Analysis Of Barbie-Q By Sandra Cisneros

Cisneros seems disgruntled with the perfectionist image that Barbie’s manufacturers have bolstered. Through her piece’s creative title,

During the time of development and release of Barbie, the feminist movement was in full swing. The concept that Barbie may have been manufactured as a weapon against these feminist groups is plausible as the image of Barbie exploits the female body and challenges the values held by active feminists. Though, from a slightly different perspective, one could argue that Barbie with her freedoms and luxuries supports the ideals of women's equality and rights. Barbie may have been the transition piece of the decade, setting a new path for women and young girls.

In the second paragraph of “Barbie-Q,” the author speaks from a first-person perspective while describing how she typically plays pretend using her dolls. The narrator explains to the reader that, “Your Barbie is roommates with my Barbie, and my Barbie’s boyfriend comes over and your Barbie steals him, okay? Kiss kiss kiss. Then the two Barbies fight. You dumbbell! He’s mine.” This text openly reveals how the young author, who presumably has not even reached her teen years yet, has been deeply

     It is my opinion that Prager has failed in her attempts to persuade the reader that Barbie is a tool created from male fantasy or a poster child for modern feminism. If anything this essay has helped me to realize that Barbie is a combination of both worlds. She is both sexually appealing to men and someone that women can admire and even a toy that little girls can play with and hope to be like when they are older. I still remain adamantly devoted to my Barbie dolls, seeing her as neither temptress or sexually frustrated object.

This goes on to show that the narrator (who expresses herself as young, poor girl) does not have any women in her family and Lucy is someone she can run to and be her female barrier through life, as a sister which she says, “And we look at each other, our arms gummy from Popsicle we split, we could be sisters right?(5)”.Relating to she wants so much to be close to this girl, and she imagines them as sisters. In addition to, there are no male presence around except for her brothers which makes her feel like she can not relate to “their”world. Another reference of identity is in the story “Barbie-Q”, the little girl is playing with Barbie dolls with her friend, and the barbie dolls are very basic with not much clothing. Moreover, there is no “Ken” Barbie dolls around either. This compares that there is no masculinity as well as how poor these two girls are since the dolls only have few clothing. As a result, these girls have to share . Before long, they have an opportunity to buy some barbie dolls when there is a sale on burnt dolls due to warehouse that caught on fire. “And if the prettiest doll, Barbie's MOD'ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash brush included, has a left foot melted a little—so?”(16). The girls do not care or take notice to the damage, they are grateful for what they have.

Cisneros' Barbie-Q really stood out as a great piece of literature. Barbie-Q is a quick glimpse into the life of a poverty-stricken child and her way of life. Though my life as of yet has been rather short, my earliest childhood memories are overwhelmingly my fondest and her account really struck a chord. Sandra Cisneros' accurate reflection of a young mind and intricate writing methods expressed great emotion. Her portrayal of a child's mentality evoked my childhood recollections while her realistic tale of childhood bliss in the midst of poverty caused great empathy on my part making this my preferred work we studied.

This story reveals the little girl’s happiness by showing her excitement about Barbie dolls when they were in the flea market.

Children’s child play has become a form of an unrealistic world. Although, it is considered for children to begin creating a creative imagination, the mind fascinates children into toys. Some child’s play toys are not ideal for young children, like the one and only “Barbie”. Barbie has become a worldwide toy product for children all over the world, from the North Pole to the South Pole. These dolls have emerged from one ethnicity to another. In Ann DuCille, “Dyes and Dolls: Multicultural Barbie and the Merchandising of Differences” the author talks about the race and gender differences; found in Barbie. She argues; “Is Barbie bad?” her response, was “Barbie is just a piece of plastic” (459). In contrast, this piece of plastic is not just a piece of plastic to young girls; it is much more than that. A piece of plastic that little girls all over the world wish they could be. Even though, it is only a piece of plastic to adults that Barbie significantly means nothing to them. Growing up, I owned a couple of Barbie dolls. The tall, long blond hair, blue-eyed doll was my best friend and my “role model”. I wanted to become exactly like Barbie. As a child, I thought only beautiful people who looked liked Barbie signified beauty. To my little to no knowledge, I soon came to find out no one really looks like Barbie, except people who want to become like Barbie. In my adolescent years, no one taught me Barbie was “unreal”; no one taught me it was just a figure in my imagination.

“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is about a girl who is a normal child growing up; playing with dolls, miniature kitchen items and pretend make-up. It quickly takes an interesting turn when a pubescent child makes fun of her nose and legs and she was advised to exercise and diet despite the fact that she was intelligent and healthy. The poem continues on by the girl cutting her legs and nose and a bizarre visual of her laying in a casket with an ending that states “to every woman a happy ending”( Piercy 791). This poem was written by Piercy in 1969 a year in which many women liberation groups were forming and the breaking of womanly roles was taking place. The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy,

Barbie, at the age of 41, is one of the longest living toys in America. Analyzing her early history can give a person a look into the societal trends and culture of the late 1950's and early 1960's. There is evidence of fashion innovations in Barbie's wardrobe. Also, one can see the perception of females by society, such as what they should look like, how they should act and dress, as well as what their future goals could be. The following essay follows Barbie's history from 1959 to 1963, covering her development, her appeal to children, and her existence as a cultural artifact of the time period.

Since the beginning of time, toys have often been an indicator of the way a society behaves, and how they interact with their children. For example, in ancient Greece, artifacts recovered there testify that children were simply not given toys to play with as in the modern world. The cruel ritual of leaving a sick child on a hillside for dead, seems to indicate a lack of attention to the young (Lord 16). The same is true of today’s society. As you can see with the number of toy stores in our society, we find toys of great value to our lives and enjoy giving them to children as gifts. Ask just about any young girl what she wants for Christmas and you’ll undoubtedly get the same answer: “A Barbie.” But what exactly has caused

One study took a group of 6th grade girls and had them play with Barbie’s, then later asked them what their views of Barbie were:

The intended audience for this poem is society. One of the first reasons why society is easily picked as the authors intended target is because of Piercy’s use of allusion in her poem, more specifically in the title of the poem, “Barbie Doll”. The title of the poem has reference to the actual Barbie doll, which is also mentioned in the first stanza. The idea to mention the actual doll points toward society because Barbie is “most

C. Purpose Statement: I think we all can vouch that Barbie’s haves always been a rage for so long but we never knew how or when Barbie came to take over a little kid’s imagination.