Be-Bratz.com: Beings-not-of-the-world

Franklin, Alex

Abstract

This paper will explore the impact of a gendered ‘thing’ – the Bratz doll - on the postmodern, post-industrial individual’s relationship with their ‘bodily nature’. It will argue, employing a Heideggerian phenomenology of Being, that this relationship is fundamentally ‘unnatural’ in character: that young girls in particular are encouraged via social texts, such as Bratz dolls, to conceive of their body as social ‘equipment’ and, as such, a ‘thing’ that is subject to change; not the change that takes place due to aging and general wear and tear, but rather socially and scientifically sanctioned amendments and ‘enhancements’ that are actively willed upon it by others.
Further, it will be argued that such an individual’s everyday relationship with their body lacks the directed, authentic concern necessary to ‘de-sever’ it from its surrounding world and so it becomes, by default, conceived of as a remote ‘entity’ in its own right. This inauthentic engagement with its bodily nature can be seen to begin with an individual’s internalising of an ideologically determined bodily schema and Bratz dolls arguably promote this via their design, embedment in anthropomorphising narratives, virtual worlds and attendant prescriptive forms of play.

Ultimately this paper will argue that Bratz dolls contribute to an environment that promotes early self-objectification by girls and young women, and that the assimilation of an inauthentic ‘they-self’ at a young age negatively effects their ability to be fully authentic and ‘embodied’ Beings-in-the-world.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Theorising the Popular
• Start Date: Jul 19, 2010
• End Date: Jul 21, 2010
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Bratz, Heideggerian phenomenology, embodiment
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/976865
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Theorising the Popular