"The Real American Hero," this has been the phrase used to sell GI Joes since the 1964 release of the action figure. The real American hero of what? The action figure is based off of a cartoon that's not real and the antagonist of the program has nothing to do with the enemies of America. The Barbie doll has a perfect unattainable body, and when little girls see this body they believe that they will or should look this way. GI Joe and Barbie have succeeded in lowering the self esteem of boys and girls in our country.
In the article "The Evolution of GI Joe, 1964-1998" we see that in a research performed by Dr. Harrison Pope, a Harvard psychiatrist shows the relationship between the GI Joe and Body-image disturbances. The research performed by a Harvard law professor which shows us something right there that GI Joes have an affect on young males self esteem.
The present day GI Joe has a bicep measurement of 26.8 inches is diameter and according to the article previously cited Mark McGuire who is 6'5" has 20.0 inch diameter of a bicep. We see hear that the Joe action figure is very over exaggerated and gives off a false pretense of the tone of the figures body. In the 1964 premiere year for the Joe it's body was relatively proportional to a normal human. The cause of the Joe figure to presumably appear very large in body size effects young males and their self esteem.
For little girls a figure that causes the same problem is Barbie. Over the years Barbie has always been what little girls want to grow up and look like, the problem is that Barbie's figure cannot be attainable. The University of Arkansas created a replica of what Barbie...
Thoughts
"GI Joe and Barbie have succeeded in lowering the self esteem of boys and girls in our country." is not a terrible statement, but I would like to see more development of the self esteem issue. There are many factors that affect a child's self esteem. Maybe just a statement of growing up and having unattainable goals such as being perfect like Barbie or GI Joe would have been more effective. I do like the opening sentences because it grabs the attention of the reader...or at least it did me.
1 out of 1 people found this comment useful.