Imagine the Possibilities
I am not going to say that this commercial was not a feel good ad, in fact I liked it a lot, but I do not think they did as much as they could have to show that such futures are a real possibility for little girls. As you saw in the ad, every scene opens up with an adorable little girl in an adult setting with a professional job. The first thing I noticed was the laughter that followed when the non-actors in the commercial found out (for example) that a little girl was going to be in charge of teaching their neurological science class. They did a great job with making the commercial cute and funny but I do not think Mattel truly empowered young females who are growing up and hopefully thinking of all the possibilities they have. I wish the commercial could have depicted adults taking these little girls dreams much more seriously, because at the end of the commercial I couldn't really get past how cute the girls were. It did not move me in a way that made me think that these girls could be a real force to be reckoned with in a world where males dominate the workplace and women are underpaid compared to them.
An article I read by Nicole Bedera on societypages.org sparked my interest in actually looking up Barbie play sets involving her in an occupational settings and this is what I found.
What do you notice about all these women? Lets start with the Barbie "office." As a female working hard to be in the marketing and communication field myself, I'd like to say that I have never seen a desk like this in any office I have ever been to in my entire life. Secondly, this office is in a home... because even a successful business woman should be in her home so she has time to do female things, like cook, clean, and take care of her kids so when her husband (with the REAL job) comes home he can relax! Next. I think this veterinarian is in last years Victoria's Secret Fashion show robe... but besides that, her workspace is awfully small and limited. Next, I could really say a lot about the female president considering the outcome of this presidential election, but I think its best that I do not. Moving on, the soccer player. Professional athletes do not look like this. Her shorts are extremely short, her cleats are not cleats, and that pink soccer ball is definitely against regulation. Next is my personal favorite, "Barbie Scientist." One, I'm happy to see that Mattel is promoting laboratory safety with those closed toe pumps and goggles, but honey that is NOT how to hold a microscope. Also I highly doubt that microscope could project any cell that I have seen in lab, but who knows. Lastly, Barbie as a teacher. Here we see Barbie teaching a probably two-year-old child geography, which is great for child development and all but I don't want to see Barbie's potential end here! I am not saying that preschool teachers are not intelligent and talented, all I am saying is that seeing barbie teach psychology or anatomy to a lecture hall full of adults would really expand a little girl's imagination. There is only so much you can teach a two-year-old in a microscopic desk sadly. Another trend I noticed while researching all these toys are the size of things. Everything is so tiny. The dogs and cats she cares for, the desk she works at, the babies she attempts to teach, it just all seems very unimportant, its almost like these are just accessories to her instead of tools she uses for real life purposes. I could really go on all day about this topic but I think I have made my point. Mattel really needs to step up their game if they plan on empowering young girls. Their new ad campaign and message does not match up with their toys, and girls growing up (especially with everything happening in politics) really need all the encouragement and empowerment they can get. So, is Barbie a feminist? Not quite yet.
