The Glamourous Life

Barbie has been the quintessential toy for girls for years. She had everything: a car, a house, a boat, a horse, many friends, a boyfriend, and a killer body that she didn't have to exercise in order to get. She was the blonde-haired, blue-eyed American sweetheart. But girls were learning more than just roll playing with their imaginations, they were learning to be the perfect American consumers.

The doll has been used to advertise products implicitly, in a way that may not have been noticed by parents or the children themselves, such as by Barbie wearing McDonald's or Pepsi clothes or accessories. Children are highly susceptible to advertising, though it may be easy to dismiss advertisements on television, it is not as easy to dismiss the fact that the adult a young girl may see in Barbie is the adult they wish to be: with a wardrobe full of clothes, a hot pink corvette, and even a hotel to get away from the oh-so-tough life she lives. Not only does Mattel profit from the purchase of countless outfits and accessories, but other companies, such as McDonald's, profit from any sales garnered from having their name plastered on a Barbie box, however that may be difficult to measure.

Hegemonic ideals are present in Barbie. She is a consumer, you are a consumer. If she doesn't have an astronaut outfit, neither do you. She has to be everything from a horseback rider to a Nascar driver on your dollar. Girls grow up believing that the more outfits you have, the better you look and feel. But as Steinberg pointed out, there is no homeless Barbie. She never runs out of money, which is far from realistic or truthful in America.

Girls are left with unrealistic ideals of adulthood, with money being the root of all evil. Even though Barbie has everything, she is still greedy and insatiable.