Excerpt: Barbie Doll Culture and the American Waistland

Cunningham, Kamy. [1993] 2005. "Barbie Doll Culture and the American Waistland". Pp. 39-42 in Understanding Society, 2nd ed., edited by Margaret L. Andersen, Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.

Reflecting on ideals of beauty, Cunningham describes American culture's (current) obsession with long legs and skinny waists on women. The problem, she says, is advertising: "Advertising is so dominate... that 'its messages are the only ones being heard'".

She talks about Barbie dolls with their unrealistic proportions, a giant statue of Cleopatra at Caesar's Palace and the Las Vegas showgirls, the dolled-up "clone women" from Pepsi commercials and MTV videos, and the emotionally and mentally childish Vanna White to demonstrate the prevalence of the one specific image of ideal beauty we see daily, wherever we go, and wherever we look.

This article has little point except to criticize the "plastic. Manufactured. Artificial. Unreal" women who sell their appearance for success and have no brains or personal character. In doing so, it inadvertently asks us to consider ideal types as they pertain to culture, and how images of beauty may be conveyed to express them.

I expect to read much more on the subject of beauty ideals and how they harm women as I read through my course packet on Communication and Gender. I'll have more to say then.

Relevance: 3/5 (neutral)
Salience: 2/5 (trivial)

References:

• none.