Girls who play with Barbie dolls tend to see fewer career options available to them, compared with the options available to boys, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University and the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz. The study's authors, psychology professors, Aurora Sherman of Oregon State University and Eileen Zurbriggen at UC Santa Cruz, describe their findings as significant. "This is one of the first studies to investigate how playing with sexualized   dolls affects young girls, and also one of the first to look at the impact of such play on achievement or career aspirations  , rather than body image," said Zurbriggen. Sherman suggests that Barbie and similar dolls are part of the burden of early and inappropriate sexuality placed on girls.  Sherman and Zurbriggen used girls' doll play to study the impact of gender role socialization, a process through which children learn to follow cultural norms and which encourages gender stereotypical   behavior. Thirty-seven girls from the age of four to seven from an Oregon college town were randomly arranged to play for five minutes with either a sexualized Doctor Barbie or Fashion Barbie doll, or with a more neutral   Mrs. Potato Head doll. The girls were then shown photographs of ten occupations and asked how many they themselves or boys could do in the future. The girls who played with a Barbie doll saw themselves in fewer occupations, compared with boys. Those girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head reported nearly as many career options available for themselves as for boys. The two Barbie dolls were the same except for clothing, with unrealistic bodies, extremely youthful and attractive faces, and long full hair. The researchers believe that the doll itself has more of an effect on girls than the role or career aspirations suggested by its costume. "It's significant that a few minutes of play with a Barbie doll had an immediate impact on the number of careers that girls saw as possible for themselves," Zurbriggen said. What is the text mainly about?
That Barbie dolls make girls want to be thin. Why Barbie dolls are one of the world's best-selling dolls. That playing with Barbie dolls could limit girls' career choices. What negative effects Barbie dolls have on young girls in the long term.