Reaction #1

     This weekeng our class read Barbie-Q, a short cute story about a young girls "plastic desire."  She wants so desperately to have a Barbie with many outfits that she can change her into, but because of her family's money problems, she can only have one extra outfit, not including the makeshift sock-dress.  The last line is "who's to know?"  Who's to know she is poor? Who's to know her Barbie smells.
      This story about Barbie is one woman's dealing with her economic status growing up as it played out through her Barbies.  It was interesting to read because in my childhood, we had the same clothes/money delimna.  I always wanted clothes from Limited Too but they were too expensive to have my entire wardrobe from.  This little girl could care less what she looks like, as long as her Barbie looks good. 
      This story goes well with the story from Body Outlaws, "Shrink Wrapped."  That story spoke on women and their body image/wheight issues.  I see a deep connection between girls playing with Barbie, and those girls later turning into insecure women.  They base their value in childhood on how good their Barbie looks, if her hair is just right, how her clothes are fitting her.  One of the interesting things is that as we grow up, these are many of the same issues that adult women face everyday  in their lives.  Even the therapist because body conscience after workinig with so many skinny/bulemic/anerexic women.
       I wonder if we traced back the time of Barbie's invention and traced the prevalence of eating disorder/body dis morphia problems if there would be some correlation?

The Barbie Effect
I found this study that did find a connection between girls playing with Barbie and eating disorders later in life.  This is a scary reality.


Online Writing

      On a different note, writing can often be gendered.  What does this mean?  Writing can be geared to a specific sex.  Nicholas Sparks books, although written by a man, are often delicate, romantic, simple, love stories that are writing for a female audience.  On the other hand, Stephen King, also a male author, has a distinctly masculine voice.  His books are often scary, gory, non-romantic, hard, and fact orientated.  These are all masculine characteristics written for a masculine audience.
     We often find writing online to be very gendered.  Here are two websites:
cosmopolitan.com
menshealth.com
     The cosmo website is gendered for a female audience.  Most of the articles talk about how to please your man or how to just relax to take care of yourself.  The second website, Men's Health, talks about pleasing your woman, but never says those words.  It only talks about how to do certain things with a step by step guide, with the expectation that she will like it too.  Taking time for yourself for men means working out and getting bigger with your "personal trainer."
     It is interesting to compare and contrast these two very similar websites and how they are gendered for their readers.  I think it makes a huge difference in how they are written.  I know personally if I want to go and read up on one of these sites, I would feel a lot more comfortable knowing that Cosmos was written with me, as a female, in mind.