Who Is Barbie? What Does She Stand For? Do All Younger Girls Envy Her?

Dr. Van Ham

English 101 revision

Who is Barbie? What does she stand for? Do all younger girls envy her? Emily Prager is a columnist for the New York Times and a fiction writer who has written many books. She reads an article in the New York Times about a man's death, Jack Ryan. He was an inventor and designer, a man with many accomplishments. As Prager reads on, to her astonishment, she discovers that one of Ryan's accomplishments was designing Barbie. "Of course," she thought. Why would a woman make Barbie with a "39 inch bust and 18 inch waist?"(614) She never understood why a woman would design Barbie in that type of structure for younger girls to look up to. She states, "Barbie looks like someone who got her start at the Playboy Mansion" (613) where women are labeled as sex symbols. She thinks the image of Barbie promotes an unrealistic ideal body image for little girls, leading them to get plastic surgery and giving younger boy's a false impression of what their girlfriend should look like. She also believes that man had created Barbie as an object to serve as an anti- feminist embodiment since it was during the sixties.

Barbie had a huge influence in my life. As I was growing up, my parents were getting a divorce and my older sister was living in group home. I stayed with my dad, and hardly saw my mom and sister. It was tough growing up, I didn't have anyone to teach me how to dress, or even how to do your hair, girly things that my dad couldn't help me with. I still remember the day when I first bought Barbie. My dad and I walked into Ventures, and the first place I ran to was the toy section. My dad felt bad for me always having to look at Barbie and not ever buying her, to my surprise, he said "go ahead, you can have her." I was so happy. She came with two outfits, two shoes, and a kitchen set. I remember looking at her, how fit she was, and what nice outfits she came with. I would tell myself, "this is the life I want when I grow up," to be healthy, fashionable, and admired. Barbie's outfit's was my guide on how to dress. I would look at her clothes, and pick something out that look like hers. I would practice braiding her hair then go off and try it on myself, and paint our nails to match each other. If I didn't have Barbie, I probably would still be wearing my favorite sweater, which I wore three times a week, and probably still have the nappy hair because I didn't think combing your hair was important. It never came to mind that she had a big chest, or small waist, I thought it was normal. She was just a toy, it didn't bother me. I didn't think about getting plastic surgery, nor thought about how unrealistic her body shape is. For me, she was my best friend, and gave me comfort when I needed it most.

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