How Barbie Changed the Meaning of Beauty

Of course Barbie was my favorite doll when I was young as any other girl. But I didn’t imagine in my whole life that when I will grow up, that I will see a live Barbie, walking, breathing, eat, and drink like us. and I think that from 20 or 30 years ago, no would imagine that this will happen, and that anyone want to look like something, even it was a famous actor, a doll, or even an animal, will go to transfer himself or herself to that thing that he want. I wonder what happened to the people? Why suddenly no one can accept the person who he/she is? Is that desires was already in our popular culture, and it comes to live to be true because the advanced technology which we had reached now? Or because of the media which puts a standards for women beauty and how the women should look like to gain the men satisfaction? During this analysis, I came to know why people do such things, I have also found a lot of interesting things that I have learned, and it changed my thoughts about beauty.

Best Theory that Related to Barbie and the Meaning of Beauty

During this course, I have learned a lot of theories which are Myth, Beliefs, Popular Icons, Stereotypes, Heroes, The Cult of Celebrity, and Formulas. I think that the best theory that related to how Barbie doll have changed the meaning of Beauty for some girls and women is The Cult of Celebrity and Popular Icons. Barbie have become a popular icon in our life, it became the example of the perfect beauty for women, and that’s because her perfect curved body, big lips, and the tall blond hair. Barbie made each girl, from the childhood and till growing up, want to look like her, because they think that is the girl which not having Barbie’s beauty, will not be accepted by her society, and she will be neglected.

My Findings

As I said before that I have found that is the best theories that related to Barbie doll was the popular icons, and the cult of celebrities. During this analysis I have found that a lot of people are suffering from the cult of celebrity.The first and famous one which have transformed herself to a live version of Barbie doll was Valeria the 21 old Ukranian girl, and followed by Justin Jedlica the 32 years old man which transformed himself to Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend. (RSVP magazine. n.d). And recently was Anastasia Shpagina a 19 years old girl from Odesa who spend every day about 2 hours putting makeup to look like a live doll, and others follow them and are trying to transfer themselves to live dolls, even by plastic surgeries or by makeup. (Kathy Cho. 2012).

Some of those people wanted to transfer themselves to dolls to have the perfect shape which dolls have, and others just want to be famous and to be surrounded by media and people, and that’s what called the cult of celebrity and fame. Those people want to do anything to be famous, whatever if this cost them to lose their own personality and identity. 

How I will think about the Meaning of Beauty Now

After my long analysis and researches about Barbie and beauty, I found that my thoughts will remain the same. I always say that is the real beauty which it comes from inside. The real beauty is living inside us, not in the perfect look, perfect body, and perfect everything. Of course I don’t mean that we should look ugly and ignore our external appearance, I mean that we should look acceptable, and if you want to be perfect, be perfect by your behavior, by your thoughts, and by your knowledge, I think that these things are most important than spending hours putting makeup or doing surgeries, to gain people’s satisfaction.

References

Cho. K. (2012). . Real-Life Doll Anastasia Stuns World With Extreme Makeup. Retrieved on October 17, 2012. Retrieved from http://iamcatwalk.com/fashion-features/real-life-doll-

RSVP magazine. (n.d). Real-Life Barbie Meets Her Ken, But They Don’t Hit It Off. Retrieved on Jun 14, 2013. Retrieved from http://rsvpmagazine.ie/real-life-barbie-meets-her-ken-but-