I'm a barbie girl, in the barbie world, life in plastic, it's fantastic!

Today's lecture consisted of three readings, but one seems to connect to my previous post about women in advertising, Barbies.  The article about Barbies creates a connection to how women are depicted in our culture so effortlessly and with ease.  Barbies were initially made to depict a daughter and was white.  Barbie has hundreds of jobs and is a superwoman, she is able to accomplish any task.  On one hand, this tells little girls that they can be anything they want to be, achieve any goals they have, and do any career they can imagine.  Aside from these aspirations, just looking at how there is this "standard", "normal" barbie that is usually white, blonde and she is the only one able to do multiple jobs.  Now, the problem arises when we see colored barbies, as "other".  There is always "the barbie", then there are millions of versions of her: Britney Spears, Pocahontas, and barbies from different regions of the world, which is wrong.  Why can't the "normal" barbie be the African American barbie, or the barbie from India or China?  This concept has been instilled in our minds ever since barbie was created and it is a concept that has to be changed.  Not only that, there are stereotypes in the barbie world as well; each barbie with a particular color has been given a name that represents that culture, why conform to this?  Why not name the African American barbie Jennifer or Sarah, why the Asian barbie "Kim"?  They are stating that they have changed the companies perspective and the way they produce their products, but I suppose it is still something that will take time, and time for people to change their minds.