Semester Project - Are Barbies Too Perfect?

For my semester project I wanted to to focus on how woman are exposed other ways as well besides art  - through barbie dolls.  Since most girls grow up playing with these dolls, they get idea that their bodies image should mirror a barbie’s. These dolls create unrealistic body images that are no way near an actual woman’s body. Just like paintings from the early times, these dolls exploit women and focus greatly on their looks giving women reasons to be insecure about themselves. Several artists and researchers have focused on this topic and created works that show us these unrealistic, dream women little girls strive to become one day. If Barbie was made in to real life size and were to be human proportions, her measurements would be 39-18-33. There is a certain Barbie doll called the “I can be a doctor Barbie”. Sure this shows the intelligent side of Barbie, but this doctor is dressed somewhat differently than the doctors I’ve seen. Her scrubs are above her knees and she is wearing high heels. So no matter what a woman is doing, she needs to looks good with her short dress, make up and heels on.
Jocelyne Grivaud recreated real paintings of women through barbies and made them real life. In a painting by Man Ray in 1924 called “Violon D'ingres” a woman is shown again nude.  But when it was recreated with Barbies, we see it was a great copy, but her waist and hips were way smaller than the actual woman’s. No matter where we look, women are constantly exploited and are forced to have this unrealistic body image which mostly all women wish they could achieve. 

  

  

Here is a link to my essay 

Works Cited

"Barbie And Body Image .....The Connection." Barbie And Body Image .....The Connection. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.mirror-mirror.org/barbie-and-body-image.htm>.

"Barbie Body Image." - How Toys like Barbie Influence Our Body Image. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.teen-beauty-tips.com/barbie-body-image.html>.

"Barbie Ma Muse - Barbie Doll and Art - Barbie Doll's 50th Anniversary - 1959-2009." Barbie Ma Muse - Barbie Doll and Art - Barbie Doll's 50th Anniversary - 1959-2009. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.barbiemamuse.com/eng/index.php>.

Gray, Emma. "Barbie's Proportions On A Real Woman Are Mildly Terrifying (PHOTO)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Aug. 2012. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/06/barbie-real-woman-proportions-mildly-terrifying_n_1749204.html>.

"Le Violon D'Ingres (Ingres's Violin) (Getty Museum)." Le Violon D'Ingres (Ingres's Violin) (Getty Museum). N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=61240>.

Slayen, Galia. "The Scary Reality of a Real-Life Barbie Doll." The Huffington Post.         TheHuffingtonPost.com, 08 Apr. 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/galia-slayen/the-scary-reality-of-a-re_b_845239.html>.