I'm a Barbie Boy

With feet made for heels and hot pink accessories, Barbie has long been marketed as a toy for young girls. Today, Barbie has had over 150 careers ranging from rock star to presidential candidate, and has inspired young women to try to achieve the same. The doll has long been under fire for various reason, one being  the unrealistic body image the doll embodies and promotes. Women have long been the target for damaging beauty ideals, many believe that Barbie has only worked to promote this for young women, despite the dolls attempts to encourage girls professionally. Many also have an issue with the way the doll is marketed solely as a feminine toy.

The idea that Barbie is just for girls has been backed up throughout other forms of media, specifically television. One example from the show Friends depicts Ross, one of the show’s main characters, expressing his disappointment when his own son is shown to love playing with the doll. With Barbie being marketed as such a feminine object, it encourages a general feeling of shame when it comes to boys finding themselves interested in Barbies.

In late 2015, Barbie teamed up with Moschino to create and advertise an all new high fashion Barbie, and in doing so, featured boy in their commercial for the very first time. The boy resembles a young Jeremy Scott, a fashion designer and Moschino’s creative director.  Scott followed the release of the add with a statement saying, “I felt it was natural to have a little boy representing for all the little boys like myself who played with Barbies growing up,” (Matthews, 2015). The reaction to the young boys appearance was extremely positive, with the commercial being shared across media sites and talk shows. This only ask the question of whether or not this was a success for the breaking down gender barriers in toys, or just Barbie’s marketing team.

Toys are an important part of a person's childhood, many of us are even able to think back to the specific toys we used to play with when we were younger.  They can influence the way children play and learn as they grow older. According to the article The Social and Economic Consequences of Gendered Toys in America, Pope discusses the the ways that different toys can play crucial role in developing a child's different cognitive abilities.

Pope goes on to say that "While boys’ toys promote skills in math and science fields, girls’ toys promote verbal and linguistic skills" (Pope, 2015).  When children grow to play only with toys that are marketed towards their specific gender, it can lead to an education gap within schools, future choice in career paths, even violence and revolving self worth around appearance. The dangers of gendered toys are real, and the reason to why it is important to encourage young kids to play with the toys they personally prefer. From Moschino Barbies new commercial, it looks like the doll has taken its first steps towards breaking down this discouraging gender barrier. This is a big deal, especially for a toy that is considered to be so traditionally feminine.

Dove, much like Moschino Barbie, was met with a lot of initial praise for their messages of female body positivity in recently released commercials.  Diversity within the media is important, and the breakdown of harmful gender roles is an important feminist issue we have yet to tackle. The only issue is that Barbie may be pushing these messages of inclusion through a consumer perspective. Murray gives us an example of encouraging material consumption in terms of female empowerment with the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. He discusses how the campaign was initially a series of commercials highlighting how women in society don't feel particularly beautiful. According to Murray, "less than 2 percent of women feel beautiful; 75 percent want representations of women to reflect diversity through age, shape, and size; and 76 percent want the media to portray beauty as more than physical" (Murray, p84). The commercials highlights the types of insecurities that women feel with their bodies through videos of individual women going through what seem to be social experiments. Viewers get to watch as women go through these commercials, becoming both empowered and uplifted by the experience, with the final realization that they are more beautiful than they had thought beforehand. The Real Beauty Campaign was initially met with praise, moving many with their words of inspiration for women.  Although the advertisements do contain both powerful and important messages about body positivity for women, Dove is still pushing these messages from a consumer perspective. This means that Doves overall goal is to ring in a profit, while uplifting women in the process. This tactic of promoting messages of women's freedom, as long as they align with Doves corporate interests, is known as commodity feminism. The campaign at the end of the day pushes inspiring feminist material by means of Dove products.

Barbie has not been the only culprit of gendering their toys, but the inclusion of boys in their advertisement has been a big step towards abandoning the idea of gendered toys. Gendering toys only discourages kids, both from learning and developing important cognitive skills. It also promotes sense of shame for kids who do enjoy playing with toys that are "not meant for them". Although these messages of inclusion are important, they are coming from a very strong consumer perspective. This is another example of commodity feminism, whereas this time unlike Dove a very specific product is being promoted, not just a brand name. We can’t deny that a company taking steps towards inclusion is a good thing, but should we stand for companies encouraging messages of empowerment to make a profit? We must decide whether we think it is right to promote a change through materialism. One hope we can have is that other companies will decide to follow in Barbies footsteps, going along with promoting both boys and girls to play with the toys they please.

Work Cited:
Matthews, Nesta. "Adorable Boy In New Fauxmercial For Moschino Barbie." KiSS 1023 Winnipeg. N.p., 18 Nov. 2015. Web. 07 May 2016. 
Pope, Cydne. "The Social and Economic Consequences of Gendered Toys in America." (2015).
Murray, Dara Parsis. "BRANDING “REAL” SOCIAL CHANGE IN DOVE’S CAMPAIGN FOR REAL BEAUTY." Feminist Media Studies 13.1 (2013): n. pag. Web.