From: Maia
Childhood is a very important stage
of life because it is when individuals really start to develop a sense of
“self”. Children are very malleable and any outside stimulus can have influence
on later development. Even things that society does not think of, such as toys
children play with, can alter serious future decisions such as career choice.
Many little girls are introduced to Barbie at a very young age. My photograph
shows some of the careers that Barbie is depicted of having including: nurse,
wife, mother, elementary-school teacher, and baker as opposed to doctor,
professor, chef, or many other careers with more status among society. Since
many girls are brought up playing with Barbie these are the careers that they
are exposed to and in turn aspire to be. My photograph is in color to show the
massive amount of pink that is also associated with the dolls and the aisle as
a whole. Walking down the Barbie aisle you are immediately enveloped in pink
and sparkles. All of the packaging is pink; the furniture that comes with the
dolls is all pink, the clothes they wear have pink in them, if not all pink.
This represents a total idea of complete femininity with no masculine aspects
even scratching the surface. The
background of my photograph has holes in it to represent the aspect of life
these dolls can leave both girls and women without. Playing with Barbie can
lead girls into believing that in order to be feminine and desirable they must
want nothing less than the most girly things they can find and make them
believe that more high-power jobs are undesirable and should be left for men. The
bride, mother, and vanity Barbies are the biggest and positioned at the bottom
to show that these are the most desired positions and the most ideal for women.
If women do decide to leave the home to pursue a career they should stick to
things such as nurse, schoolteacher, or baker in order to keep up domestic
abilities. Finally, there is a black border around the photo to symbolize entrapment.
Surrounding little girls with these “ideal women” and nothing else can lead
them to feel as if they must stick with the norms rather than branching out and
following their dreams. They may begin to feel as if they have no other choice
than to pursue these low-status jobs because that is what they grew up
imagining they should be and thinking that anything else would leave them as
less than a woman.
1 comment:
I totally agree with this person and their photo. The toys that children play with shape them and teach them roles that they need to be when they grow up. So even though we are telling our children, especially girls, that they can be whatever they want when they grow up if we are giving them Barbie’s to play with we are reinforcing a different message. A message that yes girls can be Doctors and Professors yet when a woman actually sets out to get this job she is downgraded to a more female appropriate version, such as a nurse or an elementary school teacher. There is also the teachings that a girl needs to look good doing everything in her life, she needs to look good in order to get a boyfriend, her prince charming or Ken. Barbie is also almost always white with blonde hair and has her makeup and hair done at all times. There is a noticeable lack of diversity in the dolls. If the doll has different colored hair or a different skin color it isn’t very common. This is teaching girls the standard for beauty is a skinny white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, which is not true. Also the amount of pink used in these dolls, girls toys in general, is extreme. Toy companies are reinforcing that pink is solely a girl color. Boys will not like something based off the fact that it is pink and girls will sometimes only like something because it is pink. Barbie in general reinforces extreme stereotypes.
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