Unrealistic Standards of Being Perfect : Barbie vs. Reality Everyone has heard of a Barbie doll. The idealized, Barbie doll creates an image of a fake “perfect” woman. This is what society is basing the perfect ideal image of the almost impossible, unrealistic womanized standards off. Society has become so determinate on being perfect, focusing on the body and appearance. This is affecting women and girls all over the world and appears that it is only going to get worse. The standards on women have changed so drastically in several ways. Nina Bahadur states that, “A woman with a “perfect body” in 1930 would barely get a second look from Hollywood producers or model casting agents today”. Due to societies almost impossible expectations, it has negatively impacted women everywhere causing several complications. In a Science Daily article researchers state, “Adolescents with negative body image concerns may engage in mental illnesses and eating disorders such as depression, anxiety, suicidality, anorexia, bulimia, and even body dysmorphic disorder”. These illnesses can make an enormous negative impact on a person’s life because of societies …show more content…
Unfortunately, today’s society is nowhere near relatable to other past centuries because of how drastically society has become. Previously in the 1950’s, “Marilyn Monroe was certainly considered a beauty in her own time, and still is, but Marilyn Monroe was no size one and probably not even a three or a five” (Worley 407). Now, because of the way society has created their own ideal perfect body, society would not even consider Marilyn Monroe to have the perfect body like she did in her time. According to Jean Kilbourne, “It has been estimated that twenty years ago the average model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman; today she weighs 23 percent less” (Worley
The United States in the most obese country and the Barbie doll was manufactured in the United States. The negative part of this is that “In 2013, 42 million children under the age of 5 worldwide were overweight or obese” (Kiener). Children are playing with a doll that is tone and has the perfect body when they don’t have the same body type. They are being taught how they should look when they don’t look that way they hate themselves. So many people think Barbie isn’t to blame when in fact I wouldn’t be writing this essay if I didn’t think Barbie was causing a problem with self-esteem issues nor would “a 2006 study published in the journal Developmental Psychology, [have] found that girls exposed to Barbie at a young age expressed greater concern with being thin, compared with those exposed to other dolls” (Dockterman) have their
According to dosomething.org about 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies in the world today. In the world today many people struggle with the way their body looks, and bullies that often degrade people for the way they look. Being bullied, or having a negative body image can effect a persons life in many ways. Many people have a negative body image, even girls that appear to be "pretty and popular". Physical effects of bullying, and a negative body image could include anorexia, cutting, or purging.
Over time women have faced and overcome multiple obstacles. In this day and age, women have gained the right to vote, receive an education, and make their own decisions about their life. However, women are still faced with the struggle of fitting into societal norms, and this is becoming increasingly dangerous in our mass media society. For centuries, society has made females feel as if they must fit into the barbie doll image created by a patriarchal society. Some women face eating disorders, plastic surgeries, an abundance of makeup, or even the idea of suicide to elude thoughts of being less than ideal in other people's eyes.
However, in today’s contemporary society there are new frameworks to consider that challenge the traditional framework in many ways, but also contribute to the complexity of defining health. One such framework is the socio-medical model of health. This model takes many factors in account when discussing ones health, and accepts that disease can be multi-causal. I mentioned earlier that people are taking responsibility for their own health, and although this remains true, some factors which may contribute to disease are out of our control- for example certain toxins that we may be exposed to in our environment, Chernobyl being an example of a catastrophic nuclear disaster impacting on the health of people in the surrounding area for generations. Socio-economic factors also have an enormous effect on a person’s
Cordelia Kewatt Ms. Eichten AP English Period 3 3 January 2023 “Barbie Doll” lit analysis Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll" illustrates the damage done to young women who are ridiculed for their appearances because of the value society places on physical beauty. This is conveyed through the use of both dramatic and situational irony used in the poem. The speaker frequently makes mention of the young girls' problems but shows no emotion or sympathy for them. This tone furthers the idea that when placing importance solely on looks women are unable to live up to the standards -these standards frequently lead to young women engaging in self-destructive behavior.
Barbie a famous American doll... “If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5 '9” tall, have a 39” bust, an 18” waist, 33” hips and a size 3 shoe! her weight at 110 lbs.” The imagery associated with the title a "Barbie Doll" …. imagine perfect hair and legs, chances are you 're thinking about unrealistic aspect of what it means for a woman to be beautiful.
The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy suggests that girls are fatally and ultimately entrapped by society's definition of what feminine beauty and behavior is. In our society we believe that women should be perfect. We want women to be as flawless as a Barbie doll and in doing so we create many struggles for women because no one can ever achieve that goal. The poem gives off a sense of irony when “society” compares a young girl to a Barbie doll. Our society has an ideal that was created by the influences of popular media and culture that is impossible for anyone to reach.
The girl in ‘barbie doll’, wasn’t perfect. She had a big nose and fat legs. Her classmates remind her of this, as does society. She was fine as herself, but others weren’t. They had to pressure into thinking she needs to change.
In today’s society people want a women to have an extraordinary appearance. Marge Piercy's’ story Barbie Doll portrays the theme of how a person never feels fully perfect because of the views of society. Even though this poem was written back in 1936, we still have the same perception of how an ideal man or woman should look. In today's time, Social media is the main reason why people have these views. Girls are supposed to look a certain way to be considered attractive.
Barbie is a bad role model for young girls. Barbie has a perfect appearance, she is very stereotypical, and she causes girls to have poor mental health. To begin with, Barbie is a bad role model, because she has a perfect appearance. She has flawless skin and this causes many girls to have low self-esteem. She is also usually tan and this has led many girls to go tanning at the beach.
Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.
Barbie dolls have been around for about 56 years. She is famous for being fabulous. Many girls have had a barbie doll to play with as a child and looked up to her. Barbie has had positive and negative results on young girls, but mainly negative. Barbie is a bad role model by sending the unrealistic image of perfection through having the perfect body, perfect life, perfect house and car, and the perfect clothes.
The characters in the poem and short story “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne can both relate to one another in the fact that the public sets expectations for women. “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:/ You have a great big nose and fat legs.” (Piercy 5-6) This quote from the poem “Barbie Doll” is an exceptional example of our general society making fun of an adolescent, who does not meet the societal expectations that have been set for women, until a tragic event happens.
Many start the day by arranging their hair, finding clothes to wear, or any other daily habit that may alter one’s image; this is all due to the way others see others. Thankfully, in today’s communities, features are not judged upon as much as four decades ago. In the setting of “Barbie Doll,” by Marge Piercy, the narrator observes a growing girl in a culture that solely focuses on aesthetics, rather than the features that genuinely make up a woman. In Piercy’s “Barbie Doll,” the girl’s society regards aesthetical characteristics far more valuable than her other various qualities and strengths, to the point where she must alter her own nature to create a false reality. This girl’s other qualities beside her looks, are displayed to be very
Barbie's body image can is naturally unachievable and