So I am kind of sad that we can't share our presentations to the class, so i am going to give you a little taste of it. While looking at advertising that gives different false self images, specifically involving the race portrayed and targeted to I came across a video on YouTube that I thought was fairly shocking. The video shows an experiment done on children called the doll test. The test is done by showing children of different backgrounds three barbies ( they are all dressed the same, the only difference is the color of their skin.) and asked which one is the prettiest, which one is the best, and which one is the baddest. The results of the test are shocking, 50% thought that the white barbie was the prettiest and 50% of the children thought that the back barbie was the baddest. Only one of the children thought that the black barbie was the prettiest.
Wow, This is the result of poor media that provides limited variety of positive images for children. Media is full of successful white people, and this test can prove that. I also found it remarkably sad that even the children of a different race or ethnicity choose the white barbie as the prettiest. So not only do children think that they won't be successful because of the color of their skin, they also don;t believe their skin is beautiful. Because these children don't find their skin to be beautiful it leads to the result that the black barbie doll is labeled bad. So how do we change these views and make children have a more positive perspective on themselves and others of their own race. I would like to be able to think that we could achieve things without the media but we all know that in today's world the media is in the middle of how our lives are run. So first we fix media to display more role models and positive goals for children of all backgrounds as well as trying to fix in what ways children interact with each other. With all of this information by the experiments conducted i would like to say that even though we have a lot we can change and improve We have also come a long way from how our grandparents and parents lived and treated each other.
References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOHbtM9463c
Wow. That is a really sad and telling experiment. It is crazy to think that even children can be so affected by the media. You might think that children don't really pay attention to the subtle things in advertising and everything but it totally does affect their unconscious. There is so much influencing children and as we have learned in this class it basically all represents on ideal life-style- skinny, white, straight and middle class. It is really undercutting kids of seeing the value in all different lifestyles and culture. Really insightful experiment.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing this experiment in my high school ap psych class. In reality Barbies measurements in actuality are unreal. Proven. However if you look on YouTube there is a woman who looks JUST LIKE BARBIE herself. It's quite unbelievable. In class I think of our discussion of white privilege what what it meant to society. The Barbie experiment is part of that experience that even children doubt themselves by choosing what is most recognizable, the white barbie. I believe it is how Barbies are being exposed as well. From memory all the doll commercials like the Barbie, white doll roles had the lead where her friends of different color would stand behind her. Obviously the media's objective has displayed some power differences to the point that children are affected.
ReplyDeleteI really like this experiment, as it very clearly demonstrates how ideas about what is "pretty" or "beautiful" or "good" are instilled in people at a young age. There is little reason to think that such ideas simply vanish as someone gets older. Thus, from a children's television commercial, beauty norms manifest in society through advertising to children.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually fairly difficult to see any specific profit motivation behind this. I imagine that if children's advertising trends were suddenly inverted, children would be just as attracted to these trends as they are now. In other words, I do not believe that it is the specific message content that drives sales, just that a message is present. On second thought… perhaps it has to do with the specificity of the messaging. Portraying slimness and whiteness as positive elements are very specific traits that a child can quickly learn to identify. More balanced advertising would not present such a consistent message to children, resulting in less immediate identification with the product being presented (note: not identification as in identifying with oneself, but identifying patterns of beauty and normality). Thus, it may be desirable to focus on specific features as being beautiful or normal to make it easier for children watching advertising to pick up on these trends, and thus grow attached to whatever product is being presented quicker and more significantly.
I watched the video done with the children and what I found to be the most interesting was that the little kids that weren't white. They chose the white doll as the prettiest, and the doll of their ethnicity as bad. This is a sad realization that kids are insecure in their own race, with out knowing it. I think they could be picking this up through media. The media does focus on white people as the main characters in many shows. We talked in class about how the media is using older kids to play younger roles. This is giving kids a false idea of beauty. When they see a high school character that is perfect and beautiful when the actor is a full grown 25 year old adult, they become insecure and want to look like the characters shown on tv. How this relates is that subconsciously, they see many white people as main characters, which can be associated with power, and see other races as side characters, with less power. They make the connection in their heads that the white people are the best because of the way they are represented. I think kid TV shows, and TV shows in general need to focus on representing everyone equally in the media they are providing. Once children see they are equal to everyone, maybe the white barbie doll wont always be the one picked as the prettiest.
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