I’m going to rattle off a second straight Barbie themed post, because it’s part of my life stage with a 6 year old daughter right now (never mind that my 3 year old son is almost as big of a fan).
Many, many have referenced over time the impact of many of the key female television and movie influences on young girls as being white, blond, skinny, and with blue eyes.
I’ve heard this over the years, more so since serving cross-culturally in ethnic ministry and hearing stories of people wrestling with their ethnic identities in a white majority culture. If all the examples of heroes and desirable women are blond haired, blue eyed, and fair skinned – what does it mean if you don’t meet that criteria.
I’m not going to write something new on the theme. Rather I’ll just provide some evidence.
Last week my daughter asked me out of the blue,
“Dad, have you have noticed that all the Barbie’s in all the movies have blue eyes?”
There it is – if my daughter’s asking about it, she’s thinking about it. I think it’s amazing that she’s conscious of such things and thinking about it, but that is who she is. She observes things-everything.
My daughter doesn’t have blue eyes – at least not the color on television. I wonder what is going on in her head about her own self-perception of her own beauty. But my daughter is white, but not blond. She’s thin, but she wears a small brace on her foot to assist her muscle development given a mild case of cerebral palsy. I think she’s beautiful. To what degree does the constant flow of blond haired, blue-eyed vision of beauty affect how she sees herself over time?
More pointedly – what does that vision do to those who are dark skinned, with dark eyes, dark hair, or who have any other feature outside of the Barbie or Disney norm?
A few years ago we made an intentional decision to put a lot of movies in front of my daughter that showed different pictures of beauty for my daughter. I think I had a post somewhere where I mentioned it. But characters like Mulan, Jasmine from Aladdin, & a few others have been helpful to balance out the traditional Disney and Barbie onslaught. Obviously, that’s not enough by itself to contribute to healthy identity formation in this area, but it’s something that has helped somewhat. I think Belle from Beauty and the Beast has been helpful to just because it’s a girl who actually loves books and likes to read – which is totally my daughter.
Anyway – the point of all this is that my daughter at 6 is aware of the majority culture and socially constructed dominant values of what beauty truly is – even if she doesn’t totally know what that means yet for her as a girl and one day a woman.
If little girls notice these subtle messages in what’s platformed and popular and shown, maybe we all should pay attention to.
How does this aspect of identity formation affect how you parent or lead? What is similar and/or different between children and people later in life like high school and college students or young adults in this area?
