Discussion on Time Magazine's Cover on Barbie

Rhetorical Analysis Final

Since the early 60’s, Barbie has not changed much beside transforming to more modern clothing and different material. If Barbie were an actual woman, she would be about five feet nine inches tall, weigh one hundred ten pounds, with an eighteen inch waist, and and a thirty-nine inch bust. These are very unrealistic measurements of a women in today’s society. In any society ever, for that matter. When, in 2015, Barbie was introduced with eight diverse skin tones, various facial features, different hair and eye colors, people anticipated more from Mattel.

On a recent TIME magazine cover, Curvy Barbie made her big debut as the “new and improved” Barbie. The purpose of this dynamic change is that the new Barbies with different body types and new skin tones/hair may reflect more naturally the young owners’ world.

On this cover you will also note the phrase almost as big as the title of the magazine, “Now can we stop talking about my body?”. Looking at this you may have felt empowered or proud of your unique body because Barbie’s body is realistic now. I felt the same way. I have always been proud of my athletic build and my thicker legs. However, thinking about this phrase I’m not so sure they worded it as well as they could have. It definitely is a statement that catches people’s eyes and provokes deeper thinking.

Through my own personal, deeper thinking, I began to be upset with that big, black, bolded phrase on the cover. After a few minutes of thinking, I thought to myself, “Well yeah, it’s great they have been more adaptive and modern with this big change, but obviously we just can’t stop talking about Barbie’s body!”. Even when Barbie is curvy people can’t stop talking about her body! While intentions are good, I’m still bothered by this.

We live in a world where women’s bodies are sexualized and subjectified. For example; the media is obsessed with Kim Kardashian’s butt and Angelina Jolie’s latest plastic surgery and plumptuous lips. Feminists are rising from the shadows and people everywhere are offended at every little thing that comes out of someone’s mouth. When all's said and done, this is a step in the right direction. but why focus solely on the body shape and physical nature of beloved Barbie?

Isn’t that the goal? To not focus on our appearances and love someone for who they are, rather than what size they are? Let’s talk about Barbie’s dreams and ambitions. Is she driven? Does she have a thriving career, and is that her passion? Does she take care of her body the best she can? Does she feel comfortable in her own skin? Looking at this cover, you would not think Mattel cared about any of these factors, just about Barbie’s body.

As members of society, we are not blinded to the fact that women, and men, feel heavy pressure from these false standards of “Original Barbie”. As a girl who regularly played with Barbies into my tween years, I never felt that kind of pressure from Barbie. I don’t remember looking at Barbie and thinking of her as an object or a perfect body. I especially don’t remember thinking badly about myself in later years because I didn’t look like Barbie. I looked at my many Barbies as friends. I think there is a lot to be said about growing up in a home where my mother worked and was a very confident and intelligent woman. I didn’t have a reason to feel inferior about my body when I was older. I have never been satisfied one hundred percent with how I look, but I don’t think that Barbie plays that role in all girls’ lives. Statistically they might, but I may be the exception to that. There are many other factors that go into being confident and feeling beautiful in your own skin, petite, original, curvy, or tall. It is a foundation that some girls may build their views on their bodies from, especially in this day and age.

Another part of this argument is that it’s a business tactic. Mattel’s sales dropped 20% after the popular Frozen doll, Elsa was named the number one girl’s toy. As a result, someone had to come up with something so good that they would be on top again. Thus, here we are with Petite, Curvy, Original, and Tall Barbie. After losing $500 million you have to get creative to make up such a detrimental loss.

Thinking of ways to introduce these names and new Barbies was not an easy task. As mentioned above, the world we live in is getting more and more sensitive. You have to walk on eggshells to not offend anyone or any group of people. The names of these Barbies are similar to the sections of a department women’s section, or the symbols and abbreviations next to the size on a pair of jeans. Just like the department stores, you will have to pick out and buy specialized clothes for your new barbies, as not all will fit the new body types. As this is very realistic, I hope that it conveys a message of “different is good” rather than, “I have to get bigger clothes for my Barbie!” The biggest downfall, in my opinion, to this cover is that the Barbies are still being critiqued on the size and shape of their body.

The positive things this magazine offers is how different it actually is. This has never happened before! Barbie put some meat on her bones and struts her short curvy legs onto the TIME magazine runway, for the entire world to see her. This is not the only place she did this, but people around the world know about this popular magazine, probably just as well as they know about Barbie.

That being said, I feel that they didn’t have to make it such a big deal. That just adds to the hype of women’s bodies and puts it right back into the media, front page and all. Just having a small portion of the TIME magazine (rather than four pages and the cover) or other national means of media could have been sufficient. Instead, “new” Barbie was exploited on billboards, in national and local news, magazines, and I’m sure radio broadcasts throughout the world. This just goes to show that people are needing approval from fellow citizens, friends, and people around the world. By making a statement as big as this one was handled the same as the latest celebrity sex-tape being released.

I chose this cover as my medium because it’s something that is a hot topic at this time in the media. I like to think that this will help young girls who are bombarded by the scale, magazine covers, commercials, songs, and supermodels. Mattel’s intentions, whether for business or for a revolutionary change to the “same old Barbie”, will hopefully enable young children who play with them, to begin developing a healthy body image and self esteem when it comes to how they look.

A statistic, found in the article connected to the front cover, says that 85% of American girls (ages 3-10) own at least one Barbie doll. That is a huge portion of the population! This adaptation to the society’s views on women’s bodies could be a great positive influence on the young girls.

In a world where “feminism” is talked about more than in the past, there are and will continue to be various opinions on new Barbie. Personally, I tend to disagree with this statement made by the author, Eliana Dockterman.

Everyone is different, and that’s a beautiful thing! Embracing that is one thing, helping others to embrace their uniqueness is the best thing I think we can do as friends and peers. I know that it’s hard to live in a society, especially as a woman, that focuses on the latest trends, being cool enough, pretty enough, or fit enough. I think that as people, we need to stop focusing on a body, rather on an unique individual. I am preparing myself for motherhood and when that time eventually comes, I know that I will do nothing but set a good example of confidence in all things, body, mentality, intelligence, and skill sets to my future daughters and sons. By doing so will bring happiness to the lives that I have created.

This cover was not one that I agreed with, so it made it easier to point out the flaws. Their goal is to touch the hearts and evoke those good feelings out of the viewers. At first it worked on me. I absolutely love young girls having the different body types to choose from. However, as it was thought-provoking, the more and more I feel it was handled poorly. They did not capture their rhetorical opportunity to it’s full capacity with me. While engaging their audience with a catchy title on the front page, I wish it would have been something more about her being unique and beautiful in her own way.