"Toys" and "Barbies"

When I read "Barbies" I couldn't help but laugh. This is such a funny essay. And it all makes sense really now that I think about it. I never really thought about who really invented Barbie, whether it was a male or female. And now that I know that it was a man, Jack Ryan who invented Barbie, it all makes sense. No wonder Barbie is all out of proportion. I mean, seriously, no woman is really built like that and like Emily Prager states, no woman would ever build a doll that looks like this. I'll admit that I am slightly offended that a man would make a doll that looks like this for little girls to play with. It is so true that the message we are sending to little girls around the world is a twisted one. When you look down the Barbie aisle at a toy store, all the dolls are stick thin and blonde. I did play with Barbies as a little girl and was actually obsessed with them. I loved playing with my Barbies but I'll admit that all of them looked the same. I don't see how they entertained me for so long. But I do think that it's true that we should try and get better images for girls. I never dealt with an eating disorder but I did have self-image issues through my teenage years. And who can blame me? Look at all the role models young girls have - all the early Disney princesses are skinny girls who are lost without their fresh young and of course, good-looking princes. They never really have a mind for themselves. I can say, though, that Disney (just to use for an example) is getting better. Mulan, for example, is a strong woman who fought for herself and didn't let men control her. Girls out there need more role models like her than Barbie or Bratz dolls which are just as bad.
The essay "Toys" was not as funny and a little harder to follow but I still agree with what Roland Barthes says. It is true that most of the toys that children use today are just smaller versions of the everyday life that adults go through. But I think that those were always the fun toys to play with. I know that I enjoyed playing mother to my baby dolls and pretending to go grocery shopping in the toy grocery store. I think that children enjoy doing these things so much because they look up to their parents and want to be just like them. So toys are constructed around that and children enjoy playing like they are grown-ups. Sure, I think I would be concerned if all a child did was pretend to be a grown-up all day without any fantasy play that enables their imaginations but a little play like that is fine in my opinion.