Female empowerment: a multimodal analysis of representations of women in images of Barbie dolls’ packages

Abstract

In view of the history of women in a world marked by patriarchy this present thesis revolves around the examination of women's representation by Barbie doll. Dolls have been described as “social actors” that through their design, movement, color schemes, etc. reflect the “social contexts and ideologies of the time of production” (CALDAS-COULTHARD; VAN LEEUWEN, 2002, p.91). This thesis is dedicated to looking at the semiotic elements of Barbie and her packaging in order to examine female representation in relation to traits of empowerment, and it is developed through a qualitative and interpretative approach since we intend to explore human experiences by analyzing the implicit meaning behind semiotic choices made by the producer for the production of a toy and its packaging. These data were collected during a research fellowship at the Strong Museum of Play by Prof. Dr. Almeida, coordinator of the GPSM, in October, 2017. Regarding the analysis of the data, it is centered on the representational and compositional metafunctions of the Grammar of Visual Design of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996 [2006]), and on the System of Transitivity which is within the ideational metafunction of Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Linguistics (1978; 1985). As for the result of the analysis, we acknowledge that the analyzed Barbie doll’s packages, especially the female representation attributed to Barbie, can be considered empowered, first, at the linguistic level since they presented power through the applicability of a variety of process; second, accordantly to what was claimed by women in each wave of feminism, the representations of these dolls showed us that the women represented by Barbie have the power over, that is, the power to be leaders and guide others who have less power in order to achieve their goals. But not only that, they have power to make decisions, to go after their dreams, find solutions to problems and to be creative. Also, they have power with others, they can share objectives with other for a common good to all. And, finally, they have the power within themselves, that is, to change their lives and the lives of others, evidencing the initial purpose of her creator Ruth Handler.