Beauty Sttigmas

From the time they are born, girls are influenced by society as to who they should be, how they should look, and how they should act. Americans believe that women should be to a certain standard; pretty, feminine, and especially, thin. The pressures derive from family, media, and friends. Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll” depicts a girl who was never recognized for her character and spent her life trying to be accepted for who she was, rather than how she looked.

Both of these poems portray two views of individuals by society. The girl in The Barbie Doll was healthy and intelligent, yet everyone still focused on her fat legs and big nose. This led the girl to do as much as she could to please those around her. This outlook can be compared to how women are portrayed in our society today. As we, women, look through magazines we are greeted by tiny women with big chests. Some of us feel that this is the way all women should look. Those who feel this way will do all that they can do to look like these models. Many women in our society are anorexic and bulimic, could this be because of society's portrayal of women? I believe so.

The poem, "Barbie Doll," written by Marge Piercy tells the story of a young girl growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. The author uses imagery and fluctuating tone to describe the struggles the girl is experiencing during her teenage years, and the affects that can happen. The title of this poem is a good description of how most societies expect others, especially girls to look. Constantly, people are mocked for their appearance and expected to represent a "barbie-doll"-like figure. Few are "blessed" with this description. The female gender is positioned into the stereotype that women should be thin and beautiful. With this girl, the effects were detrimental. The first stanza describes the

The way our society views other people by their appearance will probably never change. In some ways, everyone has it set in their mind what makes a person “perfect”. These characteristics may include personal appearance, wealth and intelligence. One does not always take the time to get to know a person, but make assumptions about people. Two poems, which show different views, include Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson and Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy. In the Barbie doll, the author writes about a girl’s life. The author starts off by describing her childhood. She was given dolls and toys like any other girl and she also put on some lipstick. This girl

“ideals are developmentally ingrained in children and adolescents”( Englis 1). The idea of beauty and ideal looks are engraved into people at a young age. The little girl being given a Barbie doll shows this in the poem. The idea of beauty and how a woman should act are represented in the Barbie doll. The primary take away is beauty is not everything.

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.

Like Georgiana in “The Birthmark”, women often find themselves striving to reach society’s expectation of beauty and perfection. In Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll”, a young girl is finally able to reach society’s version of beauty but she must die to do so. Piercy criticizes the ways “women are socialized into stereotypical feminine behavior” (“Overview: “Barbie Doll”, para. 1) in this poem and suggests that the pressure put on women to meet certain standards of beauty and behavior is destructive. The poem opens with the birth of a “girlchild” and all the “typical toys” that go along with it. When the girl hits puberty, her classmates begin to make fun of her big nose and fat legs. The girl is intelligent and healthy, but the other children only see the imperfections in her appearance. She is told she should behave “coy” and always wear a smile, but the teasing takes its’ toll. She cuts off her nose and legs and offers them up

In Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll" a young girl is troubled by the classification of what it takes to become a beautiful woman. "Barbie Doll" details the image that society projects upon women. From an early age young women struggle to conform to the standards that society has defined for them. Beautiful dolls such as Barbie are frequently the first source of association that young girls have with the image that society has placed upon them.

As Gilman states in her article, "..somewhere along the line, we stop believing in our own beauty and its dominion. Subsequently, we also stop believing in the power of our minds and our bodies." (72) Due to this mentality that was created, Gilman expresses her hatred towards Barbie dolls. “If you didn’t look like Barbie, you didn’t fit in. You were less beautiful… less worthy.” This idea that Gilman brought up really opened my eyes today since I never really thought of any of it at the time of when Barbie was a part of my life.

The poems Flower Feet and Barbie Doll both show the painful struggle of women trying to be beautiful. Both poems differ in content because one focused on a traditional custom while the other revolved around one negative comment. However both poems show that women have always been expected to modify themselves to fit the ideal image. It is a shame to see that society has not changed much since these poems were written. The Chinese custom of feet-binding (the topic discussed in Flower Feet), died out in the early twentieth century and the other poem Barbie Doll was written forty-two years ago. It seems ridiculous that an issue that was prevalent centuries ago would still be a problem in today’s modern world, yet women and young girls alike are

The poem “Barbie Doll” there’s this girl that everyone only looks at her nose and legs. Nobody notices her intelligence and that she’s healthy. So, she decides to cut her nose and her legs to look like a “Barbie doll” in the eyes of society. Society wants women to look “perfect”. In the poem, you can see what women are capable of just to look “perfect” around

The poem Barbie Doll by the unknown author and "My body is my own business" by Sultana Yusafali point out the problem of the society that women are only being judged by their appearance. The poem depicts the life of the girl child whose internal self is disregarded and value is determined by the appearance. Yusafali also criticizes the society's requirements to the life of being women and suggests that wearing the hijab is the solution to the problem. In the Barbie Doll, the girl child is required to be in the standard that society sets for women since she is very young.

Marge Percy “Barbie Doll” is a social commentary about the demanding pressures that the mass media produces about how women should look like and what type of body they should have. Women in the 1970s faced high standards and these standards still go on to this day. These high demands lead women to go above and beyond to meet standards that society has placed upon them. Some of these drastic measures can lead to consequences. In “Barbie Doll” the main character decided to undergo plastic surgery to fix her “big nose” and “fat legs”. Unfortunately she ended up dying in her struggle to meet the standard that the media has placed on her at an exceptionally young age. Her untimely death is a symbol and the theme of the poem that these women will work themselves to death to meet societies demands and most of the time it is all for nothing. All this women wanted was people to accept the way she looked and not critique her looks and it was not until her funeral day, when it no longer mattered, that she finally got that acceptance.