Our Babies, Ourselves

Our Babies, Ourselves
In Emily Prager's Our Babies, Ourselves, published 1991 in Interview Magazine, she claims that we are all trapped in Barbie's world. "Barbie is not an appropriate role model for girls, because she is a man's ideal."She tells us that she recently saw the obituary for Jack Ryan in the newspaper. The obituary said that Ryan helped create Barbie. Prager then says that Barbie being designed by man suddenly makes a lot of since. Barbie looks like she was a Playboy bunny. She said that Barbie not being created by woman makes her feel sane, but that it doesn't change the fact that woman think a big bust and small waist are the epitome of beauty. She then questions if Ryan created Barbie as a weapon to go against the feminist movement. Prager also says that although Barbie degrades women physically speaking she does not personality wise. Barbie is her own person. She states that before Barbie dolls were modeled after babies and children, they had no breast. She then goes on to talk about Ken. Ken a male doll with no genitals is defiantly wrong. Barbie is here being portrayed as having huge breast, a small waist, and adequate butt, and then there is Ken a doll who has been stripped of his masculinity.
Tone: Accusatory
Discourse: Division or Analysis
Rhetorical Terms:
* Dash- "--a time when women sought equality and small breast were king." (p.5)
* Rhetorical Question- "Could this account for the popularity of breast implant surgery?" (p.3)
* Impact Statement- "As if we're all trapped in Barbie's world and can never escape." (p.7)
Questions:
* Meaning #3- What is Prager's definition of a feminist in this essay? Where do you find this definition?: Prager's definition of a feminist is women who sought equality and loved having small breast. We find her definition in paragraph 5.
* Strategy #3- Prager poses several rhetorical questions. What is the purpose of these rhetorical questions?: She uses the rhetorical questions to get the readers thinking about why Barbie's are so bad.
* Language #1- Prager notes that Barbie is a product of a time when "small breasts were king'' (p.5). What is the significance of the word king in this context?: She means that small breast were what every woman wanted. She uses it to show how Barbie contradicted this.
* Language #4- Unfamiliar words: Phallic- relating to or resembling a phallus; picture, sculpture, or other representation of a penis, especially one regarded as a symbol of the reproductive force of life. Totemic- something regarded as a symbol, especially something treated with the kind of respect normally reserved for religious icons. Jodhpurs- riding breeches that are wide at the hip and narrow around the calves, often with reinforced patches at the knee and thigh where the rider's legs grip the horse