The Skinny about the New Trend

Women come in different sizes. Ideally, there should be no ideal weight for men and women alike. A person’s proper weight should be determined, not by aesthetic standards, but by health standards. Thus, a person’s ideal body weight should be determined by his/her bone structure, height, and other relevant factors, and not by the way certain clothing would look on him/her.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a current trend favoring skinny women over their more healthy counterparts, especially in the glamorous circles such as Hollywood and the high fashion industry. Thus, top international actresses and celebrities, such as Kate Bosworth, Keira Knightley, and Nicole Richie have been spotted sporting very thin figures.

In the related world of high fashion, models could be seen strutting in the catwalks looking too thin for comfort. Indeed, it would be considered very unusual if a plus sized woman appears in a catwalk, unless she is promoting a line of maternity clothing or those made specifically for plus sized women.

The current culture that favors thin women over their more fleshy counterparts could be explained by at least popular phenomena. The first one involves Barbie, a doll that has captured the fancy of young girls all over the world for many years. Barbie has given birth to a specific image of a perfect woman, which image is the standard being aspired for by women, young and old alike.

The other cultural phenomenon promoting the overly thin figure is the skinny trend in Hollywood and the high fashion industry, which sends the message that only skinny women could look beautiful in fabulous dresses.
Barbie is a doll that has captured the interest of both adults and children alike, and male and female alike.

Indeed, Barbie could be considered a cultural phenomenon since its creation in the 1950s. Barbie is viewed as the epitome of the perfect woman, who has the beauty and curves that is the envy and dream of every girl or woman. Indeed, the picture of Barbie had a profound and lasting influence in the lives of young girls and women all over the world. However, much of this influence had been negative, following her perceived representation of the ideal feminine.

Mattel, Incorporated is responsible for creating Barbie, whose full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts (Vaughan). On March 9, 1959, the doll was officially introduced in the market at a major toy fair in New York (Vaughan). This makes the doll five decades old (Vaughan).

Barbie was originally conceptualized by her producers to be a doll that has no clear and identifiable personality (Vaughan). Initially, she was designed to be a toy that would allow little girls to project their own personalities (Vaughan).

Barbie was a reaction to a popular doll at the time named Lilli (Wolf). Lilli was a German doll that was known for her large breasts and sexy clothing (Wolf). It sold a lot of numbers, which encouraged Mattel to create a counterpart that would appeal to little girls (Wolf).

Barbie’s creators, Ruth and Elliot Handler, intended to design an adult doll for little girls, which was supposed to be radically different from the popular dolls manufactured for young girls at the time, which all looked like babies (Wolf). Thus, Barbie was designed to be 11 ½ inches tall (Wolf). She also weighed 11 ounces (Wolf). Thus, in her debut, she wore a swimsuit, thereby sporting the image of a teenage model (Wolf). Barbie thus debuted as “the first doll in America with a adult body.” (Wolf).

Initially, Barbie did not meet instant success (Wolf). Despite her entrance as the first of her kind in the American market, consumers appeared to be unprepared for Barbie’s arrival (Wolf). In particular, mothers had been primarily horrified at the sight of Barbie’s adult body (Wolf). Mothers were concerned that this new doll was exuding way too much sex appeal to be good for their little girls (Wolf). Hence, upon her entry to the American market, Barbie did not immediately become the cultural icon that she is today (Wolf).

Later on, however, Barbie experienced certain changes in and developments in the consumer scene which allowed her to penetrate popular culture (Wolf). The first development involved the introduction of the television set to the market (Wolf). In 1950s, the television was introduced, which presented itself as a major medium that could reach the most number of people (Wolf).

This major economic episode permitted Barbie to reach her target market of mothers, teenagers and girls (Wolf). Thus, little girls who saw the television ads asked their mothers to buy them the new beautiful doll (Wolf). This made Barbie a household name (Wolf).

The second economical development was a result of the strong economy that emerged after the war (Wolf). At that time, middle-class suburban families began to get on their feet. This allowed teenagers to earn enough money to buy these Barbie dolls on their own, without asking for help from their parents (Wolf). This was good for the doll business, because sales of the Barbie dolls shot up (Wolf).