Feminism and Cultural Identity Essay Example for Free

Feminism and Cultural Identity EssayBarbie, a worldwide viral hiss have it offn for her interest in adult-fashioned roles, indirectly constitutes the way American girls should get d let up to be. With the creation of this raspberry came the thirst and need to sell it. Therefore, just one version of the Barbie doll is no. sufficient. Mattel Inc., famous for its numerous toy creations yet infamous for its many controversies, has made Barbies mate, sister, cousin and even her dog. Consequently, Mattel created Barbie collectibles that included the Barbie Dolls of the military man. In this collection, the creation the notorious PR Barbie as Frances Negrn-Muntaner states in Barbies Hair Selling Out Puerto Rican Identity in the Global Market, has developed confusion, furiousness and also stillness in the Puerto Rican caller.In Sandra Cisneros essay, Barbie Q, Barbies values atomic number 18 as she physically is, merely p dieic. She is a mean-eyed fashionista boyfriend steale r with emphasis on the stealing part. Barbie has made society assume that girls and womens interests are provided based on their looks and men. At the same time, girls around the world are getting brainwashed into thought that is what they were made to do and how they are meant to be. Because Barbie dolls are used by five-year-old girls who may be in the process finding who they are, these girls may grow up with these sexist values in their lives. With this being said, young girls are offered a very superficial way of life, the life of a Barbie, which may be fair and cute from the outside but its a very fake one. With this, society has created a reprobate way of how a girl or woman should be like. On this essays last paragraphs describes where the protagonists dolls come from a flea market.The doll she had probably was damaged by a fire, but as she describes the remedy it shows that in a way the barbarian accepts not only the dolls flaws, but her own. With this, she get out not let society define correction. And the search for perfection will be her own, not what society has taught. Another essay that embarks the same issue with Barbie dolls is the antecedently mentioned by Frances Negrn-Muntaner. In this essay, Negrn, states that when Mattel brought the newly Boricua personage to the Barbie Dolls of the World collection, Puerto Rican people from both the island and migrants in the United States had distinct yet connected opinions of the doll. Island intellectuals criticized the dolls Americanized elevated of what a Puerto Rican should be and is like, this being a wavy- hairsbreadthed mulatta. Still, Puerto Ricans living on the island bought the doll and made it one of the near sold.On the other hand, Islanders now living in the United States considered the doll straight-haired and white. The Puerto Rican Barbie offers young girls a misconception of what a Puerto Rican really is. The Puerto Rican Barbie was conceived al about in the 21st century wi th the mannerisms of a 19th century jbara (a country-side woman). The idea behind Barbie Dolls of the World was that American girls learned about assorted shades in the world. Since Barbies are sold worldwide, there is an issue that is developed instantly. The American corporation Mattel has a big dilemma reservation sure that the conception of the dolls is loyal to the culture it corresponds, an issue that they did not pay attention with proximity for the Puerto Rican Barbie doll.thank to this doll, people from around the world perceive Puerto Rican identity as country mulatto men and women. When in reality, Puerto anti-racketeering laws race is a mix of African, Spanish and Tano (natives) The lingering impression that the Puerto Rican Barbie was essentially white and that its mulattoness was a ethnical masquerade was reinforced by the boxfuls ethnic informant story for Puerto Ricans My country was discovered in 1493 by Christopher Columbus who claimed it for Spain.In only me ntioning that the island was discovered by Columbus, Mattel and its allies connote that all Puerto Ricans are fundamentally Europeans and banish the influence of Natives and Africans to the back of the bus. The dolls box, to a certain point, limits the explanation of the Puerto Rican race and the consumer to his or her understanding and cognition of the Puerto Rican culture, or any culture for that matter. The owner of the Barbie doll, or society passes to believe what the box primarily says.Usually, stereotypes are a general knowledge of a country or a culture. This not being the case on the Puerto Rican conception of the Barbie doll, she is establish as an olive skinned, jbara with a bomba manage, that in reality looks like a European dress with encaje (lace). If the doll was a jbara (low class countryside woman) with a bomba dress, why did it take in lace when it is a feature of a high-class European wardrobe? The dolls main concern is for you to like the peculiar(prenominal ) white dress I am wearing. It is very typical of a dress I power wear to a festival of a party. states Frances Negrn-Muntaner. The Puerto Rican doll is a complete stereotype of what a Puerto Rican is. If the box said that the doll is wearing a traditional outfit, or explained how our culture developed, it would be a different story. Nevertheless, the doll is put in a 19th century context when it was almost created within the new millennium.Clearly, Puerto Ricans must have passed through modernization or what Puerto Rican intellectuals call Americanization. Also, the dolls features are the ones of a mulatto, when Puerto Ricans have a mixture of African, Tano and Spanish. Puerto Ricans ethnic background is omitted with this doll. However, the most debatable issue with this doll wasnt its skin color or its fiesta wardrobe, it was its hair, as the essays title says Barbies Hair. Frances Negrn-Muntaner shows various Puerto Rican opinions on the dolls hair but the most outrageous states as follows Lourdes Prez, a Puerto Rican Chicago-based, San Juan-raised interior decorator, was horrified at what she saw I slangt forethought that shes white. Puerto Ricans come in all colors. But when I saw that hair, I thought Dios mo, we just passed a terrible legacy to the next generation.Despite cheesed off responses from some Puerto Rico-based (white) men- this woman is saying that the prevalent lack of respect, the lawlessness, drugs, driving conditions, domestic and child abuse arent as terrible a legacy as a straight-haired Barbie Lourdes Prez then was pointed out by Louis Aguilar as a Puerto Rican woman who probably spent countless hours straightening her hair before going to the subprogram or school. She was described as a woman ashamed of her grifera. Prez contradicts herself in the previous restate because she emphasized, Puerto Ricans come in all colors and yet criticized what big hair the doll had. Puerto Ricans, as previously informed, are a mix of 3 bloods Tan o, Spanish and African. Therefore, the issue that the Puerto Rican Barbies hair provoke is illogical. What Mattel should have worked on better, were its features and the box historical background. Because Barbie is a globalized toy, it is important that the company portrays the culture correctly so people wont generalize when in contact with another culture.The representation of Barbies as women helps animise stereotypes because girls that play with these dolls are in the stage of life where they are in the process of formation as a human being. The dolls profession or wardrobe will be what the child wants to grow up and be or know. Barbies as women are key to generalization and dolls should be what a kid wants it to be, not what a company wants women to be. In a way, Negrn-Muntaner suggests in Barbies Hair that cultural stereotypes affect not only how people around the world mountain Puerto Ricans but also how Puerto Ricans view themselves. A sort of indifference has been create d with this doll. Puerto Rican folk know that the dolls historical background is all in all disfigured yet they still go out and buy the collectible Barbie.That is to say, Puerto Ricans have passed to not care about how other people view them. People around the world see Puerto Ricans like the doll peasants wearing bomba dresses with European lace, that meant the person is in a higher social class. Its a deplorable combination of what we are. By reading these materials it has been clearly learned that it is very important that people know have a deep sense of they are and where they come from. Also, not to generalize a culture with a doll meant for a specific country. It is essential that we, as Puerto Ricans, become proud of our roots and get to know where we come from.We cannot limit our knowledge of what a Puerto Rican is and where he or she comes from to a doll. It is also necessary that girls own up to a Barbie, not the other way around. A Barbie is not a paradigm of what a gi rl should grow up to be. We are not perfect or plastic and we are not meant to be it either. This is where society fails. Most people dont let their children know that they are perfect in their own way. It is most important that we let others know the wrongs that come from generalization and stereotypes. These, along with prejudice, inactivate and deactivate intelligence because people wont let it flow or let he or she get influenced by other cultures and learn. 1 . Mulatto is the race mix of Spanish and Tano. 2 . African-Puerto Rican dance that the lower class performed. 3 . Known as big kinky hair passed African folk.