We watched a Simpson’s episode in class having to do with Malibu Barbie. Lisa and every other girl can’t wait for the “talking Malibu Barbie”. But when Lisa gets hers and pulls the string to hear Malibu Barbie talk. She is disappointed and horrified with Malibu Barbie’s phrases. They were very degrading to women. Phrases like, “I wish they taught shopping at school," "Let's bake cookies for the boys," and "Don't ask me. I'm just a girl," followed by a ditzy giggle. But when expressing her opinion at dinner her family thinks that the talking Malibu Barbie phrases are perfect how they are. Lisa then goes to the Malibu Barbie’s headquarters. But the tour was all Malibu Barbie throughout the year and basically how stupid she is. At the end of the tour she tells the people in charge how she feels, they of course laugh in her face. She then goes to Stacy Lovell's house, (built exactly like Malibu Stacey's dream house). But finds out Stacy Lovell was bought out by some other company and no longer built Malibu Stacy. Her and Stacy Lovell make a new Barbie doll name, “Lisa Lionheart”. Of course it was popular with advertisement at first. But the Malibu Stacy’s company makes a new doll and Lisa Lionheart is soon forgotten. It’s scary to think that this happens in real life. That big business can just crush new businesses by making a new product but is similar to the last product. No wonder businesses are being knocked out left and right. With the top businesses bringing in all the customers there’s no room for new business. Is this part of why the economy is turning to crap?
2 comments:
This is exactly why the economy is turning to crap. Not only this, but greed has a lot to do with it too. People who have a lot want more and more while the people who don’t have a lot struggle to make ends meet. It’s hard to start a new business with so much competition around here. I mean like how many big insurance companies can you name? It would be impossible for a new insurance company to compete with these names. I wonder how competitive gas stations get because they are almost always right across the street from each other. What’s the use of giving these big companies even bigger tax breaks? I know that it has to do with the whole “trickle down” mentality, but it makes better sense to me to give the people that really need it bigger tax breaks. Maybe then more small businesses can survive. As for the Simpsons episode, that Malibu Stacy doll was so stupid. I mean why in the world would parents buy their children anything that says, “Don’t ask me. I’m just a girl.” What exactly are you trying to promote here? I applaud Lisa for going against the grain and making a doll that sent out a positive message. In the end big business did push them out though.
This Simpson's episode is a great mimic of what some people think that Barbie has done to modern day society. Feminists believe that Barbie is degrading to women and that she teaches poor morals, like wearing all designer clothes and having the "perfect" body. In the episode, Malibu Stacy is built off of a real person, just like Barbie is based off of a real woman, so there is no doubt that they are relating the two dolls to each other.
Emma is right about how big corporations can just demolish smaller companies. The economy has become so competitive that it's getting harder for every business, whether is be large of small, so the bigger businesses have needed to get rid of the competition. They can do this by either buying the smaller company or by running them out of business. A local example of this is Art Van. They have been putting many other furniture stores out of business with their bigger selections, lower prices, longer hours, and overall sales. Larger corporations are doing this right and left now, which is a sad thing. The years of old "mom and pop" stores have come to an end, to be replaced by big ruthless companies that don’t care about customer service as much.
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