This week there has been some controversy over the new 2014 Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition because this year they are spicing up the issue by adding a picture of Barbie in a striped bathing suit. Critics have gone into hysterics over this because they believe that those two things are the most degrading things to women in society and to pair them together is crossing a whole new line of offensive. Feminist and media critic, Lisi Wade, speaks out against this saying,
"Both Barbie and the swimsuit issue have been making women and girls feel inadequate for decades. It's a perfect partnership."
I would have to agree with Wade on the issue because the comparison of real life woman to an inanimate object is literally objectifying them. Furthermore, this object to which they are being compared has the body that would be extremely unhealthy if Barbie were a real woman.
There is research that shows that if Barbie were a real person, she would be 5'9''' and weight 110 lbs which means by her Body Mass Index of 16.24, she would be anorexic.
The cover of the magazine as you can see above features the typical looking barbie doll, however this is
a limited edition that is supposed to resemble the first Barbie doll ever released on the market, who was wearing a zebra swim suit similar to this one. That is why the caption to the left of the picture says, "The doll that started it all." But what did this doll really start? An ideal beauty and body image for women that is detrimental to your health to try to achieve?
But we cannot blame the doll for all the problems with body image and objectifying women in the media frequently in America today. Barbie is just one of the many many offenders. However, it is interesting that The Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition and Barbie, some of the largest sources of media and culture that receive a lot of criticism for objectifying women, would want to band together. This "perfect partnership," as Wade puts it sarcastically, makes it 2x clearer what a problem there is in the media today in regard to the portrayal of women in America.
Nice post! I agree Madi, there many ways in which the media portrays women unrealistically, which often gives women the feeling that they are not pretty unless they look like the photoshopped models in magazines, which is simply not true. However, I think Sports Illustrated is probably trying to make peace with critics who say they are "making women feel inadequate" because they are making fun of the "fakeness" of their magazine by putting a plastic Barbie doll on the front cover.
ReplyDeleteInteresting commentary from @Josh regarding SI poking fun at itself. This is often a technique used to deflect anger regarding more substantive issues.
ReplyDeleteMadi, I especially like this part of your post because it makes your thought process more visible: "But what did this doll really start? An ideal beauty and body image for women that is detrimental to your health to try to achieve?"
I bring this up because it seems at odds with the tone of your opening reporting that, "[c]ritics have gone into hysterics over this...". This makes it sound like you believe the critics are unreasonable, but I don't believe that's true because I *know* you. Dig? Think about your readers?
Otherwise, solid!