From: Emily
When a child is growing up, they idealize many things such as looking pretty and fitting into society. Most young females look up to Barbie as to how they should look, which is very unrealistic. Barbie always has the perfect face of makeup and a slim figure. Barbie gives off false pretenses what a perfect girl should look like, when in reality every body is a perfect body. When taking this image I focused on my gaze, the accentuation my waist, the comparison of Barbie and I, and the focus of the foreground/background.
Creative elements of a picture are very important to how the viewer interprets the image. In the image I took I focused on how I was portraying my emotion; this would be an example of gaze. The goal was to display a feeling of contempt and sadness and/or the feeling to be something I am not. Symbolism is characterized as the use of objects to display a different meeting then what is literal. I used a Barbie to display the unrealistic beauty standard that society has imposed on young girls. Barbie has this perfect little body that society expect everyone to have and if they do not, they are not seen as desirable. In the background of the image, I was layering on makeup to try to make myself more doll like, something that society expects. The clothes I was wearing emphasized my smaller waist which society hypersexualizes as typical feminine thing. The pink shorts and the pink shirt represent how pink is deemed more a feminine color. I included Barbie in the foreground because I wanted her to be the focus of the image, she was the most prominent thing.
In the article, “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood”, we learned the toy have such an impact on how children learn social roles. The article goes into detail about how gender schemas influence all children beginning in early childhood through adolescents into adulthood. An individual's perspective about sex and gender is determined by the gender schema in which he or she lives. The article explains the boys tend to play with toys that have an aggressive demeanor while girls tend to play with softer/ submissive toy. “Gender schemas become part of self-identity, influencing children’s preferences, attitudes, and behavior as they strive to act in socially appropriate masculine or feminine way (Rudman, 59).” These toys teach girls and boys the expected gender roles of society. Girl toys tend to focus on how girls are expected to look and how they should want to fall into a maternal role. Even with Barbies, there is a child-sized doll that Barbie mothers. Girls will go through great measures just to be compared to their Barbie doll in the slightest. I have even experienced the consequence of playing with Barbies and other toys like that myself. When I was little, I’d always play with Barbie, and as I got older thought that is how I should look. I began to limit myself with how much I would eat, so I would gain that tiny little waist that Barbies had. I would always ensure my makeup was done every time I left my house. Barbie put an unrealistic lens on my life that society deemed acceptable.
Works Cited
Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The
Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of
Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press,
2015, 59-63.
2 comments:
Growing up, I compared myself to Barbie and always hoped I looked like her when I was older. Now, as an Adult, I always need to wear makeup, have blonde hair, and cute outfits to feel pretty. Society has encouraged this behavior in children through toys like Barbies. I could understand your point by just looking at the photo. You are trying to turn yourself into looking like Barbie. It was clever to make it seem like you are having difficulties conforming to Barbie. It shows how it is impossible to turn yourself into a barbie. I like how Barbie is the main focus in the photo because she is in the foreground, while you are more in the background. This puts more of an emphasis on Barbie and her appearance. Very smart to incorporate the color pink into both outfits because it represents how some colors are used for marketing toward a particular group. It is also fascinating how her shirt is a very short top and skirt. It teaches children to sexualize their bodies and outfits at a very young age. I appreciate your opening up about how Barbie has affected your self-image by changing your eating to receive a smaller waist. Many toys have had this effect on children. This effect is significant because it can stay with children for almost their entire lives. Through toys like Barbie, society creates unrealistic standards such as having a tiny waist, always having the best outfit, constantly wearing makeup, and having blonde hair and blue eyes.
From Natalie Hughes
Your image alone got the point across. My image was similar. Media paints this image as if the right way for a woman to look is like a “barbie” and that’s not true. Even nowadays women and social media influencers are having major surgeries to get the “perfect” body. No woman is the perfect woman, everyone holds their own beauty. The color pink was a key color in this picture because pink is usually used to identify “femininity”. Depending on how the child is raised will determine what traits that child inherits when it comes to identifying gender roles. Although there are boy barbies such as the Ken doll men don’t really care or focus too much on trying to have their body look like what the media wants it to be. Most men aren’t insecure when they don’t look like a toy. Another key factor in this picture is that both the barbie and you are looking directly in mirror which gives off you are mirroring the barbie. Most Barbie dolls are always made with nice long hair and have different fashionable clothes which are given the impression that to maintain that image you have to have a fashionable closet as well as your hair and makeup always done. In reality, that is not the case women we know that some days we like to chill and relax in our most comfortable selves and natural bodies.
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