Production Report 11b

Here is another production report, but this time on my 1st body paragraph!

Here is my outline form:

1st Body Paragraph:

~All about the past of Barbie dolls
     -effect it had on children
     -controversies
     -effect it had on media

~Lead into the present day issue of the introduction of petite, tall, and curvy Barbie
     -What is the Cause and what is the solution?

And here is my rough draft of the first body paragraph:

To truly understand the full expanse of the 2016 controversy over the new Barbie dolls, Mattel’s past must be brought to life. It all started in 1945 by a woman named Ruth Handler. She was the woman who created the Mattel company, along with her husband, after being inspired to create dolls from watching her young daughter play with paper dolls. Her dream was made into a reality in 1959 as Barbie, the Teen-Age Fashion Model, was put in the annual Toy Fair in New York with the name Barbie Millicent Roberts. That’s when Barbie took flight, for she was unlike any of the toddler or baby dolls the country had seen before. In the first year over 300,000 Barbie’s were sold and the numbers kept rising (barbiemedia.com). However, in 1963 started the first major controversy that sparked people’s thoughts over whether or not Barbie was a good role model for young girls. In 1963, a Barbie outfit named “Barbie Baby-Sits” came with a book titled “How to Lose Weight” which advised young girls to not eat. Mattel responded with an explanation of how Barbie’s waist needed to be small because zippers and waistbands added bulk to her body. As the 1970s approached Barbie reflected the same styles such as long hair and long skirts. People, however, were still upset by her unattainable figure and resulted in some feminists at Berkeley burning many Barbies in protest and as a symbol of male oppression. In the 1980s Black, Hispanic, and International Barbies were introduced to the world. Even though these dolls were taking a right step into the right direction of representing all people, these dolls had no features of these races and instead had just change of skin color. Later, in the 1990s, is when a new Barbie was introduced that would say “Math class is tough”. This got a large amount of backlash from the people of America because many people thought that is was a poorly executed doll that got many people offended. Mattel had to offer replacement dolls to those who were offended as well (Dockterman).

Even through all these controversies, Barbie sales continued to increase. However, in more recent times there have been bigger controversies such as an “Oreo Cookie Doll” which featured an African American woman in 1997, offending many, a “Totally Tattoo Barbie” which people claimed would make kids want to get tattoos, and an “I Can be a Computer Engineer” Barbie which depicted a sexist book where Barbie could not actually fix computers. (Dockterman) After knowing all these controversies, it is easy to see why Barbie sales are plummeting and why they came out with new dolls. On January 28th, 2016 Mattel announced the addition of three new types of Barbies that are to be sold across the country labed “tall”, “petite”, and “curvy” on March 1st in 2016. Mattel says Barbies will now be sold with four different body types, seven different skin tones, 22 eye colors and 27 hairstyles with the addition of these dolls. This addition has sparked some controversy amoung the people of America, however, for numerous reasons.

1. How did you decide to use form to present your content in the raw material you’ve shared here? How did the conventions of your chosen genre influence your choices?
   As far as form goes for this piece of the essay, I used in text citations that match up to my works cited which is a common piece of convention for a Standard College Essay. I also used topic sentences and conclusion sentences which is another key convention in a SCE.
   
   
2. How did the production of this raw material go? What kinds of any hiccups, challenges, successes, creative epiphanies, etc. occurred during the process?

The production of the raw material went fairly well. I did notice that I didn't have materials for the history of Barbie dolls so I had to research more of that piece but I think that I incorporated what I wanted to in my draft.