Real-life Barbie and Ken

As children, most of us are given toys to play with. Girls get Barbie’s and dolls; boys get G.I. Joe’s and Ninja Turtles. At the time, these products seem like nothing more than distractions and entertainment to keep us from tearing down the house, but in reality, they are the beginning of our education in consumerism. We learn gender roles, attitudes about body image, and a lifestyle that we should all aim to achieve. Corporations create inherent meanings in these toys that shape us as we grow older. The meaning of Barbie has had such an influence that Cindy Jackson, a woman from Ohio, went through more than 50 cosmetic surgeries to look more like her.

According to the Guinness World Records, here is a sample of some of the work Jackson has had done since 2003:

“one full face-lift, three “mini” face-lifts (one lower, two upper), three eyelid surgeries (one upper, two lower), one upper lip lift, liposuction on her knees, thighs, abdomen, waist, and jaw-line; two nose operations, breast augmentation, cheek implants, bottom lip implant, chin reduction, hair transplantation to cover face-lift scars, two partial dermabrasions, two chemical peels (first one TCA, second one glycolic), two laser resurfacings (one partial, one full), facial thread vein removal, mole removal, scar revision, semi-permanent and permanent make-up (eyeliner, eyebrows, lip liner, lips), numerous temporary filler injections (collagen, fat transfer, Hylaform, Restylane, Perlane), cosmetic dentistry, and laser tooth whitening.”

Jackson isn’t the only one to take on the appearance of a commercial product. Tim Whitfield-Lynn was inspired by Jackson and spent tens of thousands of dollars to look like Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, and changed his name to Miles Kendall.

The meaning and the importance of a perfect body is forever perpetuated through media images and commercial products. Dr. Strangelove says in Empire of Mind “The way we experience our own body is inevitably a result of the dominant representation of an ideal body. Barbie is one of many such ideal bodies produced by corporate speech that carries implicit assumptions, a diet of values, that structure the social order.” (p.147-148) For years Barbie has been the ideal representation of beauty and a perfect body, and with the money and technology and Jackson’s disposal, she was able to actually become her “idol”.

Corporations are aiming to create meaning within products that will encourage us to consume and shape our lives around these products, and they are instilling these meanings from the day we are born. Toys like Barbie and Ken have implicit meanings of consumption that we learn as we grow up with them. Cindy Jackson is a perfect example of how corporations are controlling us with products; she was so awed by Barbie as a child, that she went to extreme measures to transform her life into one of pure commercial meaning.

Growing up I wanted to be like Barbie because let’s face it, that bitch does have everything, but after realizing that’s exactly what Mattel wanted me to think, I’ll pass on that pink convertible.