Outline Template
I. Introduction
A. The Barbie doll has enjoyed a long and profitable history.
1. The Barbie doll was invented by Ruth Handler (Pros and Cons).
a. The first Barbie was marketed by Mattel in 1959 (Pros and Cons).
b. The Barbie doll in a black and white swimsuit sold for $3.00 (Pros and Cons of Barbie).
2. “Barbie is the best-selling fashion doll in every major global market, with worldwide (140 countries) annual sales of
about $1.5 billion” (Dittmar et. al.).
a. Twelve is the average number of Barbie dolls owned by U.S. girls ages three to six. Ninety percent of us. Girls
ages three to ten who own at least on Barbie doll (Pros and Cons).
b. Every half-second somewhere in the world another Barbie doll is sold (Dittmar et. al.).
c. The Barbie doll line makes up more than 80% of Mattel’s profits (Lawton).
B. Although the powerful socioculture agents, Barbie dolls, are good for fantasy play, they promote stereotypical
gender roles and unhealthy body images in young girls. THESIS
II. Body
A. Barbie dolls are an excellent outlet for fantasy play.
1. “Research has shown that fantasy and play are considered important parts of girls’ socialization and development’
(Griffin).
a. “Also, toys portraying gender and adult roles, like Barbie, provide girls with a tangible image of social values and
social interactions” (Griffin).
b. Barbie encourages children to express their creativity and expand their imagination.
2. “Interestingly, a 2004 study in the journal Adolescence found that as girls approach late childhood and early
adolescence they are less likely to engage in make-believe play with their Barbie dolls and instead increasingly
expose them to ‘torture’ or ‘anger’ play’ (Griffin).
a. “Torture” or “anger” play includes painting, shaving or pulling apart the dolls (Griffin).
b. “The authors believe the latter, more hostile form of play is a healthy, normal outlet for expressing aggression and
frustration that the children have learned would be inappropriate to do in public” (Griffin).
c. “Torture and angry play are both common and involve disfiguring Barbie Dolls (torture) and acting out scenes in
which Barbie did something mean to the child and punishing Barbie for it as a way of releasing emotions (angry)”
(Abramson).
3. (Transitional sentence) Though torture and anger play are interesting, imaginative play with Barbie dolls seems to
activate female stereotypes in children.
B. Playing with Barbie dolls promotes stereotypical gender roles.
1. “Significant results would mean that exposure to Barbie could lower self-perceived ability and makes female
stereotypes more salient” (Abramson).
a. A lot of emphasis is put on Barbie and her love for shopping (Abramson).
b. The teen talking Barbie that came out in 1992 uttered the phrase, “Math class is tough.” (Pros and Cons)
1) This doll reinforced that girls are not as smart as boys.
2) This doll promoted that girls do not have the same math abilities as boys.
c. The Dr. Barbie package says that Barbie is specifically a baby doctor, not a pediatrician (Abramson).
1) Her only medical instruments are a stethoscope and an otoscope, instruments usually used by a nurse
(Abramson).
2) She comes with the accessories of babies and lollipops (Abramson).
3) She wears jeans with pink glitter which is not professional medical attire (Abramson).
d. “It has been argued that Barbie dolls reflect a highly sexualized image and circumscribe girls’ play by emphasizing
prescribed roles and patterns of interaction. It is feared that by dramatizing stereotypical feminine roles during play,
girls will internalize and later embody such roles” (Kuther).
e. (Transitional sentence) Girls internalize prioritizing surface beauty over talent and activity.
C. Barbie promotes an unhealthy body image.
1. The Barbie dolls’ anatomy is disproportionate.
a. She has a waistline 39% smaller than the average anorexic patient (Pros and Cons).
b. “Scientists believed her fat-to-body-weight ratio was way below the 17 percent required to menstruate” (Pros and
Cons).
c. “If Barbie were full size, her measurements would be 32-17-28, typical of a woman suffering from anorexia. Add to
this anorexic frame her large gravity-defying breasts and you have a body ideal that is virtually impossible for a
healthy, non- surgically altered woman to attain” (GI Joe vs. Barbie).
d. “Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her
back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more
than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea and
eventually dies from malnutrition” (Pros and Cons).
e. Insert “The Woman Within” chart (Pros and Cons).
2. Exposure to Barbie leads to disordered eating.
a. “Social Factors that can contribute to Eating Disorders:
1) Cultural pressures that glorify ‘thinness’ and place value on obtaining the ‘perfect body’
2) Narrow definitions of beauty that include only women and men of specific body weights and shapes
3) Cultural norms that value people on the basis of physical appearance and not inner qualities and strengths”
(National Eating Disorders Association)
b. In 1965 the Slumber Party Barbie debuted. This Barbie promoted
unhealthy body issues (Pros and Cons).
1) She came with a book titled “How to Lose Weight” which advised “don’t eat.” (Pros and Cons)
2) She also came with bathroom scales that read 110 pounds,
which would be at least 35 pounds underweight for a woman 5
feet 9 inches tall (Pros and Cons).
c. The research from Dittmar et. al. found that young girls exposed
to Barbie had heightened body dissatisfaction.
1) “This demonstrates that it is not body-related information conveyed by dolls per se that has a direct impact on
young girls’ body image, buy y Barbie dolls specifically, which represent a distortedly thing body ideal. These ultrathin
images not only lowered young girls’ body esteem but also decreased their satisfaction with their actual body size,
making them desire a thinner body. This detrimental effect was evident already for girls from age 5 ½ to age 6 ½ but
was more pronounced among 6 ½- to 7 ½-year-olds” (Dittmar et. al.).
2) Insert “Body Dissatisfaction” chart (Pros and Cons).
3) “The present findings suggest that Barbie dolls’ ultrathin body
proportions provide an aspirational role model for very young
girls that causes body dissatisfaction” (Dittmar et. al.).
d. “it’s estimated that 8 million people in the United States has an eating disorder, and only 10-15% of them are male.
Which leaves the 85-90% of them to be female. And 80% of those females are under the age of 20. Many admitting
that they started worrying about their weight when they were between the age of 4 and six years old. This is around
the age that a girl usually gets her first Barbie doll, and many of the girls who have or had an eating disorder admitted
that Barbie played a huge role on their influences in behavior and looks. And that they were led to believe that the
only way to be happy and have a wonderful life is to be just like Barbie, with the super skinny look” (SarenDipity).
e. "Child therapist and licensed clinical social worker Vicki Zaitz is not so sure that's a good thing. Mass-production of
the pink, plastic princess, she believes, sends girls the message that only one body type is acceptable. 'Barbie
reinforces the idea that all bodies look the same, that there is one perfect way to look,' Zaitz explains. 'And if you don't
look that way, there's something wrong with you” (Berenstain).
f. "Barbie has always been like a flawless sister to me. . . Well, it is difficult to compete with something that perfect.
Barbie could do no wrong. For me, on the other hand, the inadequacies were endless. I always needed to lose
weight, I hated school, I didn't have normal good health, I would never finish what I started and most of all, I was this
huge mass of imperfection compared to my flawless sister, Barbie."
g. Cindy Jackson, a real Barbie doll, was influenced by Barbie so much that she had over 20 surgeries to attain that
look.
III. Conclusion
A. Young girls may have limited benefits from Barbie, such as fantasy play; but Barbie encouragement of
stereotypical gender roles and an unattainable body image have a larger negative impact. RESTATED
THESIS
B. Mattel’s response to the criticism is “She is still just a doll.”
1. Even though Barbie is just a doll, girls are very impressionable and need guidance. As a parent, if you are going to
give your daughters Barbies you need to take on the responsibility making sure they do not suffer from the Barbie
effect.
2. Or you can do what this parent has done. “By not giving my daughter the Barbies, I was giving her a gift far greater
in value. I was giving her the ability to be appreciated for her inner being, and not for her outer trappings. I was giving
her a sense of self-esteem and independence. I was giving her dignity and self-control.”