Barbie, Race, and Body Image: A Cultural Critique
This essay offers a personal and cultural critique of the Barbie doll, examining how Mattel's iconic toy handles race, body image, and female representation. Drawing on observations of Black Barbie imagery featured in a Jezebel parody of Italian Vogue, the author analyzes how both the official Mattel website and its product lines default to a whiteness that marginalizes non-white representations. The essay also considers Barbie's evolving image — from fashion model to athlete and career woman — and whether these changes meaningfully address longstanding criticisms. It concludes by noting how children themselves often subvert Barbie's idealized image through play, suggesting a natural resistance to the doll's manufactured perfection.
- Introduction: A Male Perspective on Barbie: Author's outsider view prompts cultural questions
- Race and Representation in Black Barbie: Jezebel parody reveals racial uniformity in Barbie
- Whiteness on the Official Mattel Website: Mattel's site defaults to white Barbie imagery
- Body Image and Barbie's Evolving Identity: Barbie expands roles but criticism remains
- Children's Play as Subversion: Children subvert Barbie's perfect image through play
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What makes this paper effective
- The author uses a candid first-person perspective to frame an analytical cultural critique, grounding abstract observations about race and gender in concrete, specific examples from the Mattel website and the Jezebel parody.
- The essay moves logically from racial representation to body image to children's actual play behavior, building a layered argument without overreaching its evidence.
- The conclusion introduces a genuinely insightful observation — that children subvert Barbie's perfection through play — which reframes the entire critique in an unexpected and memorable way.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of visual and textual analysis as evidence. Rather than relying solely on secondary sources, the author reads primary texts (the Mattel website, the Jezebel photo gallery) directly, interpreting their ideological content. This technique — treating cultural artifacts as texts — is a foundational method in media and cultural studies.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a personal introduction establishing the author's perspective, then moves into focused analysis of Black Barbie imagery and what it reveals about racial defaults in Barbie's design. It next examines Mattel's official website for signs of racial and aesthetic uniformity, then evaluates Mattel's attempts to diversify Barbie's career and body image. The essay closes with an observation about children's subversive play, functioning as both a conclusion and a counterpoint to Mattel's controlled messaging.
Introduction: A Male Perspective on Barbie
As a male, I have never played with Barbies or really understood their appeal. However, I have given Barbies as gifts to younger female relatives on many occasions, upon their request. I had been told by my feminist friends that Barbie was supposed to be "bad" because she projected an unhealthy and unrealistic image of female sexuality. However, while Barbie has her detractors, she also seems to inspire equally devoted female followers. It was not until I saw the "Black Barbie" Vogue parody featured in Jezebel magazine that I began to question other aspects of Barbie's appeal, including her "whiteness."
Race and Representation in Black Barbie
One of the striking features of the Jezebel photographs is their uniformity. "Black" Barbies all have the same features and look exactly like white Barbies, except for their coloring. Unlike real African-American women — and unlike real women in general — the Black Barbies all share the same skin tone and body shape. And of course, the very idea that there is a "Black" Barbie implies that the "real" version of the doll is not Black at all, but white.
Some of the images featured by Jezebel seem to merely substitute images of Black Barbies for white Barbies, such as the preppy, Ralph Lauren-style tennis scene. Other depictions show images of stereotypical but sanitized urban life, such as the hip-hop Barbies. These images echo the way African-American women themselves are often depicted in fashion magazines. Either African-Americans are used to replicate typical images of white women — such as the haughty, gaunt fashion model — or they are featured in highly exoticized advertisements. Some people might argue that African-American girls are fortunate, however imperfectly, to have an alternative version of Barbie that attempts to represent their experience. For example, there is no Asian Barbie and no Hispanic Barbie, except as part of Mattel's special collector doll series aimed at adults.
Whiteness on the Official Mattel Website
Mattel's official Barbie website is striking in its whiteness. No Black Barbies are featured on the main page — an absence that becomes especially noteworthy after viewing the Jezebel parody. Jezebel was attempting to satirize both fashion magazines' use of Black women and Barbie herself, yet even its satire displays more creativity and visual interest than the official Mattel website's blandness. Barbie's official site does feature an adult doll collection called "Dolls of the World," which offers a slightly more diverse range of images, but even these dolls are fairly uniform in style. The Asian doll, for instance, is dressed in a midriff-bearing, sexualized sari, yet otherwise looks just like a standard Barbie.
Works Cited
Barbie. Official Website. Mattel. June 23, 2010. http://www.barbie.com/
"Barbie: Dolls of the World." Barbie Collector. June 23, 2010. http://www.barbiecollector.com/news/news.aspx?news_id=275
"Black Barbies Are All Dolled Up." Jezebel. July 2009. June 23, 2010. http://jezebel.com/5319401/black-barbies-are-all-dolled-up-in-julys-italian-vogue/gallery/
"I Can Be." Official Website. Mattel. June 23, 2010. http://www.barbie.com/vote/
"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Victoria." Barbie Collector. June 23, 2010. http://www.barbiecollector.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=T2236&shelfID=150007
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