Name : Arfi Sabihah

NIM : 196111021

Class : 3 A

Mid Term Essay

“Barbie and Beauty Standard in Ethnic Perspective”

Barbie is almost being the most favorite toys of daughter in the entire world. The perfect body,
beautiful face, and fashionable costume are the distinctive feature of this doll. Like most daughter in
the world, the children in my environment also like it. They like the appearance of this doll, very pretty
and elegant. And so other children, they have their own favorite themselves. Like car, doll, robot, and
etc. The impact of toys can be various and make imagination to the children’s brain. As children
commonly they have big imagination want they want to be in the future.

Children have big interesting in toys especially the toys that have pretty appearance, glaring
color, and easy to play. One of them is Barbie. Barbie is a plastic dolls like a woman commonly. They
play it happily with their friend, when they played them are so creative like, change the costume and
shoes, also comb its hair, even Barbie doll do like as real human, they need take a bath, cook and eat,
go to shopping or other places like the real human as well as they like it. They also give the Barbie doll
a house and cupboard to save its clothes. When they play Barbie they can imagine what they want.
They think when they become teenager up to being adult; they imagine become a pretty girl with
perfect body and wealth or a princess with wonderful castle.

Barbie is part of popular culture; they are so famous in world society. Many people like it and
hope to be most women want to be a Barbie. It seems like standard beauty of a woman is like Barbie.
Woman must have slim body, pretty face, flawless skin, but actually every woman in this world is
beautiful. They have their own unique. Even there are some persons that have obsession to be a real
Barbie. They totally change their body as resemble as Barbie doll. In ethnic perspective standard of
beauty can be various. They have their own standard how woman can be categorized as pretty woman.
 According to Huistra to know beauty standard we study the history how the history of weight as
beauty standard. We can understand the link between weight, being slim and emerged in Netherland in
1920 s and advertisements for sliming remedies in 1930s. “Historians of the body have dated the rise of
being slim as the dominant beauty ideal in Western Europe and the United States in the mid- to late
nineteenth century (Stearns 2002). The Netherlands seems to ft this pattern. An 1898 Dutch beauty
manual describes corpulence as ‘disturbing … the harmony of forms,’ although it stresses that being
too thin is no good either: ‘With the notion of perfect beauty, a certain “too much or too little” with
regard to the curves of the forms of the body cannot be reconciled’ (Goupy 1898, 96)”.

Since early nineteenth century advertising campaign for slimming remedies have been done and
established as a standard of ideal beauty. Example of this campaign was Boranium Berries, which
delivered slim in a month. The advertisement claimed that it was the easiest way to slim body in short
time, just one berry for every meal. In fact it was not actually berry, but an artificial pill that looked like
a berry. The advertisement in that century has purposed to express body size, in kilos or pound that
categorized as ideal weight. “Most Bonkora advertisements contain one or more user testimonials, but
references to weight occurred outside user testimonials as well. Several Bonkora advertisements make
general claims about the amount of weight that can be lost in taking Bonkora: for example, ‘Thousands
of people … have lost dozens of pounds without a diet’ (De Graafschap-bode, 17 May 1937, 7) or
‘How to reduce a pound a day without a diet’ (De Telegraaf, 31 July 1936, 20)”.

“Turkey now ranks among the top ten countries worldwide with the highest number of cosmetic
surgeons per capita (ISAPS 2017)”. Istanbul capital becomes a regional center for beauty and fashion.
With society background of neoliberal urban restructuring, feminization of urban middle class and an
expansion of the urban service class, aesthetic body and surgery become more consumption. In Turkey
there are specific bodily concerns that product and history of modernity, femininity, and urban
citizenship. Heavy female breast and large or hooked noose are the specific standard of beauty. I think
it is problematic argumentation because beauty standard determine with physical shape like heavy
female breast and hook nose and it also connected with cosmetic surgery, in particular breast and nose
and have desire for normal body in urban Turkey.
 The other side in non-white elite skin like Africa and Brazil potentially challenge global
inequities and dominant discourse of rice. Frequently the black body had been representing as ugly.
Physical appearance like tightly curly hair and a broader nose. This statement ongoing on stigma and
makes low self-esteem among black populations. The beauty standard and physical appearance related
to dress, skin color, hair, and physical bodily features—emerged as a meaningful category in peoples’
everyday lives, especially for self-identified black women living and working in upscale urban spaces
associated with modernity and sophisticated lifestyles. “Given their potentially strategic position, do
upwardly mobile black women challenge racialized norms and hierarchies through their beauty
practices? Or do their beauty practices emphasize old as well as newer inequalities? Do black middle-
class women seek to conform to western ideals of beauty and global trends towards an increased
standardization of the body and physical appearance (Garland-Thomson 2009).”

Release from all opinion I think now is better. Actually we are all human and we create with
our unique in appearance. All women in this world have their beauty and their unique. Diversity makes
the word more colorful with all difference in culture, ethnic, and costume. I think every woman
beautiful with their own way. Because what God give to us is the best for us, and we have to thank God
what God give. Maybe outside there are some people that have lack of physic, but with their weakness
they can do the best for them.

Reference

Claudia Liebelt, Sarah Bšllinger, and Ulf Vierke,BEAUTY AND THE NORM Debating Standardization
in Bodily Appearance, Bayreuth, Germany, 2019, Palgrave MacMillan