Beautiful women and Bratz

Jessica already detailed most of the main ideas in Beauvior’s essay so I would like to focus more on some of the contemporary connections we made in class as well as some of my own. First of all, I want to talk about the Bratz website we visited. I think it is safe to say that if these products come to the minds of several people in the class (including me) when talking about this subject then there is some importance to them. The first thing I noticed with this site is the screen that appeared while it was loading. A tagline in the center of the screen read, “Please wait… It takes time to look this good!” I think that this website should take its own advice and should be telling these little girls to take some time (about five to ten years or better yet never) to be wearing the clothes and makeup they put on these dolls. I explored the site a little and found that the “lives” of these characters revolve around fashion and looking good. The reason girls are growing up thinking that their value is dependent on how they look is because that is what we are teaching them at a young age. One example is my three year old niece who already loves to wear makeup. She sometimes even carries around lip gloss with her. Can we start any younger? I realize that since these ideas are planted in us it is easy to encourage this behavior without even thinking about it. For example, with my niece, my first instinct when she comes up to me with blush on is to say, “Well, don’t you look pretty?” but I try my best to correct myself by saying something more like, “That’s very pretty, but you don’t need makeup to be pretty, you are beautiful just the way you are.” I know it may seem silly, but I think that it is even the little things like that that can influence the future self esteem and self image of the child.
Another issue was brought up by the pole dancing toy. Children want to act like adults. One of the first games kids learn to play is “house.” Many kids can be found dressing up in their parents’ clothes. One thing that I found that feeds into this is teenage (or even preteen) drama shows (the commercial I saw was for The Naked Brothers Band on Nickelodeon). Ok, I’m sorry but I don’t think that 6th graders should have that much drama in their lives. Who cares if Billy likes Sarah who likes Jim who just broke up with Amber?
Bringing it back to the essay, I believe that although women have gained more respect over the years there is still a plague of casual, careless disrespect in our society. I ran into one such example on my way to class the other day. I passed two people who were talking and although I did not hear the entire conversation what I did hear slightly sickened me. A guy was talking about his girlfriend and proceeded to call her a b**** and claim that she should just sit at home on her a** all day and just trust that he isn’t cheating on her instead of bothering him all the time. First of all, I am a firm believer that every woman on this planet is beautiful in her own way (whether others accept it or not) and that names such as that are repulsively disrespectful to that beauty. I especially had a hard time grasping that he would talk about his girlfriend of all people like that. The person he was talking to simply chuckled and they continued with their conversation. I believe that it is these sorts of situations that slowly but surely pick at the identity of women and make them think that they must fit into some mold that society had carved for them. I think that Beauvior elegantly and effectively portrays these ideas in her essay about the falsehoods and truths of womankind.