MURKAMI 1
Saki Murakami
Kathy Rowley
English201-11
Date July 11, 2012
Rhetorical Analysis:
From Multi Cultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference
Have you ever played with or wish to be like that one of the adorable doll such
as Barbie when you were in your early days in your life? Many girls in their early
childhood play with their dolls and pretend like that is you. However in the old days,
when the first Barbie came out, there were only white colored doll was available even
though the United States of America was the diverse country. Therefore, many children
had to play with the doll which did not look alike them. Ann duCille, who wrote the
article, “From Multi Cultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference,” says that
Barbie is not just a plastic doll, but contains racism and gender problems. DuCille
describes Barbie as a symbol of racism and an oversight of gender cognition
commodity.
First of all, the author of this article, duCille, established her ethos by serving
as the chair and director of the Center for African American Studies at Wesleyan
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University (Greene 527). She also published a book called “Skin Trade” which won the
Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in 1997. She mainly published on
black women writers and on racism and popular culture. Ann makes her argument
strong by identifying her own life experiences in the article (Greene 527). DuCille’s
reputation conveyed certain authority on Barbies, but as some agreed, some disagreed.
As she grew up in the 1950s, she was brought up in post World War II in the small white
town when people were still using a discriminatory remark. Ann was too young to know
what actually means, but her mother prevented her from using those terms and taught
them the history (duCille 529). Therefore, she was free of biased view; however, this led
her to realize the difference in her status. DuCille realized that there is some separation
between African-Americans and also, there were only white colored dolls in the store.
Children play with their doll by imaging themselves into the doll. If that is so, how
about those children have a doll, but there is no resemblance between the child and the
doll? She presented her point of view by showing her own life experience in the past as
one of the African-American and argues how Barbie can reflect and give an impact of
the racism and the feminism in the society.
Next, this article which duCille designed was for anyone who have or have not
thought about how Barbie brings racism and gender problems in the society. Secondary
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audience could be the feminists and the people who work on anti-racisms. The author’s
intention of speaking is to teach or to persuade. This article has lots of examples which
every people could see and imagine understanding the article without any confusion. On
the racism side, there were only white colored Barbie were available in the store for
many years even though there were many different types of people in the country. On
the gender part, she exposes that the Barbie is adorable, but it is not in the right figure of
what the real girls are. From the moment when Mattel started selling the Barbie, some
feminists have protested because they thought it brings more than a doll. They thought
Barbie is representing how white woman or any woman should be (532). The Barbie is
not just a toy, but has some propagandas of how women should be. She wants the
readers to be aware of those points of view, not just read what is on the surface but also
read the message on its back.
Next, we are moving on to the main idea of the article. The main idea of this
article is that Barbie doll is not just a doll which children play, but also it brings us some
gender propagandas which tell how woman should be. Also, in the past, there were no
varieties of ethnic Barbies like today’s world. There were a black psychologists Kenneth
and Mamie Clark who did their research in the school in the 1940s. They did the
research on how the segregation and racism had affected on the black children. They
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have done the experiment by showing the both black and white doll and asked them to
choose whichever they like. “When given a choice between a white doll and black doll,
nearly 70 percent of the black children in the study chose the white doll.” (535). Some
children answered, “Because it looked bad” and chose the white colored doll. Some
negative effects by the history of segregation and the racism were shown here. She uses
some actual results from what have researchers done on children for principal lines.
Also for the reasoning and how Mattel acted after people considering the diverse
problems. Author show her pathos by telling her own personal experience and feelings,
and the research done on African American kids how they feel about the doll and their
identity.
Lastly, this article was published in a book called Skin Trade in 1996. (Greene
527). Her style of writing is not very scholastically writing, but powerful statements
which tell people what we should think and consider about. Nowadays, Barbie is now
diverse and has lots of different ethnic types and woman figure changed slightly
different from the past, but it is still the same as before. The author’s speech does not
succeed fulfilling because Barbie is not just a “bad thing” to have. DucCille says, “Is
Barbie bad? Barbie is just a piece of plastic, but what she says about the economic base
of our society—what she suggests about gender and race in our world—ain’t good.”
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(duCille 542). By reading this article, many people would have an awareness of the
Barbie doll, not thinking them just as a doll. Because of Ann duCille’s work, we can
now have better skills to read what the hidden propagandas they have are and how we
should handle them. The people should not take the message directly, but also look from
different point of view and avoid receiving only what is on there.
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Work Cited
Greene, Stuart and April Lidinsky, eds. From Inquiry to Academic Writing.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.
DuCille, Ann. “From Multi Cultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Difference.”
From Inquiry to Academic Writing. Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky, eds.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.