The Barbie Doll Effect
I read the work on Our Barbies, Ourselves by Emily Prager. This work expresses the feelings Prager has towards Barbie dolls; both as a child and as an adult. Prager describes how Barbie was designed by Jack Ryan, a male who had designed Sparrow and Hawk missiles for the Raytheon Company. She goes on to describe how since Barbie was designed by a man that she "she'd fall flat on her face" due to the fact that she is miss-proportioned, and how this made sense since she was designed by a man, and not a woman. Prager then goes into more detail about how Jack Ryan is sexist because Barbie shows more "cleavage" than her counter part Ken. Then she goes on a bit deeper about how since Ken didn't have male genitals when his clothes were removed, just a hump of plastic to give you the general idea. She the talks more about how Barbie shows more "cleavage" than Ken does, and how this is as to be expected of a male designer. Prager then expresses a sense of relief because she was designed by Jack Ryan, expressing that if it would have been designed by a woman it wouldn't be the Barbie we know and love today. Prager puts Barbie in a category with Playboy Playmates and guest on The Howard Stern Show. Prager also makes a hypothetical accusation
In reading this work I also could not help but think Jack Ryan isn't the one being sexist here, it was Prager. Prager only expresses her own personal views and not the views that the opposite sex, or even other females who had a view on Barbie. Prager had some strong points about Barbie, but also lacked some facts. Prager left out the possibility that Barbie might have been looked at for her strong positive attitude, and joy she brought upon young girls who really didn't have any other options for a play thing, and wasn't looked upon by everyone as the problem with today's modern woman. When reading this work I completely had a different standing point on the subject than Prager. I felt that she misinterpreted what exactly Barbie was, and why she was designed. I understood her frustration with Jack Ryan for not making Barbie a little more like the average woman, but couldn't help but completely disagree with her about Ken's standings. This work is too critical of Ken and how he was designed. I for one do not believe that Ken should have been as anatomically correct as he was. Little girls do not need to be exposed to sexual propaganda at such an early age. If Mattelc had wanted Ken to have genitals they would have either put them there or released a more adult Barbie that could only be purchased by mature women. I do not believe that Jack intended to make Barbie look like a sex symbol to little girls, who would alter their minds into growing up and getting breast implant surgery to comple
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Approximate Word count = 1011
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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