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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Barbie!

I found this article I wrote for the El Toro High School student newspaper that I was editor in chief of in 2007. I just founded it on my old myspace blogs and remembered how much I loved it. It was a column and a fun read! Enjoy <3

The year 1959 marked Marilyn Monroe's landmark performance in Some Like It Hot; the ending of The Mickey Mouse Club; the addition of Alaska and Hawaii; and the creation of a worldwide pop culture icon that will live on throughout following decades. Someone that young girls looked up to and, eventually, tried to model their bodies after. A blonde bombshell often thought of as a bimbo but who is anything but…Barbie.

For decades Barbie has been a role model to girl's everywhere but in so many more ways than a way to model their bodies after. Barbie stood for a feminist movement while still remaining beautiful on the outside. She started out showing girls they could be a working woman who did not need a guy to depend on.

But in recent years Mattel seems to have fallen victim to the criticism of her not proportional body and has decided to change her look to mirror that of a pre-pubescent girl. If anything, Barbie is giving the nation more of a reason to become anorexic now.

In her latest body-lift she has had her hips and breasts shaved, her waist enhanced and her face made larger – making her seem more off balance than previously. Her face has begun to resemble those of the new Bratz dolls – with gigantic heads and tiny bodies covered in even tinier clothes.

Critics always said Barbie was the cause of the spread of eating disorders, inappropriate dress and the surge in plastic surgery. Newsflash! Barbie is a doll, not living breathing flesh. Children aren't stupid; they know girls aren't supposed to look like that any more than girls are supposed to look like the Cabbage Patch Kids. Girls aren't looking at their Barbie dolls and getting ideas about plastic surgery or eating disorders, they're looking at the models and actresses that grace the covers of their teen magazines and flaunt their assets on the big screen.

Besides, when Barbie wasn't proportional we were "American the Great" not "America the Obese." It might not have a connection, but still.

Barbie obsession swept across the nation as she went from being just a doll to practically ruling the world with her games, "life size Barbie," Christmas ornaments and collectibles covering everything from race to NASCAR.

Recently, MAC has started a new makeup line based off of Barbie's always outrageous makeup – remember the bright pinks of the 90s?

Barbie has always been a pop culture icon and has gone through many phases of life through the changes Mattel has made in her looks and lifestyle (note: working girl to single mom). This last phase change, however, has set a bad tone for the next few generations. Soon girls might be asking if they can have head implants while the girls with "slightly larger hips" want them shaved.

In short, no one is ever going to be content with Barbie – so suck it up and remember…she's just a doll.




2 comments:

  1. We have this poster (we have a million of them actually) of Marilyn Monroe at work for sale with a quote at the bottom. It's like the dumbest piece of crap ever: "Sex is a part of nature, I go along with nature". Who the hell wants that on their wall?

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