Tonights metanarrative about the perception of female Disney characters reminded me of the days when I learned what Barbie Dolls were all about. I imagined that every woman should be a vuluptous woman who had a slender figure with prom queen hair.
Much to my disappointment, not all women looked like the Barbie Dolls and Disney ladies that I once watched on TV and seen in magazines. So why did I think this? Was I living in my own fantasyland? Of course I was. Disney, Mattel and others were able to capitalize on their marketing schemes that captivated young men with grand delusions of tall, vuluptous women. While destroying the self esteem and confidence of young girls and ladies that did not look like the figurine models and princess that both Disney and Mattel portrayed in their characters that they created and presented to the public and the world.
So why is it that we have manufacturers of products and propaganda that wants to create these images of what women should look like. Why can't our princecess and Barbie Dolls be short, fat, tall, skinny, or anything other then tall, slim, and endowed? Perhaps they have a prejudicial bias towards such physical appearance and stereotypical entitlements such as being a princess who will be swept off her feet into Paradise by her handsome, charming, tall, good looking Prince.
Is this the message we want our kids to see and learn? Of course not, our children should learn that we all have different appearance, different opportunities and that not all people are privileged. Perhaps we should portray young ladies that become independent and become role models to their siblings and peers. Perhaps we should show people immigrating to America and making their dreams come true through hard work and dedication to their goals. Very few of us will live the fairy tale dream. So what we once fantasized about, we eventually became depressed and discouraged about. Most of us didn't become the Prince or Princess. So did Disney fail us, or did Disney give us something to strive for? Some would say they failed and others would say why would we want to strive towards something that is not even a reality. Either way, their capitalistic view of what women should look like has had it's toll on the perception of society about what a woman "should" look like according to Disney and Mattel and not according to the Norms of our society and the "real world!" Even then, I sure would like to date a few more Barbie Dolls and Princesses, I wonder why??? ;-)
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Poor guy! What a shock to reach puberty and all of a sudden look around to see that real women don't look anything like Barbi!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, this is a very interesting question. While we talked in class about the effect the Barbi image has had on women - what about the effect it has had on men, and certainly upon how men value women who don't meet the standard. In other words, how do we evaluate a '10' over a '6'? What particular features have men been socialized to recognize that distinguish a '10' over a '6'? Do men treat '10s' differently than they do '6s'?