Control Issues
Despite the advances in issues pertaining to women – equality in the workplace and at home – it seems that at least in the United States private industry and the media continue to demand that women meet certain physical standards. In looking back over the last fifty years or so, it seems that about the time the Barbie doll was introduced by Mattel Toys, the perception of the perfect woman changed from the full-figured woman, now Barbie set the standard for body shape and weight. Longs legs, a flat tummy and a full bosom became attractive. While the issue of equality for women was brought to the forefront in the late sixties and early seventies, so too was the availability of breast augmentation – surgery to meet the social standard of a full bosom.
Here Barbie represents every woman, bound and held hostage by standards that do not exist for the opposite sex, she’s trapped in a glass box not of her own making. She was born into a society controlled by consumerism. The “bars” of her cell are composed of nutritional information from a plain white rice bag. Who are these clowns that not only ultimately control women as objects, they control societies perception of physical appearance.
Dana Doran 