Little Girls in a Barbie World

I am an avid viewer of the Ellen show. About a year and a half ago, Ellen introduced us to Sophia Grace and Rosie, two little English girls, 8 and 5 respectively, who are in love with Nicki Minaj and want to be singers when they grow up. They recently released a book and when they went to the Ellen show, she asked them what other merchandise they would like to release in the future. One of the responses that came from Sophia Grace was that they wanted dolls of themselves. She talked about how they always play with Barbies and even if she did get one of her she would do an American accent with it. Then Rosie said that they couldn’t do English accents because it wouldn’t sound right with the Barbie because she’s from America.

One of the things that I found really interesting about what these little girls were saying was that Barbie, much like how Shirley Steinberg was saying, has a specific identity and when she is another ethnicity or person, she is only acting so. And to further that idea, Rosie said that it wouldn’t sound right. So once again, Barbie has become this doll that exemplifies characteristics of what is “normal”, not just by her white skin color and blond hair, but also by where she comes from. I think growing up in the United States, we don’t always think about how we’re foreigners to other people too, and we come to think about how being American is what is normal and differences stem from that. Combining Steinberg’s ideas of Barbie and the views of two little girls, how Barbie is viewed isn’t just how she looks but also how we can relate to her and whether or not we can be “normal” or “right”.