Our Barbies, Ourselves.

Ever since I was a child I have played with Barbie dolls and read Cosmo Girl (and other such magazines). The media’s influence on girls’ self esteem nowadays is a constant and pressing issue that is not being dealt with. The market knows how to appeal to a certain group of people, unfortunately influencing this low self-esteemed group of teenagers into thinking they are not pretty enough, not skinny enough, or not white enough. When reading these essays, I felt empathy for the authors describing their “terrible turning point”, and how the media’s portrayal of the ‘perfect girl’ influenced the way they feel about themselves.

Gilman’s article about Barbie dolls is one of many addressing the issue of how these dolls are influencing young girls. As a child I used to have a collection of Barbies; including mermaid Barbie, Ken, Kelly, even Indian bride Barbie. As described in this article, although the company tries to explore a range of diversities, the classic Aryan look is still present. Although the idea of the classic blonde, blue-eyed, ignorant, and gorgeous cheerleader type girl is still the clichéd version of the ‘ideal woman’, these stereotypes are still existent in our society.

America’s Next Top Model, Miss World Pageants, and Cosmopolitan magazine are all forms of media directed at insecure teenage girls. Higginbotham’s article described the tactics used in these magazines so accurately it was nearly shocking. After reading this article I took a look at my own stack of Cosmo Girl magazines, and realized that every racial and physical discrimination presented in this article holds true to these magazines. Although they try to exemplify a sense of diversity, all girls are equally skinny, equally gorgeous, and have the same ‘I’m-better-than-you’ expression on their face. Even when watching Miss World Pageants, which is supposed to be a celebration of diverse beauty, inside and out, the superficial nature of the event is still evident. All women have the same stick thin bodies, perfectly toned stomachs, and a perfect boob-to-ass ratio.

This idea of the ‘perfect girl’ has tortured the souls of a million teenage girls worldwide. The media forces them to believe that the reason they are not ‘finding love’ is because they don’t satisfy the statutes of what it takes to appeal to teenage boys. Dolls, magazines, and TV shows are all telling girls that if one is not a classic preppy blonde girl, one will never find love. I much prefer Gilman’s descriptions of her new and improved Barbies, ones that actually depict women in real life – rather than a fantasy that all men wish women were. No longer should women have to fit this image of perfection, perhaps not to the extent of that in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, but perhaps to the extent where women can be seen as equals rather than objects to be toyed with.