the right shows that Barbies have a
  strong effect on young girls when they are just
  starting school.

7
What Girls Want!

• As younger girls get older they start focusing
  a lot on their physical appearance. Many girls
  and women today all want the same thing. They
  want to be skinny, popular, liked by the opposite
  sex, and to be beautiful. Barbie gives them that
  image of what they want to look like.

8
Barbies Image

• Characteristics of Barbie
• Tall
• Skinny
• Blonde
• Big Breasts
• Perky

9
Celebrities and the Barbie Image

• Today, most celebrities seem to all want the same
  look.
• There are many celebrities that strive to look
  just like the Barbie figure.
• Celebrity Examples Pamela Anderson, Jennifer
  Ellison, and Victoria Silvstedt.

10
Barbie Syndrome

• What is it?
• Barbie syndrome is a term used to loosely
  describe the desire to have a physical appearance
  and lifestyle representative of the famous Barbie
  doll.
• Someone afflicted with Barbie syndrome strives
  for an unattainable body type.

11
Sarah Burge

• Almost 40 years on and after 27 procedures have
  already topped more than 180,000-worth of
  surgery.  So much so that the media have called
  me The Real Life Barbie. But Im more plastic
  than Barbie ... and I love it! Sarah Burge

12
Mattels Efforts

• Makers of Barbie have tried to make Barbie better
  by
• Making Barbies of different cultures.
• Dressing them in all types of outfits.
• Having Barbies have different careers.
• Making disabled Barbies.
• Making all Barbie products diverse.

13
Better Messages but Still the Same

• Efforts have been made by the makers of Barbie to
  make them better for children to play with.
• However, the main issue has not been changed the
  size of Barbie.
• She still has the same proportions.

14
What Needs to be Done

• To solve this issue the makers of Barbie really
  need to work on making the size of Barbie
  comparable to the size of an average woman.
• Also, if parents of young girls are worried what
  effect Barbie dolls will have on their children
  then they should limit the time that they play
  with these dolls.

15
Work Cited

• Brownell, Kelly D., Melissa A. Napolitano, Myriam
  Mongrain, and Julie Van Der Feen. "Distorting
  Reality for Children Body Size Proportions of
  Barbie and Ken Dolls." International Journal of
  Eating Disorders 18.3 (1995) 295-298. Academic
  Search Premier. EBSCO. University of Arizona
  Library, Tucson. 1 July 2007.
• Burge, Sarah. "Cosmetic Surgery." Real Life
  Barbie. 9 July 2007. 13 July 2007
  lthttp//www.reallifebarbie.com/html/cosmetic_surge
  ry.htmlgt.
• Munger, Dave. "What Barbie Does for a Little
  Girl's Body Image." Cognitive Daily. 19 Apr.
  2006. Science Blogs LLC. 13 July 2007
  lthttp//scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2006/04/p
  ost_1.phpgt.
• Rogers, A. (1999). Barbie culture. Thousand Oaks,
  CA Sage Publications.
• Rozwadowski, Elena, and Elizabeth Cook. "Finding
  a Solution for Eating Disorders." Eating
  Disorders. 13 Oct. 2006. The Minnesota Daily. 13
  July 2007 lthttp//www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/1
  0/13/69379gt.
• "Barbie." Wikipedia. 10 July 2007. Wikimedia
  Foundation, Inc. 16 July 2007 lthttp//en.wikipedia
  .org/wiki/Barbiegt.