Conces

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Timothy Conces
Professor Kathy Rowley
English 201-22
16th February 2015
Reader Response:
Ideal Image of Perfection
Todays society visualizes the perfect woman as being similar to Barbie, the
blonde bombshell doll with a perfect face, tall, and skinny. In her article From
Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference Ann DuCille explores how
Dolls in particular invite children to replicate them, to imagine themselves in their dolls
images (DuCille 530). Which is extremely bad for a young childs self image, because
they try to imitate and look just as pretty and perfect as the dolls.
Shockingly children of race will more likely choose a white Barbie doll instead of
one of color. DuCille notes that, When given a choice between a white doll and a black
doll, nearly 70 percent of the black children in the study chose the white doll. (DuCille
535) She continues to explain that, 76 percent of the children interviewed said that the
black dolls looked bad to them (DuCille 535). Showing that young girls will choose to
play with what they see is beautiful, and they will strive to become what they see is
perfection, and is widely unattainable. DuCille explains that if Barbie was a real woman
her weight and proportions would be incredibly unrealistic, she would be around 5'6"
tall 110 pounds and a top-heavy 391833 (DuCille 541).

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With Barbie being such a popular toy for children of all ages, most dont see it as
a problem. Mainly because of all the environments she has been involved in, namely, the
president, teacher, doctor, and so many others. Showing young women that they can be
anything they want. But showing women that beautiful is Barbies perfect body is
extremely bad for there youthful egos. If Barbie were to create more dolls of different
sizes and races the adolescents would see that people come in a shapes and sizes and all
are beautiful.