Barbie Essay -- essays papers

BarbieSince the stickning of time, toys have often been an index of the way a society behaves, and how they interact with their youngsterren. For example, in ancient Greece, artifacts vul tin canised there testify that children were simply not given toys to play with as in the modern world. The cruel ritual of leaving a down(p) child on a hillside for dead, namems to indicate a lack of tending to the young (Lord 16). The same is true of todays society. As you can see with the number of toy stores in our society, we find toys of great take to be to our lives and enjoy giving them to children as gifts. Ask just about both young girl what she wants for Christmas and youll undoubtedly learn the same answer A Barbie. But what exactly has caused this baby boomer Barbie craze, and how did the entire world get so caught up in it? The answer lies in Ruth four-in-hands vision for the first childrens adult doll. Mrs. Handlers eleven and one-half-inch chunk of shaping began c ausing problems even before its public debut in 1959, yet has managed to become one of the Statess favorite dolls. Ruth Handler and her two young children, Barbara and Ken, were but sightseeing in Lucerne, Switzerland, when Mrs. Handler first saw the doll she herself had been try to create (Lord 29). In the window of a small gift sell was an eleven and one-half-inch tall plastic doll with a slender cleaning womans body and a long blond ponytail. Her name was Lilli ( lousy young lady 1). She had been created from a cartoon character in a double-u German tabloid similar to the National Inquirer (Lord 8). Dressed provocatively, and with a seductive look in her eye, Lilli had become a popular pornographic gag gift for men ( seriously Girl 1). Excited to see her long-time idea a reality, Mrs. Handler bought three of the dolls and hurried home to begin work on her own doll ( disobedient Girl 2). It was 1956, and inside three years, Mattel Creations began marketing the teenag e fashion model as a saucy kind of doll from real life (Tosa 30). The new doll, deemed Barbie, was named later her own daughter Barbara, whos umteen years of play with musical composition dolls had actually inspired her to begin designing the three-dimensional adult doll (Lord 30). Though Mrs. Handlers version of the doll was not as racy or alluring as Lilli, her imitation of the German slattern would come back to haunt her many years later (Bad ... ...body and a new focus, she has plans to become even more spectacular with many new adventures and many new friends. Barbies new look includes a wider waist, smaller hips, a less torpedo-like bust, and flat rather than pointy-toed feet (Bad Girl 3). She is also playing an active role in new research in prosthetics. Jane Bahor, a woman who makes replacement body parts, had experimented with the plastic knee joints in Barbies legs. She has found that they work well as prosthetic fingers for her patients because they are more realistic-looking and useful. So far, Bahor has provided the replacement joints for more than a dozen of her patients and has been extremely successful in her studies (Bad Girl 27).As Barbie gets ready to turn the big 4-2, it is unreal to think that she has accomplished her last makeover. No doubt that as time changes and peoples attitudes towards life change, this timely doll will also be coerce to adjust to the needs of society. With more than 75 successful careers, her own decreed website, and a namesake magazine, this little doll has become more than a childs plaything. Whether we love her or hate her, she will always be a part of us all.