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Activity 10 - Homework

This document contains a multi-paragraph essay arguing against claims that playing with Barbie dolls has negative effects on girls' development. The essay discusses the order of paragraphs in the essay, critiques arguments that Barbie promotes unrealistic body images and gender roles, and recounts the author's positive experiences playing with Barbie as a child.

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Victor Felipe De Castro Gonçalves
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29 views

Activity 10 - Homework

This document contains a multi-paragraph essay arguing against claims that playing with Barbie dolls has negative effects on girls' development. The essay discusses the order of paragraphs in the essay, critiques arguments that Barbie promotes unrealistic body images and gender roles, and recounts the author's positive experiences playing with Barbie as a child.

Uploaded by

Victor Felipe De Castro Gonçalves
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Compreensão de textos escritos 1

Prof. Fernanda Garcia


Homework activities

1. The paragraphs of the following Essay were placed in the wrong order. Read the paragraphs
and put them in the correct order. Think about coherence, connection and a logical train of
though.

An Apology for the Life of Ms. Barbie D. Doll

_______ Granted, Barbie’s physical appearance isn’t realistic. As Motz explains, “if Barbie stood
five feet nine inches tall, her bust measurement would be 33 inches, her waist a meager 18
inches, and her hips only 28 ½ inches”. In addition, Motz says, “Barbie’s arms are extremely thin
and her hands disproportionately small. Her legs are much too long”. I say, so what? While the
only “real” version of Barbie’s body would be a long-limbed 13-year-old with breast implants,
who cares? Arguing that Barbie’s unrealistic body hurts girls’ self-esteem is weak logic. Children
have had dolls for ages. For example, in Pompeii, the preserved remains of a 3,000-year-old doll
are displayed. That doll has an egghead, and a body that looks like a thick shapeless rock. If
Barbie’s proportions hurt modern girls’s self-esteem, I pity antiquity’s girls, who had these lumps
for models!

_______ In response to Motz’s idea that Barbies make girls dependent on males, I say, “Phooey”.
I played with Barbies until every last cow came home, and I am now a happy single girl. In fact, I
have often been single, free from all romantic attachments. Ture, I’ve had boyfriends, but I never
felt compelled to sacrifice my needs or identity to keep a boyfriend. And I am not an exception
to Motz’s rule! I know many frills whose primary concerns are their friends, family and/or
schoolwork. Admittedly, there is probably an equal number of girls who live only for their beaus;
however, their behavior does not prove that Barbie causes female dependency. for example, my
own interest in boys was prompted most by “good” TV shows and books – like Laura Ingalls
Wilder’s On the Shores of Silver Lake. It was stories like these – about teenage girls in love – that
encouraged me to crave romance.

_______ Barbie’s boobs and spacious mansion helped cause the decay of today’s youth,
supposed experts say. For instance, in her article “I want to be a Barbie Doll When I Grow Up”,
Marilyn Motz argues the following: Barbie dolls encourage young girls to be conformists focused
on “leisure activities, personal appearance, popularity, and the consumption of materials”.
Barbie’s skinny waist, huge bosom, and narrow hips entice girls into poor diets and eating
disorders. Barbie-play trains girls to depend on Ken-figures (or other males) to achieve self-
worth. Barbie’s all-American-girl values teach conformity; and Barbie’s racy cards, plush houses,
and chick outfits cause materialism. But I do not buy Motz’s “reasons”. They sound fake – like
theories of somebody who lacks first-hand experience. I had Barbie dolls (twelve of them, in
fact, and the Barbie Mansion) but I do not consider myself an anorexic, dependent, conforming,
materialistic girl, at least no more than I would be had I foregone the Barbie experience.

_______ Motz says that the average age of girls who play with Barbie is six, and that girls this
age imitate the doll’s values, like her preoccupation with appearance. However, while I was
about six when I played with Barbie, I didn’t imitate her. At age seven, I had a bowl haircut that
was constantly snarled because I wouldn1t take time to brush it. I did not care about my own
appearance, while fixing Barbie’s was fun. I did not fuss over my own hair and wight until I was
in high school, and fashion mags were scripture. In other words, Motz’s theory – that girls’
preoccupation with Barbie’s appearance leads to later preoccupation with their own – simply
does not reflect my experience. Nor does her theory reflect the experiences of many other girls,
including my two roommates.
Compreensão de textos escritos 1
Prof. Fernanda Garcia
_______ In other words, Motz uses Barbie as a scapegoat for problems that have complex
causes. For example, a girl’s interest in romance is no more Barbie’s fault than the fault of books
like On the Shores of Silver Lake. Fashion magazines targeted at adolescents are the cause of far
more anorexia cases than in Barbie. Mothers who encourage daughters to find security in men
teach female dependency, but Barbie does not. In fact, Motz herself points out that when
“Barbie doll was created, many parents hailed the doll as a model of wholesome teenage
behavior and appearance”. I would add that today mat parents still hail Barbie as a model of
wholesome behavior. But it is more the manner in which parents give toys to their children –
the parents’ ideas and instructions about how to play – that determine whether Barbie-play is
good or bad.

_______ To Motz and similar “experts” I say this: Some of my finest childhood memories are of
my best friend, Solara, coming over to my house with her pink carry-on suitcase stuffed with
Barbies and their accoutrements. For hours we would play with them, giving haircuts, filling
mixing bowls to make swimming pools, and creating small “campfires” so Barbie could make
marshmallows. Sometimes we dressed her in store-bought clothes, and sometimes we designed
clothing for her. Other times we turned Barbie into the heroines on our books, and she helped
us act out the plots. Playing with Barbies need not be an unimaginative, antisocial activity that
promotes conformity, materialism and superficial ideals.

Text taken from: The College Writer

2. Underline interest and rare vocabulary, as well as sentence structures that you found
different.

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