A symbol of ideal female perfection; poised, docile and successful, Barbie is the ideal woman. A 360 degree representation of a utopian female gender role effortlessly accomplished.

Buff, handsome and kind, Ken is her ideal companion. With their garish painted smiles, the couple provides a paramount example of “The American Dream Couple.”

But this plastic fantasy is no where near the reality of gender role fulfillment.

Women are no longer expected to remain confined to an oppressive drill of cooking, cleaning and child-rearing.

Men are also free from the constraints of being the sole bread-winner with the expectation that they will frequently entertain affluent guests and beautiful young ladies.

These roles are frequently being interchanged in increasing numbers and instances across the globe.

The problem that lies within is that the media haven’t quite caught up to these new definitions of appropriate gender roles.

Advertisement agencies are overly entangled in utilizing sexist gender roles as a means to create sleazy marketing strategies.

These gender roles pigeonhole individuals into categories which are too narrow to accommodate the rapidly diversifying population.

A beautiful woman enters your eye range on the television; dancing around in a racy dress, the mood is sensual and intriguing.

Your eyes follow her sways, back and forth, and suddenly you feel compelled to buy the over-priced luxury SUV that has just replaced the hypnotic woman.

The car industry has been shamelessly using women as objects to sell their gas-guzzlers for years.

Car buying and selling has been transformed into an international game of chess, where the women are simply lowly rooks, expendable pawns carelessly disregarded by the car moguls, the kings of the chess board.

The market can be broken down into a facile trade-network of sexual exchanges; where women have the commodities and men are eager to buy.

As stated earlier, the automobile industry is always chock-full of eager buyers, waiting for the next opportunity to pounce upon a seemingly impressive deal.

Ironically, automobile salesmen are always stereotyped as being cheap, sleazy and habitual liars; it would be just inside their character description to pull a trick like false advertising through the utilization of women as sensual sales pitches.

The advertising industry would appear at this moment to be rather sexist, until another commercial commends the attention of the television screen.

This time it is a handsome young man, clean shaven, well dressed and muscular.

The point of the advertisement is lost in the image of the young man.

The message is clear: This is what success looks like, and it is a stereotype that can only be ascribed to a marginal population of males.

There is a sudden rising pressure on males to be “beautiful,” and body concerns are being perpetuated by advertisements that focus in on chiseled bodies, sculpted abs and powerful arms.

These advertisements falsely depict the male form, forcefully encouraging men today to become these “super-human” body builders.

Females are no longer the only individuals suffering from a societal demand to be physically perfect.

There are copious amounts of social issues that this country could be worrying about – energy policies, childhood poverty, our incredible budget deficit – and yet the only thing that remains the priority is our unfailing narcissism, craving to be the most beautiful nation.

Males seem to be enduring an equal amount of pressure from marketing companies as are females to strive for “the plastic fantasy” of the Barbie and Ken lifestyle.

After such scrutiny of the advertisement industry, Barbie seems to have finally lost her voice.

Unfortunately women are still being subjected and men are still being raised to unreachable palisades.

We are only human, though, so our desires will remain unquenchable and our lusts ever waxing and waning. Barbie and Ken will retain their painted smiles, perfect postures and permanent underwear, always an unreachable goal of plastic perfection.

Ironically, we poke fun at people who are “fake” in nature, we call them “plastic,” but two weeks later and it’s off to Silicone Valley to obtain a whole galaxy of implants to make us younger or firmer, a futile step towards perfection.

Perhaps then Barbie has had the last laugh, because she was made plastic and we condemn her for that yet we spend all our money and energy trying to be like her: cold, shiny, plastic.