TREBALL DE SOCIETAT SALUT I BENESTAR, Ejercicios de Psicología

¡Descarga TREBALL DE SOCIETAT SALUT I BENESTAR y más Ejercicios en PDF de Psicología solo en Docsity! Barbie's cultural appropriation Cristina Fàbrega Saura SOCIETY HEALTH AND WELLBEING Facultat de Psicologia UB 1 Abstract This essay is focused on analyzing the cultural appropriation in the product “Barbie”, a doll from the brand Mattel, which has influenced many little girls and boys in terms as “body shape”, “beauty”, “race”, “ethnicity”, etc. To understand the given topic (cultural appropriation), it is introduced the definition of it, supported by different examples and its types. Next, this work immerses in the world of the Mattel company, its objectives, and values and how these are reflected in other factors such as racism, culture, and sexism. We will see topics discussed in class such as globalization, gender, acculturation, among others, in different concrete ways. Finally, to complete all the analysis and the given sections, this work finalizes with a discussion and a conclusion. 1 Barbie’s cultural appropriation One example of cultural appropriation would be the commercialization of traditional dishes from other culture, for example: Corn cakes (tortas de maíz), a food that it is known for being eaten in Mexico, has been commercialized as “Mexican corn cakes” (tortas Mexicana’s). The strategy that has been used to sell them is the decoration of the corn cakes wrappers by using Mexican stereotypes: skulls from “el dia de los Muertos”, mexican expressions as “órale”, mariachi’s hats… (as we can see in Figure 1 and Figure 2). Apart from these types of commercials that have been used as an appropriation of the Mexican culture to earn money, this type of appropriation could also be linked with the fast-food chain “TACOBELL”, which has taken profit of Mexican culinary culture with modifications in the traditional recipes and cultural meaning, in a foreign context. In comparison, going to traditional Mexican restaurants to get to know their traditions and cultural meaning of their food and rituals, would be considered as cultural appreciation. 1.1. TYPES OF CULTURAL APPROPIATION 4 Figure 1: Corn Tortilla Chips from the brand Julio's, decorated with “typical Mexican cactus”. Source: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Julio-s-Seasoned- Tortilla-Chips-14-Oz/123081714. Figure 2: “Burritos and Wraps” from the brand “Pancho Villa”. Its wrapper is decorated with a Mexican hat and the expression “¡Órale!”. Source:https://www.jumbo.cl/tortilla-para- burritos-y-wraps-pancho-villa-350-g/p Figure 3: “BIG COMBOS OF TACOBELL”. Source: https://tacobell.es/ Barbie’s cultural appropriation According to Rogers (2006)2, there are four types of cultural appropriation: 1. Cultural exchange: this is a type of cultural appropriation which involves a reciprocal exchange of genre, symbols, rituals… As Rogers explains, this act is commonly voluntary. In comparison with other types of cultural appropriation, this one is by far more difficult to indentificate, as power imbalances are not such important elements as in other cases. Therefore, it’s the reciprocal influence of religious or beliefs, music, technology, etc. See that it always must be reciprocal. 2. Cultural Dominance: it is based on imposing the dominant culture on a subordinate one. It occurs when the dominant culture has been imposed on a marginated or colonized one by using its elements that characterize the culture. Moreover, in most of cases, this cultural dominance takes places in situations in which choosing not to impose is not an option because of the better elements that the dominant culture has compared to the subordinated one, elements such as politics,economy,culture… An example provided by Rogers (2006), would be the “the effort to absorb Native American children into Anglo-American culture via the boarding school system established in the United States in the late 19th century”. 3. Cultural Exploitation: in this type of appropriation, the dominant culture considerates the subordinated one as a resource that must be exploited by taking away the elements that benefits the dominants. In this case, the native-American culture is the one that has suffered more from this type of exploitation, the culture preservation is far from being a reality for them and most of their cultural elements have been taken away and used in a context that doesn’t match their original meaning. For instance, one of the biggest concerns about the cultural exploitation, is the cultural degradation, which takes places when a community is being described and recognized in a distorted way, an image is being built about them that could lead to acculturation for their inhabitants. This is obviously related to the topics we have seen in class about migration and acculturation, in this case, native-American’s inhabitants would be suffering from marginalization and separation. 4. Transculturation: is the development of cultural hybrids. 3Therefore, it involves multiple appropriations of elements between various cultures. Moreover, transculturation can be a result of globalization, as it involves the interaction between different societies and populations. A valid example of transculturation is the “Americanization”, a process due to globalization which, as a 2 Rogers, R.A. (2006). From cultural exchange to transculturation: A review and reconceptualization of cultural appropriation. Communication Theory, 16: 474-503 3 Cultural hybrids are the result of hybridization, explained by social science as the process of cultural miscegenation. 5 Barbie’s cultural appropriation result, has led other countries to integrate American traditions and values into their culture. For instance, the celebration of Halloween in Catalonia; even though there’s the tradition of “la castanyada”4 (originally Catalan) from many years ago, some Catalan inhabitants celebrate both traditions (Halloween and castanyada). 1. BARBIE’S INDUSTRY. I bet if you listen to the words “barbie” or “Mattel” it would bring you a bell. For some of us, this doll has had an important influence in our childhood but, have we ever noticed what is behind this doll? Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, (the 9th of march in 1959) because of observing her daughter playing with dolls made of paperboard. She also noticed that her child preferred to play with dolls that looked like “adult women” and that’s when she thought of creating Barbie. With the addition of her “perfect blonde, tall and fit” boyfriend, the Mattel industry started creating dolls based on models of barbie and his boyfriend based on sexist and racist stereotypes. In 2001, Barbie became even more famous with the premiere of “Barbie in the nutcracker”. They began to create Barbie movies based on fantasy worlds, princesses and all kinds of cinematic scenes based on female stereotypes such as dresses, the search for a prince and everything that involved “girly” things. Then, in 2012, the “Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse” series was created, which was very successful and in which we could see the daily life of the doll living in her mansion in Malibu. With this series, many children began to idealize what the perfect life is supposed to be: money, tons of friends, a perfect boyfriend, and other things that this famous doll reflects and to which children aspire. 4 La castanyada is a catalan tradition that comes from an ancient funeral ritual festival. It is usual to eat chestnuts and sweet potatoes. 6 Figure 5: Image from the movie: “Barbie in the Figure 4: Barbie’s first series: Life in the Dreamhouse.Source: https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film643904.html Barbie’s cultural appropriation was to get incomes from this because the doll itself costs 85,64€, therefore, they have considered this a cultural appropriation of the Mexican culture. On the other hand, some people thought that one of the purposes of Mattel was to teach children about this characteristic tradition ( el día de los Muertos8) so it wasn’t a cultural appropriation, it was a cultural appreciation. An argument that has reinforced this opinion is that the designer of this doll was inspired in his Mexican’s mom and the dress she used to wear at this day. 2. DISCUSSION This section of the essay is focused on discussing all the aspects mentioned in other section, or at least the most redundant ones. Furthermore, topics as sexism and healthcare are going to be mentioned as well, as a necessary addition to all that has been mentioned before. In the first place, the first section of the letter is focused on analyzing what’s considered cultural appropriation and the difference between this same term and cultural appreciation. As hard as it may seem to some people to discern between these two aspects, it’s a compulsory action that humans must do, not just for themselves but for the entire world community. In fact, a simple comment about someone’s ethnicity or culture could affect them and, as a result, cause an embarrassment of themselves; of who they are. For instance, imagine that you are an immigrant coming from China to Barcelona and some random person asks you: Why aren’t you wearing a kimono? Maybe this person doesn’t have the fault of believing that every Chinese inhabitant wears one and it’s just what they have learnt in school, in adverts, etc. You are going to feel “insulted” or maybe you just let the whole thing go away, but in most cases this kind of comments lead that immigrant to feel marginalized from the country he is immigrating to and could lead to different types of acculturations, explained in Kuo (2014)9. Furthermore, we get to know the Mattel’s industry. Even though there is not a specific section about the sexism and the mental health affection in consumers of Barbie’s dolls, it is necessary to highlight these aspects, as nowadays, the more the years pass, the higher escalation of eating disorders occur (mostly in 8 El día de los Muertos is a Mexican tradition focused on gathering family and friends to pray and remember friends and family who have already died and to support their spiritual journey. 9 To get more information of acculturation: Kuo, B. C. H. (2014). Coping, acculturation, and psychological adaptation among migrants: a theoretical and empirical review and synthesis of the literature. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 2(1), 16–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2013.843459 9 Figure 10: Barbie’s DIA DE LOS MUERTOS doll. Source: https://www.amazon.es/Barbie-Collector-Mu%C3%B1eca-Colecci %C3%B3n-GNC40/dp/B084L27V3W. Barbie’s cultural appropriation teenagers as well as in other age groups). As it is explained in Jiménez (2006)10, it should be noted that specialists from around the world coincide in pointing out the various doll models (in this case, Barbie) that preach the need for slim bodies and the perfect boyfriend, tall, blond, and slim. These models, in force from an early age, affect children and mark them for their entire lives, since these models mark the values and ideas of children regarding their bodies and diets. Apart from these ideas related to gender and mental health, it has been asked for the introduction of barbie models that are part of the LGTBIQ+ community, as it has zero representation in the industry and this fact could bring the idea to children that the normative and ideal romance for girls is the one with a boy, rejecting other sexualities. Despite the effort that Mattel’s has tried to make to include all ethnicities in various models mentioned before, the only thing that it has achieved is to globalize one more time the stereotypes of different communities by presenting different dolls dressed as their culture. Linking this fact with the example of immigrant children, imagine that they love dolls, and they are given a present as a welcome to their new home: a Chinese barbie to remind them of their heritage. This Chinese doll is adorned with a kimono and its accessories are a bowl of rice, do you think this child is going to remember their heritage and culture by this stereotypical doll? Of course not. Finally, in relation to gender, it is important to highlight that the Barbie doll preaches a feminine image based basically on the stereotype of women: the colour pink, skirts, dresses, the desire for fashion and cooking ... Although these aspects have been improved over the years with the implantation of new working and sports dolls, there is still much to change about the mainstream idea that has been implanted in women through these dolls and other sexist toys. And, to close this section it’s necessary to say that this doll should not only be a product for girls but for all types of gender. 3. CONCLUSION In the first place, cultural appropriation has been defined as the phenomenon of taking elements from another culture an applying them in a foreign context changing its original meaning. This definition has been supported by different examples: the cultural appropriation of some Mexican culinary culture and the creation of Barbie ethnics models based on culture stereotypes. With all this information has been 10 Jiménez, M. (2006). When Barbie eats Garfield, Publicity and eating: childhood obesity and adult body perfectionism. Trastornos de la conducta alimentaria 3, 245- 263. 10 Barbie’s cultural appropriation concluded that Mattel’s industry has made a culture appropriation by commercializing different cultural elements with the principal idea of getting higher incomes. For instance, this has been shown by the high prices on ethnic dolls. Moreover, this industry has shown various racist behaviors, as the creation of the first black Barbie just because the economic and social changes occurred in the late sixties. Related to this fact, it’s important to highlight that Mattel has tried to mask these actions with educational videos and other strategies. Moreover, at the end of this essay has been remarked that we need to be more careful with what we say to others, as well as having the impetus to learn and cultivate ourselves from others who live in this world. As has been shown by the campaign against racism in Mexico, among other examples, the toys with which children live all their childhood have a great weight in what will be the formation of their own personal image, in their values and in their behavior. To sum up, if we feed ourselves on foreign cultures and even learn from our own, we will change from being ignorant to being a little more human every day. We must learn not to overlook all that belittles us in any way. 4. REFERENCES Carrillo Guerra, F. F. (2017). Campañas sobre el racismo: Análisis de la Campaña Racismo en México. Barbie Latinoamérica (7 de octubre de 2020). Barbie y Nikky hablan sobre el racismo (Barbie Vlogs) (Vídeo). YouTube. https://youtu.be/lp2d8_qaPhA . 11