Chapter 14: Hetero Barbie? March 2nd 2015

This chapter was definitely an eye opening one, but it was really great to read. It begins by explaining that as teenagers, girls begin to feel pressure to be popular and feminine to impress the boys. This causes them to pay more attention to the way their bodies look, the shape they have and the size that they are, the way they dress and the clothes they have, and the way they do their hair and makeup. Girls begin to become way too aware of the way they look to other people, especially the boys. Now Barbie, and the Barbie enterprise is thriving off these feelings and encouraging them. When you think of a Barbie doll it is in no way similar to an actual woman. Most obviously is the difference in looks. Barbies are completely disproportionate, from the length and skinniness of their limbs, to the size of their waists, to the proportion of their features. Barbies are marketed to young girls and they are posed as young women (even teenagers). But for a women Barbie's age, she should have a husband and children, which she doesn't, and she is portray as a teenager, but no teenager would be able to live the lifestyle she does (such as the work and travel she is portrayed doing). I love the questions Rogers poses after explaining how outlandish Barbie's features are. Is Barbie heterosexual? Is Barbie a woman? There is a possibility that Barbie is even a drag queen. Rogers states and explains this by saying that the over exaggeration of features is something that drag queens will do. These over exaggerations include her elaborate wardrobe, her high heels, her heavy makeup, and her over the top head pieces. There is no way to be certain of her sexual identity when so much is ambiguous about her. The idea of Drag Barbie represents how femininity is a "manufactured reality" because of all the effort it requires to look the way she does. Another idea Rogers poses is that Barbie is a lesbian, but a more feminine one, a closeted one, or bisexual. Hetero Barbie? really made me think about how this entire enterprise is portraying beauty. A few things can be derived from this thought. One is that they are creating impossible beauty standards that make young girls grow self-conscious of themselves because they can never be what they see. Another thought is kind of opposite that, but that the  way drag queens represent themselves is beautiful as well. Food for thought.

Pictured above is what the RuPaul Barbie looks like. When I read about it I was curious as to what it looked like. Without knowing it was a representation of RuPaul, would you know it was meant to be a drag queen? What does that say about all other Barbies?