Yesterday, I was watching TV and there was a Barbie commercial that showed these little girls being vets, doctors, professors, sports coaches, etc. It got me thinking. People often make fun of Barbie for being "too tall" and "too thin," but if you look past all of that, she actually stands for something much bigger than you think.
I'm not going to tell you why I think Barbie is awesome, but I am going to tell you why we should all look up to Barbie.
Behind the disproportion plastic that is Barbie, she's the only woman anything to have over 130 different careers. Careers that challenge the gender norms we're unfortunately used to.
Too often I hear people say, "Well, it's not a girls profession because there aren't any girls in that field." The reason for women not being a male-dominated field is likely due to the fact that, at a young age, girls (and even boys) are taught what a job for a girl is and what a job for a boy is.
As a kid, I was told that science was a boys thing, that it wasn't girly so therefore I couldn't like it. Although I'm not on the career path to becoming a scientist, science was always my favorite subject in school, despite what I was told growing up.
Barbie was everything from an astronaut to business executive to even president. Three very different professions that we are told as children are for boys.
I'm not saying that girls should look like Barbie, because we all know that if her proportions were on a real human they would have to crawl on all fours, I'm saying to learn from Barbie and go after whatever career you want regardless of your gender.
To me, being a "Barbie girl" means you're going to go after all of the dreams you have. It means not letting the rules of society hold you back from what you really want out of life.
If you're a guy and want to be a makeup artist go for it; if you're a girl and you want to be a construction worker, go for it. The only thing holding anyone back is society. But it just so happens that we are society, which means we have the power to change whatever we want about it.
It's the 21st century, people. The human race would be nonexistent without women, however, we would all still live if there weren't gender stereotypes.
