Rhetorical Analysis of Project 3

I finished Project 2, friends! It's done. I can call you friends now, right? We've been through a lot with these past two projects, we've reached that level. We are only going to get closer as I share with you my process of this next Project, starting off with the Rhetorical Analysis of Project 3.

Author:

      For this project I initially was going to do something in the veterinary field, but after researching more, I found other types of topics that I felt were more interesting. I felt myself to be very passionate, specifically, about the very large controversy surrounding Barbie dolls. As a kid, I played with Barbies heavily, so seeing the change in Barbie dolls over the years is one that I've always been interested in. Furthermore, the role that children's toys, especially body specific ones, play a huge role in a child's development, so I think this is an important issue to discuss.

     I may have potential bias just because I am a girl and as a kid I played with multiple Barbies, so I have the experience of playing them with most of my childhood life. I'm not sure I have any other bias as far as the actual body size of Barbie's go because in my home life there was never a large emphasis on being skinny or fat or any specific body type.

Audience:

     I am writing this project for people who have the same passions over the importance of supporting  positive body image in young girls. I feel like this could be written for those who are passionate about the Barbie specific body image issues or a more general type of people who have a passion for the general problems of body shaming and role models.

     I feel like many people will argue that this is a good thing for Barbie because this allows for girls of all different shapes and races to be represented as positive body images because people are all different and this would be representing these differences. I want to be able to at least highlight the differing opinions on this issue because it is a controversial issue. They might react at first in a negative way because most people believe that changing Barbie's dolls is a good thing, but there are pieces where people disagree on.

     Many people reading this have probably played with or heard of a Barbie doll so I will use the emotions and feelings of playing with one or seeing one to the audience. I will also try to have a funny air that I feel people respond to. This target audience could potentially be the older women who played with them as kids.

Purpose/Message:

     I want my audience to take away a good amount from this Project, mostly in the general sense. Firstly, I hope that the audience understands the importance that childhood toys have in kids lives, so we should maybe think twice about the toys that are produced or the toys we buy our kids. I also hope that people understand the importance of body positivity, not just in young girls, but for everybody. Lastly, one of the big points I want to get across is that many little girls have role models in their lives that are from the media or the toys they have, so it's important to make those models with an accurate representation of all people.
     I think that the side of people who believe that some of the Barbie figures are not the best way they could have been made is an interesting one because I feel like it isn't a large majority and not as well known.

Context:

     I will be writing in a Standard College Essay which is usually read by your peers and professors, people who may or may not know about the subject but are able to understand and fully evaluate it. I have done many, countless, long standard college essays and hope that by now I'm pretty decent at them. This is the genre that I feel the most comfortable in, so I'm also hoping that I will do a good job. I feel like the two most important pieces of this genre are the powerful intro and conclusion that connect everything together and a interesting title that catches the readers attention.
     While there aren't any laws specifically about Barbie toys, there are many laws about the safety of toys for children. I'm not sure if these will come into play, but they are important to note.
     Here are four pieces of media that have been talking about this issue:
          Wired.com
          CNN.com
          USAToday.com
          Time.com
          Mattel.com
    There are many counterarguments to this idea that need to be addressed in the future:
1. One is that the only reason they actually changed the dolls was due to the fact that they were losing money, so they did it to gain more money.
2. Many people think that the 'curvy' doll is just a fat Barbie
3. Many people still think that these dolls are still unrealistic and may cause more problems with body image.