"GI Joe and Male Bodies"

Both articles oppose each other’s ideas about the impact of male figurines on the image of men’s bodies. Harrison G. Pope and some of his colleagues created an experiment to prove that male figurines have changed immensely over the years, and they reflect the idea mean have about how their bodies should be. His experiment consisted of comparing GI Joe and Star War’s figurines from different decades to prove that the ideal image of male bodies change throughout the time periods. Through the different male figurines, Pope concluded that the male body type changed throughout the different decades dramatically because as they got “older” they became more buff and more like body builders. Kim Franke-Folstad went in the compete opposite direction and argued the idea Pope came up with, saying there is no way the figurines could have an impact on the image of male bodies. She stated that boys just played with the figurines. She believes that boys don’t play the figurines and then think “oh, I want to look big and buff like GI Joe.” She doesn’t believe there is any truth to Pope’s theory even though he had an experiment to prove it.
Pope and Franke-Folstad’s articles were completely different, even in the way they brought about their arguments. Pope thought up and experiment and tried to prove his hypothesis through the purchasing of the different male figurines. He tried to use a persuasive tone to get the audience to side with his theory. However, he said at the end of his article “These finding, however, must be interpreted cautiously…” This statement to me sounds like he isn’t a hundred percent sure whether his findings are arguable in situations. Because he was only able to find two types of figurines, that doesn’t show that his proven facts answer his hypothesis because that isn’t that compelling of evidence. Franke-Folstad uses a tone of sarcasm and argumentative. The way she writes makes her article sound sarcastic because she just can’t fathom the fact that someone would make this type of an argument. She says, “They are toys. We all know that. That’s why we stop playing with them before we get out of grade school.” She can’t believe Hope would associate these male figurines with the idea of male bodies. Her argument completely goes against Hope’s argument about the figurines impacting real male bodies. Hope’s audience is more geared towards parents, and it sounds like he is trying to persuade parents to watch out for impact the GI Joe figurine has on their sons’ images. Franke-Folstad’s audience sounds more like the random, everyday person who is reading the newspaper. She sounds like she is just trying to write an article about arguing Hope’s point of view.
I think the argument Hope gives is kind of ridiculous, so I guess I would have to say I side more with Franke-Folstad’s opinion. There is no way he has enough evidence to prove his point, and it is also something that just sounds ridiculous. He may be right in the fact that the figurines have become more buff. However, I don’t think they are influencing the opinions of men and boys. I know that I never thought I wanted to have my Barbie’s body. The dolls were strictly used to play with and that’s what boys do with their GI Joe dolls. They aren’t thinking about the way their bodies are, but rather how they can take down the enemy. My parents never told me I couldn’t get a Barbie doll because she was too skinny. I don’t think they ever thought I was planning on making my body similar to Barbie’s body. That’s why I think Hope’s argument is ridiculous because boys don’t look at GI Joe’s for their idea of a body image.