Chapter Three & Barbie

My friend and I read this chapter together and it sparked a lot of conversation among us. It really emphasizes all of the thing that we are talking about in my Women in Popular Culture class as well about how Women's roles in society are considered less important or are given less worth than men's. One thing that we really enjoyed was the small blurb about how girls are expected to play with Barbies and that Barbies represent the ideal of what those little girls should aspire to be when they grow up. We decided to look up barbie. We noted that Barbie when she first came out was 5'9'' and only 110 pounds. She has gotten even worse since then. Her measurements are ridiculous with a bust of 39 a waist of 18 and hips of around 33 inches. There is a 1 in 1000000 chance that someone will actually have the equivalent measurements of a Barbie. However, this is what every little girl is supposed to be striving for. Although Barbie has had some empowering jobs in the past such as Astronaut or Vet. if you go look in a typical target or Walmart you will most likely find her in a ball gown, a swimsuit, or as a baby sitter, an expectant mother, or as a fairy. In fact when Barbie was invented she was supposed to be a fashion model and was labeled by the outfits she wore rather than her occupation or life accomplishments. This doesn't exactly seem like my ideal role model.