Sample Solution

Generations children have been brought up playing with the famous Barbie and Ken Fashion dolls. Barbie was the first doll that displayed the perfect body, waist size 0, skin colour, and long sleek hair enforcing unrealistic beauty norms (Unknown 2017).The doll received criticism from parents and media regarding the unrealistic beauty expectations targeted at young children, yet Mattel Inc. the owner of Barbie, sold over a billion dolls making Barbie the company’s largest and most profitable line (Unknown 2017). In 2006, a study from the University of Sussex found that thin and fair dolls like Barbie created negative and harmful body perceptions for young girls and led to low self-esteem (Unknown 2017). In the study, all 162 participants reported the desire to look like Barbie and had embodied the unrealistic beauty norms (Unknown 2017). However, after being the center of controversary for many years, Mattel Inc. rebranded Barbie and released a new commercial that spreads a positive, less superficial, and more realistic message about beauty (Bondareff 2010). The commercial encourages young children to be or do anything without worrying about the social beauty norms. Mattel Inc. created a doll with dark skin complexion and black dreadlocks breaking the chain of blonde and fair Barbie dolls (Bondareff 2010). Although Mattel Inc. has taken steps towards changing the unrealistic beauty perceptions by creating diverse dolls with different hair textures and skin colours, the doll still pursues the skinny body image (Bondareff 2010).

This case is significant for development of this research question as it demonstrates the complex relations between race and beauty. Whiteness and thinness are perceived as beauty norms which are enforced and normalized in society. Various forms of industries, markets, and companies monitor conceptions of beauty through objects and pursue the conception that beauty is akin to fair skin, long sleek hair, and thinness. As a result, those who do not identify with these notions of beauty, whether is it skin colour, hair texture or body size, perceive themselves as not beautiful.