The article ‘Klaus Barbie, and other dolls I’d like to see’ by Susan Jane Gilman is a very feminist article that reminded me of the ‘Handmaid’s tale’ in some ways. The article was very harshly written, criticizing Barbie dolls. She openly writes that she hates Barbie and all the ideals that are associated with it. Barbie is a threat to young girl because they portray the ‘perfect girl’. Blond, blue eyes, tall, skinny, big breasts, shiny clothes. Then it gets dangerously close to Hitler’s ideals. The Barbies ‘instill in legions of little girls a preference for whiteness, for blond hair, blue eyes and delicate features, perched eternally and submissively in high heels’. One of the main focuses of this article was that Barbies discriminate all urban girls like black, Jewish, Latino girls etc. The author describes the situation of a young girl that wasn’t good enough to be a bride, a model or a princess because she didn’t look like Barbie. Barbie is the only toy that in the Western world that human beings actively try to mimic, she says, and I agree with that. Nowadays at our age you still see a lot of girls that dye their hair blond, and go on diets to look thinner. It’s impressive what kind of impact Barbie had on young girls, considering that teenagers still behave the same way. I’m not sure if I agree with the fact that Barbies are achieving what Hitler failed to do in the third Reich; I think that’s a little exaggerated. Barbies might have been all blondes in the past, but nowadays there are red heads, brown heads, flat feet, legs that are able to spread apart and a accessorized belly that is able to carry a baby (hence the Barbie isn’t skinny anymore). On top of that you have to consider that the producers and manufactures of Barbie industries are trying their best to make money, so why would they design a Barbie that overlaps fat and that has multiple pimples on her face? Nobody would buy that Barbie for their child, as harsh as it sounds. I wouldn’t consider a Barbie looking like that fat but she surely wouldn’t look healthy, and every mother wants their child to be healthy.
The article ‘Teen Mags: How to Get a Guy, Drop 20 Pounds and Lose Your Self-Esteem’ by Anastasia Higginbotham, has a similar point of view. Teen magazines, it says, influence girls in their unstable years of puberty to care more about boys, lipgloss and weight than any other things. The magazines remind the girls everyday that if you’d like a boyfriend, you should be skinny. Just like the previous article, it critiques blondes: “the ideal girl is evidenced by the cover models: white, usually blond, and invariably skinny”, and this I don’t approve on. It’s not like a girl has to be blonde to be pretty, and in my opinion it is unfair to always associate blondes with prostitutes, blue eyes, skinniness and above all stupidness. If everyone wanted to have blond hair, then why would there be so many jokes about blondes?
Hello Jorina! I found your response to Klaus Barbie and Teen Mags very interesting and I completely agree with your arguments. You mentioned that you could see some connections to A Handmaid's Tale in the beginning of your response but you did not list what. I would be very keen to know what connections you've made to Klaus Barbie. Also you mentioned Hitler's ideals somewhere in the middle, it would be good to elaborate on this because I'm unsure about the connections to Klaus Barbie. I want to mention that I do agree how Barbies can create negative impacts to society and that they can cause serious damage to the mentality of teens but they could also promote some good qualities. Like you said, no one wants to buy a fat barbie, this could promote how obesity is dangerous. Would you agree with me? Yet I do agree with that most of the impacts that Barbie dolls create are negative.
ReplyDeleteWith your response to Teen Mags, I was only getting into it when you ended. I would love to read more! And I love your point you made about the jokes on blond hair especially because I still hear them today.
Overall, I took great pleasure reading your article and giving my feedback on it!
ps There are some grammar errors that you might want to take a look at ;)
Goodnight mate! You're right that I could have talked about the connections I see to the Handmaid’s Tale a little more thorough. I meant to show a connection I saw to Aunt Lydia, who seems to be the 'dean of what's right or wrong'. She might not tell the handmaids that they should be skinnier or taller, but she certainly is the one who sets the rules. There is also a moment in the book where Offred feels uncomfortable because her legs aren’t shaved. In that moment she remembers a time where that was the ideal woman (...Barbie certainly has perfectly smooth legs) .
ReplyDeleteI thought that one would understand the connection I made to Hitler, but I'm happy to explain it a little better to you, I wasn’t very clear. As mentioned in the article, Barbie is a Nazi invention. She displays all the ideals of the perfect Nazi: she’s blonde, she’s got blue eyes, she’s in shape, she’s perfect. At least that’s what he said, and a lot of people agreed just because they weren’t brave enough to go against it. Barbie is a way of introducing the ideal of the third Reich to young children.
Tell me if it's clear now?