Take Control of Your Culture - American Studies - Blog

Dolls Shaping America

 

The origins of Barbie go back to the early '50's. She is most commonly portrayed as a 6 foot tall, perky, long blond haired white female. She can be seen swimming in her mansions pool, or helping animals when they are sick. She symbolizes the woman of America.

The origins of Bratz goes back to the early '90's. They are urban, can be seen at parties, and come in a variety of races, but they are not as popular as a common Barbie doll. Their lips and heads are too big for their bodies, and they flirt with boys, making them not so innocent.

They are both dolls we used to play with as kids, but the images they put out are just some of the ways media shapes our views and ideas on race. The barbie doll unintentionally shapes the way girls and women see themselves. The barbie doll is perfect, perfect voice, hair, makeup, body and skin. She is what a white woman supposed to be: polite, kind, always happy, perky and suburban.

 

Bratz however get rid of the stereotype by having the main dolls of different races: white, black, latin, and asian. They represent a more realistic common girl in America.

 

 

Madea, the Symbol of the Typical Black Woman?

Tyler Perry, other wise known as Madea,is a global symbol of the typical African Amercian woman.  Being naturally agressive, yet at the same time caring to others in the house hold.  Being a man of great sense of humor, could his symbol be seen as a racistal figure as well? think of Madea from another race's point of view, how would you react towards black females knowing they could be like this symbol and be aggressive at any moment? would you be afraid to aproach said females?  These are the questions that come along with modern day society. 

There are many things that can be used to descibe african american females, but tyler perry likes to stick to the "facts" and "stories" that come along with this culture of females.  In african american households, the female is portrayed as the ruler of the house.  She lays the laws essentially, but at the same time she isn't the ruler. The african american male obeys the females rules but he knows he is controlling, but doesn't need to say so.  Basically speaking, the African american female plays a strong role in her household.

Are you hip?

What is being hip? I think that being hip is getting involved in something that your interested in that is popular at the moment in time. For example Facebook is very hip right now, a lot of people go on the on it to interact with one another, to meet new friends from school, etc… Hip things usually come in and out of style such as Myspace used to be the big thing, now it is Facebook. That is one of the flaws about being “hip” you have to kind of keep up with the new styles, not only in clothes, but the way you talk, or walk, or new t.v shows, etc…

Facebook etc.

A huge number of people these days have Facebook accounts, or something equivalent, a large number of these people being teenagers.  People are now proposing to institute a mandatory parental consent guideline which would probably cut the number of users drastically.

I think that the lack of parental intervention is part of the fun associated with things like Facebook.  Its a site where friends can talk about anything with a certain sense of security that their stuff wont be read by unworthy eyes.  This sense of security might, however, be false.  I have heard that colleges look at potential students' accounts.

When using Facebook one must be weary of predators or creeps.  However I believe that the mandatory parental consent issue is taking it one step too far.

Influences of Pop Culture

Americans are influenced by pop culture predominantly teenagers. They watch MTV or BET even the commercials and seeing famous people wearing name brand clothes. They’re feeding into the stereotype that if you do wear these kinds of clothes then you are considered “cool”. That’s because they see these famous people and they think “Oh! Since P.Diddy’s wearing it and he's cool then maybe if I wear it then I’ll be cool too”. They’re too busy judging other people by the clothes and the shoes that you wear and not paying attention to the person as a whole.