Hey guys, I am new on this forum and I would really appreciate some feedback on my essay. The prompt asks the student to address an issue of personal, local, national, or international importance and its signifigance to the student.Thank you!
I sat surrounded by a sea of "perfect" women, and by that I mean women that were supposed to be 5'7, 115 pounds, and blonde. These fashionable women were dressed to kill; wearing head to toe designer labels, carrying only the trendiest bags, and sporting a manicured hand. Their plastic teeth glittered with superficiality. The flood of Barbie Dolls that had inundated the floor should have been an innocuous, every day event when babysitting six year old girls, but I found the lack of diversity among the dolls appalling. At least 90% of the dolls were blonde and white! I glanced at the girls I was babysitting, trying to imagine what they saw in these flawless and synthetic (did these two words always go together?) role models.
My day of babysitting did not only consist of playing Barbies; I did the girls' makeup and hair, painted their nails, and finished the day with a game of dress up. The common theme of the day seemed to be, "Am I pretty?" or "Will I look like this when I grow up?". On some level, I felt like I was enforcing the stereotype of women as shallow, and breeding them to be eye candy. Was I arbitrating the continuance of woman's dependence on men? I did my best to keep the girls pleased, while at the same time, stay true to my own set of values. I felt an overwhelming urge to erase all gender stereotypes and preconceived notion of what girls "should be" and what they "should look like", but I had to acknowledge my role was to babysit these girls, not baptize them. Although I knew I would not change the world though this one instance alone, I was aware of the positive impact I could have on these girls' self-esteem and sense of worth. I told the girls that they would never be "just pretty", a line I had heard used by various feminist groups, because they would also be pretty intelligent,pretty resourceful, and pretty caring. They still wanted to be pretty, but were coming around to the idea of a life beyond prettiness. After the game of dress up, they even told me they wanted to read a book! I smiled as I put the Barbie Dolls back into the chest and reached for the bookshelf
Women are still being brought up to believe trivial values determine their self-worth, as evidenced by the young girls' obsession with beauty. This beauty is one-dimensional, as the homogeneity of the Barbie-dolls proves. This epidemic has devastating consequences, ranging from eating disorders to sexism to intolerance. The ideals that young children embrace are reflective of society as a whole. As long as young, thin Caucasian women dominate prime-time television and magazine covers, this "standard of beauty" will remain the norm and trickle down to the ideologies of young girls. I don't want Barbie Dolls to act as guides for our youngest generation, because women are more than just a pretty face.
I sat surrounded by a sea of "perfect" women, and by that I mean women that were supposed to be 5'7, 115 pounds, and blonde. These fashionable women were dressed to kill; wearing head to toe designer labels, carrying only the trendiest bags, and sporting a manicured hand. Their plastic teeth glittered with superficiality. The flood of Barbie Dolls that had inundated the floor should have been an innocuous, every day event when babysitting six year old girls, but I found the lack of diversity among the dolls appalling. At least 90% of the dolls were blonde and white! I glanced at the girls I was babysitting, trying to imagine what they saw in these flawless and synthetic (did these two words always go together?) role models.
My day of babysitting did not only consist of playing Barbies; I did the girls' makeup and hair, painted their nails, and finished the day with a game of dress up. The common theme of the day seemed to be, "Am I pretty?" or "Will I look like this when I grow up?". On some level, I felt like I was enforcing the stereotype of women as shallow, and breeding them to be eye candy. Was I arbitrating the continuance of woman's dependence on men? I did my best to keep the girls pleased, while at the same time, stay true to my own set of values. I felt an overwhelming urge to erase all gender stereotypes and preconceived notion of what girls "should be" and what they "should look like", but I had to acknowledge my role was to babysit these girls, not baptize them. Although I knew I would not change the world though this one instance alone, I was aware of the positive impact I could have on these girls' self-esteem and sense of worth. I told the girls that they would never be "just pretty", a line I had heard used by various feminist groups, because they would also be pretty intelligent,pretty resourceful, and pretty caring. They still wanted to be pretty, but were coming around to the idea of a life beyond prettiness. After the game of dress up, they even told me they wanted to read a book! I smiled as I put the Barbie Dolls back into the chest and reached for the bookshelf
Women are still being brought up to believe trivial values determine their self-worth, as evidenced by the young girls' obsession with beauty. This beauty is one-dimensional, as the homogeneity of the Barbie-dolls proves. This epidemic has devastating consequences, ranging from eating disorders to sexism to intolerance. The ideals that young children embrace are reflective of society as a whole. As long as young, thin Caucasian women dominate prime-time television and magazine covers, this "standard of beauty" will remain the norm and trickle down to the ideologies of young girls. I don't want Barbie Dolls to act as guides for our youngest generation, because women are more than just a pretty face.
