Spring Break

Last week was my spring break, and let me tell you, I needed it. After half of the second semester was done with, I for sure needed a break. Thankfully, I got it :) I was finally able to have time to do some of the things I actually enjoyed doing (just to be clear, that is not homework). So, what exactly did I do? Yes, sleep, but I also got to finish a painting that I've been working on lately, and it looks *in a high squeaky voice* "Fabulous!" Also, over break, my mom and I began working on a project together that includes many, many yards of tulle... :) Something else that I did as I had more free time was play the piano, which I love to do. However, since I get so much homework during school (and no, it's not so much from you, Mrs. Heisler) I don't have enough time to practice. Besides all the fun artsy stuff that I got to do, I also spent quite a bit of time with my family, which I find to be something that a lot of people don't do enough :( Any who, let's not turn this into a sad story, let's focus of happy things, oh, like when I finally, on the last day of spring break, got to do something that I'd been waiting to do since May of 2014.... and that is.... see the new Cinderella movie. And let me just say, Disney did a great job once again bringing a classical movie to life with great actors and a great plot (even though we all know the story, of course!). And so that is what I did over break. No fancy trips to Hawaii or anything like that, but it sure was fun :D

So, now that I'm back at school, I am frightened that homework will destroy me again... nah, I'm just kidding. No actually, I'm not. But, I do have some goals for finishing up this year. I'm going to try to plan my days so that I'm not stressed about homework and can still get some adequate hours of sleep in every night. -I'm also going to try to squeeze in some studying for the upcoming ACT, and hopefully be able to wisely choose my classes for next year. Still, I'm hoping that somehow this last quarter is going to be a bit merciful... we shall all hope together.    

My Definition Essay

Barbie

            She is blonde (almost always), with blue eyes (usually), wears lots of pink clothes (quite often), and is disliked by many, especially parents. Some see her as “little miss perfect.” She is an icon among young girls, and everybody has heard her of. Her name is Barbie. Though not everybody approves of her, society has been setting high standards for young girls to grow up and change their lives and bodies to look more like a “Barbie.” Parents, however, are looking down upon Barbies and are rejecting even buying their daughters these dolls because they are completely unrealistic. Even someone who has never set eyes on a Barbie doll before could see why this toy may lead girls into thinking twice about themselves, but Barbie is the not the source or reason why we have so many problems among young girls’ self-esteem. While there is much controversy about Barbie dolls, and while she is severally criticized by many, Barbie should be seen more as an encouragement and inspiration to young girls that they can grow up to be whatever they want, while being happy with who they are and how they look. It is the media, not a child’s doll, that truly has the power to alter the way a girl views herself. Parents should still allow their daughters to play with a cute doll as a part of their childhood, but realize that it is outside sources--not Barbie--that can alter a little girl’s ego.

            Barbie came to life in 1959 after Ruth Handler watched her daughter, Barbara, play with her paper dolls. Barbara and her friends used their imaginations and gave these paper dolls roles as college students, cheerleaders, and other grown-up careers. Since then, Ruth was inspired to create a three-dimensional girls’ doll that was not like the popular baby and children dolls at the time. Handler wanted this doll to allow young girls to live out their dreams as they got a glimpse into the future. So she created a teenage fashion doll and named it after her own daughter, and that is how “Barbie” came to be.

            Ruth Handler was not just an inventor but also a businesswoman. She and her husband, Elliot, had already founded the company Mattel in 1945, and fourteen years later, on March 9, 1959, she introduced the Barbie doll at the annual Toy Fair in New York. Since then, Barbie has become a major hit in the toy industry with every little girl wanting one. The Barbie dolls now come in all different styles and boxes while wearing tons of different fashionable outfits. She may seem innocent in appearance and character, but unfortunately it is exactly her appearance that makes people hate her.

            Parents, most especially moms, of young girls do not approve of the Barbie doll herself. Why is this? Well, the average Barbie doll stands at 11.5 inches tall and has a 3.5-inch waist, so if she were a real human, she would be 5 foot 9 and have a 21-inch waist. Clearly, the fact is that Barbie dolls are unrealistic in size, and this is something that parents take to heart when choosing what toys they want their little girls to play with. A large amount of moms do not want their little girls to play with an unrealistic doll because they do not want them growing up thinking that to be as popular or pretty as Barbie, they must be that thin.

            What moms sometimes forget is that when children play with toys, the last idea on their mind is how thin the doll they are playing with is. They are just children! The child is merely playing with a girly toy, and she loves it for that reason--it is pretty and girly, and she can use her imagination to give whatever life she wants to give it. The parent, however, worries that letting her child play with a super unrealistic and overly gorgeous doll will change her daughter’s view of herself. It is true that some young girls in today’s society start looking at themselves differently, in appearance and personality. However, all these self-conscious thoughts floating in a young girl’s mind could not have been the result of the valueless, plastic doll they play dress up with. The real cause is from the media, celebrities, magazines, and other very clear ways society is trying to change the minds’ of little girls in this generation.   

            Growing up, I loved Barbie dolls, just as most other little girls did (even though I of course owned other dolls that were not under the trademark of Barbie). I loved them so much because they were pretty and fashionable (I personally loved fashion), so naturally I wanted to play dress up with them. I also used my creative imagination to give them their own individual lives and pretend they each talked with one another. Though I do not play with my dolls as much as I did when I was younger, I still have five Barbie dolls today as they remind me of part of my childhood and my love of dress up. However, when I was little and playing with my Barbies, it never occurred to me (and it probably has not with any other little girl) that to be accepted or cool, I had to be as thin or beautiful as a Barbie doll.

            The minute Ruth Handler watched her daughter play with her dolls, she immediately recognized that letting children from a safe distance (at a young age) experiment with the future through make-believe was a vital part of growing up. What many do not see, especially in recent years, is that Barbie does in fact inspire young girls to grow up believing that they can become whatever they dream to be: a dolphin trainer, a teacher, a fashion designer, or even a chef. Unfortunately, society has altered the way Barbie should be looked at and has made her a model of what “perfect appearance” looks like and expects all young girls to believe it. Now, instead of Barbie being a little girl’s best friend and a genuine benefactor, society has turned her into an idol that has the power to alter the self-conciseness of a 5-year-old in numerous unhealthy ways.

            The dictionary.com definition of the term Barbie is as follows: 1. Trademark. A brand of doll representing a slim, shapely young woman, especially one with blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Noun 2. Also called Barbie doll. A person, especially a young woman, perceived as blandly attractive and vacuous. After gathering the answers of a short questionnaire that six teenagers (of both genders) between the ages of 16 and 17 took, I discovered that they all had very similar answers that were not too shocking for the questions proposed. Most of their answers reinforced the ideas that society was already placing on Barbie. For one, the first idea that came to mind when they thought of the word “Barbie,” was the blonde, tan, tall, and skinny children’s doll, which is probably close to what a young child might also say, not to mention very close to the dictionary.com definition. When asked if they thought this doll would have a great influence on girls starting from a young age, they all said yes because they felt like the doll itself set high standards for girls to reach to become labeled as “perfect,” and because it gave girls a glimpse into what it might look like to be a woman. When asked if they personally viewed Barbie in a positive or negative way, I got some mixed results. Some were just ambivalent, but others were positive and negative, depending on how much of an influence they thought Barbie dolls placed on girls and depending on their personal experiences with the toy. This survey just comes to show how society has even changed the ways teenagers view Barbie. Though not all of the teens I surveyed had a disapproving view of her, they were all sure that this doll had some sort of negative impact on little girls. I found that to be truly sad.     

            In conclusion, Barbie dolls should be viewed as harmless plastic dolls that young girls play dress up with. They cannot cause problems in a girl’s life unless the girl lets ideas of what “perfect” means determine the way she should look and behave. But that mere idea does not come from the plastic Barbie doll she played with when she was five. The media and all the celebrities and lies that come with it have a great influence of how our young generation view themselves. That is where the parents should come in and make sure their child understands that they are perfect the way they are, and they do not need the media to judge them. How the word “Barbie” is viewed clearly has a much more powerful meaning than just a beautiful skinny doll little girls like to play with. To me, and hopefully to all the parents out there, that powerful meaning is that Barbie inspires young girls to be the best they can be and do whatever they dream of, not the power to alter the way they view their faces, personalities, and bodies. 

Welcome To My Blog

Why hello there :)

By the name of my blog, you can probably tell that I like bows and paintbrushes. This is true. Anything that has a bow or ribbon on it, I find completely cute. Not only do I wear cute bows in my hair almost everyday, but I also use them in many of my art and craft projects. And speaking of crafts and artsy projects, that leads me to why my blog is called Bow-Tied Paintbrush. Well, I do like to paint, and not just on canvases, but also on my nails.... yep, I do love my nail art. Don't argue, nail art is art... don't you need a brush for it too?