Playing Devil's Advocate with Barbies

This week, we examined about how toys affect the way society views how certain societies should behave. In the Barbie the author found that the doll was “made by men for men” to create a standard of how each women should be like and what kind of lifestyle they should have. We as a class determined that since all these things seemed against equality, that Barbie was anti-feminist. Although we have reached this conclusion, I feel like we did not look at every possibility, which led me to play as devil’s advocate. I still believe that when Barbie was first developed that it was made to set a standard by men for women. Although now after some research I think that the company itself is trying to stop that one sided view. When looking at the 2014 Collection of Barbies, new Barbie models are introduced such as , entrepreneur dolls including 4 races :White (It doesn’t say it’s a white doll it just says Barbie), African American, Asian, and Hispanic. Possibly, this could be the turn around that Barbie needs in order to show that they can defeat the stereotype of the modern day women. When I saw that there was some diversity in the new line-up, I began looking for more that would help prove my point. However, when I dug deeper only more stereotypes began to rise. The good news is that Barbie is at least trying something to be more diverse, the bad news is that they are doing way to little. 

If you want to check it out yourself:

http://www.barbiecollector.com/showcase/category/2014-collection