Preview

In A Barbie World's Popular Culture

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1582 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
In A Barbie World's Popular Culture
In A Barbie World Life’s...
In order for a product to be recognised as a “Popular-Culture” they must have four distinguishing characteristics. They are; firstly: being associated with commercial products; second: developing from a local, to a national, to a global level; thirdly: allowing consumers to have widespread access to it and lastly: constantly changing and evolving. All of which Barbie has shown throughout the years. These changes have been proceeding as with the procession of technology. Barbie started off with a brush to an electric straighter and now shown with advanced gadgets. Within this report the role of technology in influencing the distinguishing characteristics of Barbie will be shown through various ways and therefore
…show more content…
These three major ways are through friendship, role playing and collecting purposes. When young girls play with Barbie dolls they learn about women gender roles when they are interacting with one another. Each of their Barbie dolls have certain traits which reflect what they want to do as adults when they are older. Through means of technology as well, Barbie has adopted new trends that are in to sell more of their dolls. These are dolls are what known as collectables and are not always collected by young girls and as technology as progressed so has Barbie’s gadgets, meaning that from time to time new props are being released in order to get young girls to buy these items. Her gadgets are things like a new car, new digital cameras things that we have in the real word as well. This creates a world in which Barbie has these gadgets where she also has to get these new technologies, telling girls about meaningless consumerism. Young girls also buy these to connect with their peers. On the ads and on their website it shows young girls with their friends all showing their latest gadgets for their Barbie and socialise with these items. They release new props that even people of lower socio-economic status could be able to afford them. With time progressing from have props for their Barbies, Mattel also start to release movies about the stories of Barbie and her adventures that she endures, and as technology has improved so has her movies on DVD’s. Now they come with interacting games using the controller where you have to find her electric brush, sorting out her room or solving a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    4. In her last paragraph Prager compares and contrasts the ways the toy company depicted the sexuality of Barbie and Ken. What are the differences? What ideas of cause and effect emerge from the comparison?…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jennifer Latson wrote a paper about the true origins of Barbie. The famous Barbie doll that we grew up with had a somewhat dark origin that began a long time ago. Born in Germany in 1952, the dolls original name was Lilli, she was unlike Barbie due to her unusual curves and toes that, “She doesn’t even have a foot.” Despite this, Lilli was so popular in Germany that she became a plastic doll for all the kids to play with. Lilli also had her own comics, but she was sexualized in these comics. In one comic she was naked with only a newspaper covering herself, and another comic had a policeman say she couldn’t wear a two-piece bikini and Lilli asked which one she should take off. Regardless of these things, she became a popular doll, inspiring…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    * The Barbie doll celebrated its 40th birthday in 1999, but what has this toy done to the culture of the young girls who play with her in today’s society? Over the past 40 years the society has seen the ups and downs from the effects of Barbie. Barbie has given our children positive motivation to become something better in life. She has also shown us the negative impact on our children’s lives as well, from dieting issues to self-esteem. Today, women can be seen as someone who should be put on a pedestal or in a store front window, but what does this do to the women of the society?…

    • 1606 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Barbie: The Ideal Woman

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Society today, has changed people in the way how they act, and dress. The short story Barbie Q explains that a Barbie is the ideal woman. The Barbie is an example of what women believe to be perfect. The quote “So what if we didn’t Get our new bendable legs Barbie in nice clean boxes and had to buy them on Maxwell street all water soaked and sooty”(Cisneros). This quote means that anyone would buy a Barbie for a cheaper price because they didn’t have the money at the time and who would care if the dolls were wet or smoked. For example the barbie with the melted leg putting a dress on the doll would cover the leg. this event talks about women these days where men rate the women from very beautiful to ugly as they show in the story where the…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Barbie's Stereotypes

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages

    At the start of Barbie, in the 1950s Barbie images was created in the likeness of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth and Elizabeth Taylor. Barbie’s image did not illustrate the way in which little girls dressed nor did it create an image that a little girl could model after. Barbie’s clothing when compared to women clothing of that time period were almost identical. Women in that time period were girdles, strapless bras, and half -slips. In the first edition of Barbie, she too had a girdle, two strapless bras, and a half slip. The items of clothing that Barbie wore, were not the items that little girls wore.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 2006, American women have many career and lifestyle choices available to them, but it wasn't always that way. For four generations now, young American girls have learned what society expects from them through the eyes of a 12-inch molded plastic doll. Since her introduction in 1959, Mattel's Barbie doll has epitomized, and in many cases, led the way in the changing roles of women in contemporary American society. With her stunning good looks, expensive sports cars, flashy designer wardrobe, handsome boyfriend, and varied careers, Barbie has served, for better or worse, as the ultimate role model for young girls for over 40 years; and has become a cultural icon that has consistently represented contemporary American society.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Barbies are one of the dolls in today’s world that can be seen as both a positive learning tool and a negative way of how girls see themselves. To children, especially young girls Barbies are seen as role model, the Barbie is something that children can look up to. Barbies have a wide range of jobs; including: astronaut, nurse, veterinarian, police officer, chef, surfer, princess, fashion designer, rock star, olympian, and many more. Instead of Barbies only teaching the idea of running a household, the doll has opened up a whole new field of different things that a young girl can aspire…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What toy has everything anyone could ever ask for? (Pause for 2 seconds) If you are thinking of Barbie, then you are correct. Barbie was my favorite toy as a child and it still is for many little girls today. Today, I am going to talk about how Barbie was designed, how she has changed over the years, and how Barbie affects American culture. Here is Barbie’s story.…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Barbie Stereotypes

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The most important thing developing at that age is their imagination. Barbie acts as a gateway to new stories and adventures for young girls. The new clothes, shoes and gadgets provide a change of pace for them. And what little girl did not think of herself as a mother when she was dressing and feeding their Barbie doll; but I mean God forbid 5 year old girls view themselves as anything other than the “modern woman”. Parents are so quick to put their children in a box these days in order to ensure that in the future they are well adjusted to those boxes. And then when the box does not quite fit their children in the way they had hoped they panic and take to their blogs and invent the new parental craze like blaming a toy that their children does not even play with anymore to explain their poor adjusted…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Young girls who play with Barbie aspire to be like her, they see it as the pinnacle of femininity, womanhood, and prettiness. Even unconsciously, girls who play with Barbie are dressing her up in pretty clothes, acting out their fantasies with this beautiful character. They will see that this is because Barbie is ‘perfect', and will see it as how they will want to…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Barbie's New Stereotypes

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The advertisement I picked for my essay is the front cover of a Time magazine showing a Barbie doll in a black dress and wearing black boots. The Barbie doll is in a walking pose with her head a little tilted down, and arms behind her back. Her hair is long, blonde, and straight. Her body is different than from the traditional BARBIE doll, it’s not like the rest of the dolls, this one is different. The front cover of the magazine also include words such as “Now can we stop talking about my body?” and “What Barbie's new shape says about American beauty.”…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 1950's Barbie Doll

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Today, Barbie is the most popular doll in the world. She is a worldwide fashion muse and pop culture icon for girls all ages. The Barbie doll has been a controversial toy that has changed over the years. These changes have been due to changing fashions, careers, interests and beliefs over the decade’s occupations, and ethnicity has been very obvious over the years but even her face and body has changed. But, since the beginning of time, toys have been an indicator of the way society behaves, and how they interact with their children.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Parents see themselves as a protector for their child in particular their daughters. The guardians of the child are over thinking the idea that Barbie is some kind of sex symbol. A parent who allows their child to watch television is more in danger of a bad influence, than a toy named Barbie. Motz exclaims “a girl playing with a Barbie doll can envision herself with a mature body.” And later in the same paragraph “focusing on bodily changes of the female body associated with puberty, of course to the and of puberty girl do not know.” (Motz paragraph 5 pg 17) Girls in this group understand Barbie is a character and is fictional. Real danger of influence runs deep in music artist and television characters. Groups, artists, and television characters such as Hannah Montana currently known as Miley Cyrus, Spice Girls who wore scantly clad clothing in the 1990’s, along with some famous artist like Brittney Spears, and the list of negative influences could go on and on. These are real threats to a developing females mental state. Their real and they are everywhere.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Girl” & Barbie Doll

    • 2455 Words
    • 10 Pages

    In the past, women were always considered the subordinate gender that was expected to powder their nose and stay at home to be a homemaker. Even now, despite the movement to liberate women from stereotypical gender roles, women are still seen as the inferior gender that is discriminated against in society. As suggested by the popular Barbie doll created by Mattel, the idealized image of a woman in our patriarchal society is one who takes care of the home and is flawlessly beautiful with perfect skin, long legs, small waist, and slender figure. The Barbie doll is used as a tool for patriarchy in that it reinforces the notion that women should be domestic workers and maintain a feminine outer appearance. Also, patriarchal values affect girls starting at a young age as they unconsciously begin to believe that Barbie is what a woman should look and be like. With the appeal and popularity of this doll for the past several years, it is difficult to alter the notions of womanhood suggested by this doll. This implies that patriarchy is something we can not permanently overthrow because it is so deeply rooted in our society.…

    • 2455 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Islam and Barbie

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages

    One of the reasons why Barbie was so popular in both France and Middle East is because most people living in those countries are able to afford such a high priced doll for their little kids. It also acts as a status symbol for a parent who could buy such an expensive doll for their kids. The representation of Barbie as a pretty little doll make every kids want to be like her and this is another reason why it is famous in France. Since there are various version of Barbie with different outfits and different styles, it became a collectible item rather than just a doll. It is not only able to attract children, but also the older generation who collect it as a hobby. Other than that, Barbie is popular because of the number of different looks and styles that have been produced for her over the years.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays