People ask themselves why anorexia is becoming a problem in Romania. Well, I guess it has a lot to do with patterns we import from other countries. The most frequently seen are the dozens of women's magazines, containing clothes, makeup and diets and photos of very thin women. But it starts way sooner!
Those of you living in Bucharest have surely seen the Barbie magazine ads. I tried looking up a site of this magazine but failed. Anyway, the ad that always makes me mad is the one displayed at the entrace of the Brancoveanu metro station. It shows a 10 (12 maximum) year old girl, with a complicated hairdo, makeup and a really tight dress. She is trying a sexy look (yes, I am serious) and it simply looks scary to me.
The slogan is "Barbie, your best friend". Is that the friend mothers want for their daughters? A skinny looking doll whose proportions are physically impossible? And who allowed that girl to be photographed like that? Does she not have a mother? Is she not too young to be trapped in the shallowness of how important looks are?
Teenagers are the most common victims of eating disorders. Maybe more of us should thing twice before making models out of our young girls and before buying them such magazines.
Those of you living in Bucharest have surely seen the Barbie magazine ads. I tried looking up a site of this magazine but failed. Anyway, the ad that always makes me mad is the one displayed at the entrace of the Brancoveanu metro station. It shows a 10 (12 maximum) year old girl, with a complicated hairdo, makeup and a really tight dress. She is trying a sexy look (yes, I am serious) and it simply looks scary to me.
The slogan is "Barbie, your best friend". Is that the friend mothers want for their daughters? A skinny looking doll whose proportions are physically impossible? And who allowed that girl to be photographed like that? Does she not have a mother? Is she not too young to be trapped in the shallowness of how important looks are?
Teenagers are the most common victims of eating disorders. Maybe more of us should thing twice before making models out of our young girls and before buying them such magazines.
6 comments:
Women come in all shapes and sizes! Spread the word, because it's a good thing!
The Barbie-doll complex is everywhere. That's another thing, that gets me annoyed, there's more then one type of beauty, but we aren't allowed to see anything else but the barbie version!
Barbie made me feel awful when I was a kid! Add to that the skinny chicks in James Brown's "Living in America" and I'm surprised I didn't develop an eating disorder...
Safiya, you are quite right. And men's tastes in women differ a lot. Still we all try to impose a certain non-existent pattern!
Carmen, it proves you were strong and very lucky. Not all teenagers are unfortunately!
I always hated Barbie. I didn't know why. But when I grew up I discovered that it may be because she's nothing like me. The blonde silky hair, the slim body, the colored eyes, the red cheeks.. etc. I believe the manufacturers of this stupid doll never care about children relating to it. Instead they give them a false image of perfection that they can never measure up to.
Thanks Alina from bringing this up. I also feel so sorry for the girl in the ad. How will she grow up after she has been used in such an inhuman way which will distort her sense of what is beautiful for ever.
As a mother, I'm very concerned about how to raise my daughter to feel confident in today's world, that is filled with false notions about beauty and self-worth. I think it will be such a tough job.
I must confess I had Barbie dolls in my childhood that never made me think I should look like them, weirdly enough. But I know, that today's reality is so different and kids are much more surrounded by less genuine messages from all over the place, adds, toy stores, etc, that only try to sell instead of thinking of consequences. Anorexia is such a huge problem right now, all the new stars are embracing it and same time deny they have the problem itself.
I am not a mother yet, but it makes me very much concerned the world we are living in, I have no idea how will I deal with all these fake "role models".
I had Barbies as a girl and I collect Barbies as an adult. I never thought that I was suppose to look like Barbie because I knew that Barbie was a doll. I think that alot of girls think that too and that alot of adults project adult fears and frustrations on Barbie.
I did have body issues as a teenagers.
What made me have self-esteem issues was the media telling me as a teenager that I had to look like Madonna or Cindy Crawford or the video vixens on MTV or the girls in teen magazines and feeling though I never quite measured up. This despite the fact that I was a voluptuous size 11 with a 36-27-36 figure from age 14 on.
I realized finally that fashion and media's job was to make me feel unattractive so that I would buy their products. That was when I was freed from feeling like I had to look a certain way.
From reading the comments on this board, seems like you all hate or hated Barbie and are using her as a scapegoat for a tragic problem.
BTW, Barbie isn't just blond hair and blue eyes. In Mattel's Dolls of the World line, there are Barbies of every skin, hair and eye color representing about 70 countries and ethnicities.
When I have daughters, I will allow them to play with whatever they would like, including Barbie. But I am also going to do my level-best to tell them, that as long as they eat healthy and exercize for their health, that whatever they look like is fine.
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