How Does Barbie Influence the Aesthetic Standards of Growing Children?

Abstract

The research hopes to explore the relationship between Barbie dolls and beauty standards in growing children, taking body dissatisfaction as a direction. The research analyzes the experiment conducted by Dittmar et al. in 2006, The Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5 to 8- Year-Old Girls, about the body image of different dolls and responses from young girls. The responses include their actual body shape, the body shape they ideally desired to be, and their ideal body shape as an adult woman. It is proven that girls with Barbie dolls experienced body dissatisfaction due to our theoretical framework. They experienced lower self-esteem and higher body dissatisfaction, which reflects the internalization of Barbie's proportion as the beauty standard. This research focuses on the potential reasons behind the body dissatisfaction of young girls with Barbie and why they might take Barbie as the aesthetic standard. Compared to previous research, this research provides more references for improving Barbie, whereas previous research focuses more on Barbie's impact on teenagers.