Karen Carpenter and The Unrealistic Truth

-The scary images highlighting Karen Carpenters downward progression with anorexia.

COMPLETELY IN THE MAKING-ROUGH!

“With both laughter and chilling actuality, the conflation of patriotism, familial control, and bodily self- revulsion that drove Karen Carpenter and so many like her to strive for perfection and end up simply doing away with themselves” (Hilderbrand, 60).

Barbie dolls were an appropriate choice to depict eating disorders because of the deeper meaning which they convey in terms of ideal body image. I think that the parallel between Karen’s eating disorder and the disproportionate aspect of Barbie’s body was by no means an accident. Clearly, both Barbie and Karen alike show visible traits of severe weight abnormalities, but the later of the two is widely coveted for her ideal physical form.In an abstract way, depicting Karen as a Barbie represents her inner struggle to become something that she could realistically never become- that being, a picture-perfect, flawless specimen that is exempt from all physical flaws... Barbie’s function as a role-model can indeed have damaging effects on multiple levels, primarily because her image sets unrealistic standards and expectations for young women that are impossible to live up to-as exemplifies by this film.

Moreover, the use of Barbie dolls reinforces these extreme expectations of beauty and perfection that are all too prevalent within Western culture. From an early age we are being taught how we are supposed to perform our gender roles through mediated depictions, like Barbie, that tell us what’s considered beautiful. Because these feminine depictions are impossible to live up to and are simply unattainable they create insecurity and vanity issues as well as eating disorders (among other things). This is worth while to mention because just as young girls are convinced of what is considered typically beautiful (by Barbie's standards), Karen is likewise falsely convinced of being overweight by mainstream definitions when an article descripes her as "chubby". As we can see by this instance in the film, people in the public eye are especially criticized about being over weight as illustrated by the this absurd remark about Karen being noticeably chubby at the beginning of the film. This is clearly not the case, but Karen is convinced that this is the truth because of the powerful influence that mediated representations have on women conceptions of themselves. In this sense we can see how mainstream representations of women-from Barbie to celebrity criticisms, can have tremendous effects in terms of how women perceive themselves and evaluate their self-worth. In essence, the incorporation of Barbie dolls reminds us of the ever present pressures that exist in a world dominated by media messages and the deathly consequence that those prevalent representation can have.


-How perfect and appropriate?