The Racial Misconception of Aboriginal Barbie Dolls

The Racial Misconception of Aboriginal Barbie Dolls Student’s Name Institution Course Due Date THE RACIAL MISCONCEPTION OF ABORIGINAL BARBIE DOLLS Introduction People have unique skin color and hair type. Despite the fact that people are trying to create awareness, they have also concentrated on making different looks on Barbie dolls, all the features of the dolls are features of a white child. The Aboriginal people have a long economic, social, and historical disadvantages in Canada. For example there are about 20% Aboriginal population of Canada that is located in Ontario and some of these people love in urban areas. There are some human rights issues that are affecting the Aboriginal people in Ontario and they fall within the provincial jurisdiction. All the Aboriginal people living in urban areas suffer fotm heightened and cumulative poverty, discrimination and low levels of educations. Additionally, there is the issue of ethnic Barbie doll that is made from the real Barbie’s. Today, these Barbie dolls come in a coalition of different colors, races, ethnicities and nationalities. This paper evaluates all the racial effects of the (Aboriginal) Barbie dolls on the Aboriginal community in Canada. The Barbie dolls have caused dangerous racial stereotypes. One of the first issue that is faced with ethnic Barbie dolls is that they are made from a similar style as that of the real Barbie dolls. It is also very hard to make Barbie dolls with the following races; Asian, Hispanic, and Black. Majority of the Barbie doll buyers are always interested in ethnicity as long as the dolls are not dangerous and harmful. It is also important for cultural diversity, ethnicity, and profitability. Capitalism has also has appropriated what is referred to as blackness and has made this dolls marketable. The American Barbie doll strengthens racial stereotypes among the Aboriginal community. This is illustrated when (Fear-Segal, 2013) asserts that the manner in which the Barbie doll is dressed illustrates that Native Americans have the ability of having leisure activities only. Such activities include beating of drums, sowing among other activities. This is very contradicting especially with the Caucasian Barbie doll which is always dress with upper class interests like lawyers, nursing, doctor, teachers among others. Additionally, (Fear-Segal, 2013) also says that the concepts of the superiority of the Barbie doll has contributed to much misconception of the Aboriginals in Canada because it has separated itself form the culture of the Barbie doll. Even though the main purpose of the Native American Barbie doll is to highlight the beauty of the Native culture, the Barbie doll also reinforces false ideologies of “Nativeness.” This is because the doll reinforces racial stereotypes. The doll is demonstrated that the only real representations is the one that is portrayed. Additionally the female Native American Barbie doll is a challenge because the doll lacks knowledge on the ongoing issues of the Aboriginal people and their past conflicts (Luciw, 2012). The female Native American Barbie doll has belittled and has also created a lot of conflicts towards racial identities. There is no significance of having a female Barbie doll because it is inferior and unimportant. There is lack of diversity when it comes of Barbie dolls. This is evident from 1980 when Hispanic Barbie Doll and later these models spread across the globe. Additionally in 2007, another Barbie doll referred to as Cinco de Mayo Barbie was introduced (Rice, 2014). The doll had worn a ruffled red, green and white Mexican flag. One of the Hispanic Magazine also stated that one of the interesting dramatic development in the history of Barbie was when the doll embraced multiculturalism by using variety of costumes skin tone, hair that resembled idolized girls. Some of these dolls were the Peruvian Barbie, Cinco De Mayo Barbie, Mexican Barbie, Spanish Barbie and Puerto Rican Barbie. The colored Francie was introduced in 1967 and it was described as the first African American Barbie doll. However, this doll used head molds for the white Francie doll but it did not have any African American features other than the dark skin. The first African American Barbie doll was made in 1968. The Black Barbie was introduced in 1980 although it still exhibited Caucasian features. However in 1990, another doll was launched by Mattel. Instead of Mattel using the same molds of the Caucasian Barbie, Mattel created new Barbie’s. The skin tone, the texture of the hair, facial features and names were modified. The body shape of the Barbie was changed, but the proportions were not changes to make sure that the clothes could not be changed (Rice, 2014). In 2009, Mattel decided to introduce another Barbie which had the intention of having a more realistic depiction of the African American people compared to the previous dolls. Mattel then expanded the dolls using seven skin tones, twenty four hairstyles and twenty two eye colors but this strategy was not successful. Alternatively the original White Barbie was is not a representative of the white women. Feminists also complain that the Barbie reinforces unattainable beauty. The original Barbie doll referred to as Marina was ethnic and was intended for ethnicity. The doll had a flower garland, swimsuit, and a sarong. The female Native American Barbie doll is also misrepresented through sexual desires by the loftier white men. In this case racism is represented whereby the Female Native American Barbie doll is represented by Eurocentric men though the [reception of the Native American women are savages and they are not capable of doing anything else except frolicking in the environment. Additionally, (Kiyawesew, 2014) stated that the Native American Barbie doll was supposed to be stripped because of the traditional clothing and the Barbie could not be considered as Native American. Using this representation, the Aboriginals are illustrated by the non-native...