Drugs, Sports, Body Image and G.I. Joe

The thesis is “some researchers worry that Joe and other action-hero figures may, in minor fashion, help fan the use of muscle-building drugs among young athletes.” (486) Angier wants to convey to the audience that dolls can affect whether he or she will use muscle-building drugs to grow big like the G.I. Joe dolls. Dolls like Barbie, G.I. Joe helps to send a message to the kids that being strong or being thin like the dolls are what they should look like as adults.

A) Angier’s tone throughout the essay is informative to prove her point that dolls help kids the use of muscle-building drugs. She tells the audience how outrageous the doll’s body’s proportions are. She states that G.I, Joe’s “biceps bulge so much that they are larger around than his waist . . . human size, they would be larger than even the arms of the grotesquely muscular Mr. Olympias of today” (486). She wants to inform the audience that dolls that kids plays with are abnormal.

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The fact that kids plays with these kinds of dolls can have an effect on boys and girls. Angier also conveys that because kids want the type of bodies the dolls have, they will do things in order to achieve that goal.

One of the ways is to use anabolic steroids which can make “it possible for men to look as big as superman” (487). Showing what problems steroids can cause will inform people that people should not be taking steroids to achieve the muscular body.

The fact that Angier uses specific people who are certified to know about drugs and the influence of toys like Dr. Harrison G. Pope Jr., and Shalender Bhasin with increases her credibility. Readers will likely trust what Angier says because she supports her evidence with people who knows about steroids well.

Barbies, G.I. Joe, and other American dolls can have an effect on kids about their appearance but I do not think that it is a huge factor that makes kids think that big muscles and thin bodies are the norm. It can leave a message to the kids that muscles and thin bodies are the best but I think normally to attract the others, people want to have big muscles and thin bodies. Also the fact that society wants to make people think that thin bodies and having a nice body is the best.