The new 2016 Barbie Fashionistas line includes four body types, seven tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles. Photo available online by Mattel, Inc.
Incorporative Corporations
Changes bring diversity to big company products
March 11, 2016
Recently, social media has been taken by storm by international companies announcing changes implemented to bring more diversity to their products.
American toy company Mattel, Inc. announced the 2016 Barbie Fashionistas with four different body types, Lego introduced wheel chair accessories and Sports Illustrated unveiled the newest swimsuit model Ashley Graham.
“I think it’s important that corporations are now trying to reach the whole society and not just special people,” math teacher and PAL sponsor Pam Brown said. “We need to be incorporated and I’m proud to see that happening.”
I think that it’s really good because people are discussing differences and that helps people lift their self esteem.
— Alex MacCaw, 11
The shift in ideals of beauty will help younger generations deal with body image issues, senior William Rainwater said.
“We are becoming a more inclusive society,” Rainwater said. “It hasn’t been a dramatic shift but more of a gradual transition. We’ve gone from having models that were extremely underweight to where it was unhealthy, but now we are seeing more healthy models to look at.”
While the view of beauty has changed throughout time, each generation adapts to what is seen as beautiful regardless of the cost, Brown said.
“When I was little, we grew up getting used to this idea of standards of beauty, but that didn’t mean we liked it,” Brown said. “I think it’s about time for this to happen. It’s taken this long, but the transition needed to happen for a while, and it’s finally happening.”