Hermenuetics

Comments

I don't believe that the Barbie dolls we played with as kids had much to do with who we became as women. However, television marketing schemes aimed at children, combined with parents who are not engaged, will definitely have an effect on how girls, and kids in general, develop.

It seems to be more and more difficult for Christian parents to counteract the influence of popular culture. This latest marketing scheme involving Barbie and Ken is just one more example.

Posted By: Suzy | February 15, 2011 10:44 AM

I agree and think that the way that Barbie & Ken are represented is a commentary on our culture and times. While a more feminist movement has critiqued the shape & body image that Barbie can portray on young girls, I think that now there is another factor at work, hitting to the core of many women in the 21st century.

That is the feeling like we need to be a well-balance woman, educated, beautiful, nurturing and fun loving. We need to be supermoms that balance a career and caring for family. There is the pressure not only to look the part of Barbie, but also play all of the roles. In this day in age, I think there is a lot of pressure to "Become our Best Self"- should there be any moment when Ken may not enter the picture, or should he depart- we need to stand on our own two feet. This shows where our hope is placed- not in Christ, but in a shaky version of our idealized self.

Posted By: Ashley Jackson | February 15, 2011 11:35 AM

I agree and think that the way that Barbie & Ken are represented is a commentary on our culture and times. While a more feminist movement has critiqued the shape & body image that Barbie can portray on young girls, I think that now there is another factor at work, hitting to the core of many women in the 21st century.

That is the feeling like we need to be a well-balance woman, educated, beautiful, nurturing and fun loving. We need to be supermoms that balance a career and caring for family. There is the pressure not only to look the part of Barbie, but also play all of the roles. In this day in age, I think there is a lot of pressure to "Become our Best Self"- should there be any moment when Ken may not enter the picture, or should he depart- we need to stand on our own two feet. This shows where our hope is placed- not in Christ, but in a shaky version of our idealized self.

Posted By: Ashley | February 15, 2011 11:45 AM

You know, I grew up with Barbie dolls. Loved them.
But my hubby will not allow them in our house.
Not that I am dieing to have them for my girls.
It's fine with me if they never have them.
I just think that family and community have more affect on people than their toys. ;)

Posted By: Linda | February 15, 2011 12:21 PM

I'm curious - I played with Barbies a lot when I was growing up - I loved my Barbies and they were everything _I_ wanted them to be. I never looked at Barbie and thought that was how I was supposed to look growing up. She was who I wanted her to be, it never occurred to me I was supposed to be like her. Are there others out there like me?

Posted By: Leslie | February 15, 2011 12:30 PM

Leslie, I'm with you. I never once wanted to be like Barbie. She was a doll. Who wants to be a doll?
I didn't even like many of the clothes, being hard to put on and often silly looking. It was more fun to make my own.

Posted By: Penny | February 15, 2011 12:43 PM

Leslie and Penny, me too. It was just a doll, I am perfectly healthy, happy and proud of the way I look...not at all worried that I didn't turn out like Barbie.
As for my daughter, she has all kinds of dolls, Bratz, Barbie, Only Hearts, and doesn't seem to have a complex about her looks, she is only 4, but I think some of that also has to do with my attitude towards looks. She doesn't see me looking at myself with disappointment and shame. We try to instill that her self-worth is based on being a child of God and nothing else.

Posted By: jessica | February 15, 2011 12:55 PM

I agree with Leslie and Penny. I never thought I should be like Barbie. I never even realized that such controversy surrounded Barbie until I was older (and not playing with her anymore). Barbie--like most toys--became what I wanted her to be, not vice versa. Real people with real voices had more of an effect on me.

Posted By: Shannon | February 15, 2011 12:56 PM

My daughter Sarah absolutely loved Barbies and had many of them, plus accessories. And the other women are right: Barbie is who YOU want her to be. Sarah had her Barbies act out HER ideas and dreams. Barbies became characters in Sarah's dramas. They were the characters in movies that she was watching, or tapes that she listened to. One time when she was listening to a children's story about Antonio Vivaldi, she had them all lined up on the sofa, and then suddenly she knocked them all down. I asked her why. She said, in her pre-school wisdom, "Well, it says that 'they all fell silent.'"
Barbies were part of Sarah's imagination. She later became a teenage award winning poet and playwright, studied theater while in high school, directed summer theater and had leading roles in college plays. No, theater isn't her career goal (psychology/counseling/social work is), but she has quite an imagination in fiction, poetry, theater, acting and journalism, and Barbie played a role in that development. Barbie didn't shape Sarah. Sarah made Barbie into whoever and whatever Sarah wanted Barbie to be. Unrealistic Barbie appearances, in my opinion, are no more damaging or influential than having a stuffed animal with giant eyes or pink fur. They are just toys.

Posted By: Maryann E | February 15, 2011 2:08 PM

Yeah. There's a reason Barbie is not allowed in our home. Far, far from a wholesome toy for our children. And that's not even going into the commercialism aspects.

Posted By: Robyn | February 15, 2011 2:56 PM

A stuffed animal is not a representation of a human being. It doesn't contribute to the normative experiences our children have in toys and are BOMBARDED by in the media.

The average American child sees 20,000 advertisements PER YEAR. 99% of them portray the "ideal" of female beauty in our culture.

12,000 Botox injections were given to teens aged 13-19yo in 2009.

43,000 teens under the age of 18 had their appearance surgically altered in 2008.

48% of girls in grades 3-12 polled in 2000 asserted the most popular girls in school were “very thin”. By 2006 that number had risen to 60%.

60% of girls in grades 9-12 surveyed in 2006 were attempting to lose weight; only 10% of these same girls were considered medically overweight.

Percentage of 8-12 year old girls who regularly used eyeliner doubled between 2008 and 2010.

Nearly half of girls between the ages of 6-9yo regularly use lipstick or lip gloss.

$40 million a month: Amount of money 8-12yo girls spend on beauty products. A month.

Age at which children express “brand consciousness”: 24 months.

I just don't think all these things are coincidence. Some may simply attribute it to bad or absent parenting, but I believe we can see these stats played out in our own communities and churches. Barbie may not be the *central* reason for such things, but I believe she contributes to it. That's why I don't allow my children to play with her. Or Bratz--talk about the most highly sexualized children's doll ever. Children's early experiences contribute to their normative view of the world, despite denials. It's important to me that my kids not absorb such messages. (We don't have commercial television in our home either.)

Here is a link to the American Psychological Association's report on the sexualization of girls. Please pay special attention to pages 4-14 re: cultural influences, and page 13, which specifically addresses DOLLS.

Posted By: Robyn | February 15, 2011 3:14 PM

Leslie, I agree. I loved my Barbies (and still collect some of the character Barbies, like "Phantom of the Opera" and "My Fair Lady"). But it never even would have occurred to me to feel inferior because they had an unrealistic body type! :-) As you said, they were who I wanted them to be, and no more.

Maybe little girls are tougher and more resilient than we give them credit for!

Posted By: Gina | February 15, 2011 3:33 PM

I guess I really missed the point of my Barbie dolls. All I ever wanted to do was build furniture for them out of my dad's scrap lumber.

Posted By: Sheila | February 15, 2011 4:13 PM

I loved Barbies as a child, but I agree with the sentiments above that Barbie was who I wanted her to be, not vice versa. And I must be seriously out of the loop, because I had no idea that Barbie and Ken "broke up", though I did take advantage of their "back together" status to buy a set on Amazon.com today for my daughter for Christmas for $5! :) http://amzn.to/gO7Sns

Posted By: Ashley Pichea | February 15, 2011 4:28 PM

Barbie is absorbed in her own image, carrers and accessories. Ken is there as a stand by for when he is needed, but I do not think children are getting this same message. I am very wary about giving my girls Barbie dolls because it might cause some tension with materialism, self-image and theology later in life. I do not want my little girls finding their self-worth in their carrers or fashion. On the other hand, I do not believe Barbie is teaching girls to find their self-worth in men either. There is a balanced give and take on either end.

Posted By: Stephanie | February 16, 2011 6:53 AM

I don't know why the link was deleted, but here is the link to the American Psychological Journal's report on the sexualization of girls.

http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf

Posted By: Robyn | February 17, 2011 9:53 AM