GI Joe and Barbie: Bad for self-esteem?

Essay by sharkbaitHigh School, 12th gradeA, January 2004

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"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...