3 ms·

So we exaggerate female proportions so that girls understand how they should look?

sandworm101 11y ago
We exaggerate female proportions so that they are better recognized as female by children. This is true of cartoons (barbie is essentially a cartoon person) TV, film, advertising, even music. When you want to sell something to a group you adopt an image which leaves little room for debate. This holds true for male dolls too. I saw a great interview with Mark Hamel once about the evolution of Luke Skywalker dolls, which are now more WWE than a realistic portrayal of his character.
- asddubs 11y ago
  I wouldn't say that we exaggerate, we give recognizable symbols. For example, in many cartoons, female cartoon characters have eyelashes drawn on their eyes to distinguish them as females, children and adults alike. Now this actually makes no sense because men naturally have thicker eyelashes, and what those eyes were originally supposed to represent were mascara, but then it caught on as a recognizable symbol for being female, despite having no basis in reality. And it's crazy how effective it none the less is.
  - sandworm101 11y ago
    The eyelash thing is part of the larger phenomena of cuteness. Mammals, be them human babies or puppies, have larger eyes in relation to their heads. It's one of the things that identifies them as young. Women use makeup to draw attention to their eyes, to make them appear bigger and therefore more youthful. So while men may have thicker eyelashes, it is women who generally accentuate their eyelashes, resulting in the social convention that any cartoon with drawn eyelashes is female. Look at the animation in Archer. Lana and Archer both have thick eyebrows, but Archer doesn't have any eyelashes.
    - pmarreck 11y ago
      For more on this (and it's a bit creepy, btw... yay, biology!), google "Neoteny"
    - asddubs 11y ago
      Well yeah, I wasn't trying to claim it came out of nowhere. Just that the convention broadened to such a degree that it didn't make sense anymore, but we still understand it because humans are all about symbols.

We exaggerate female proportions so that they are better recognized as female by children. This is true of cartoons (barbie is essentially a cartoon person) TV, film, advertising, even music. When you want to sell something to a group you adopt an image which leaves little room for debate. This holds true for male dolls too. I saw a great interview with Mark Hamel once about the evolution of Luke Skywalker dolls, which are now more WWE than a realistic portrayal of his character.

asddubs 11y ago
I wouldn't say that we exaggerate, we give recognizable symbols. For example, in many cartoons, female cartoon characters have eyelashes drawn on their eyes to distinguish them as females, children and adults alike. Now this actually makes no sense because men naturally have thicker eyelashes, and what those eyes were originally supposed to represent were mascara, but then it caught on as a recognizable symbol for being female, despite having no basis in reality. And it's crazy how effective it none the less is.
- sandworm101 11y ago
  The eyelash thing is part of the larger phenomena of cuteness. Mammals, be them human babies or puppies, have larger eyes in relation to their heads. It's one of the things that identifies them as young. Women use makeup to draw attention to their eyes, to make them appear bigger and therefore more youthful. So while men may have thicker eyelashes, it is women who generally accentuate their eyelashes, resulting in the social convention that any cartoon with drawn eyelashes is female. Look at the animation in Archer. Lana and Archer both have thick eyebrows, but Archer doesn't have any eyelashes.
  - pmarreck 11y ago
    For more on this (and it's a bit creepy, btw... yay, biology!), google "Neoteny"
  - asddubs 11y ago
    Well yeah, I wasn't trying to claim it came out of nowhere. Just that the convention broadened to such a degree that it didn't make sense anymore, but we still understand it because humans are all about symbols.