Compare And Contrast Barbie Doll

In both poems “Barbie Doll’ and “homage to my hips” the speakers focused on the same idea but had different ways of expressing those ideas. In the poem “Barbie Doll” written by Marge Piercy shows how a young girl is affected by the idea of a “perfect” body that society thinks a girl should have. A Barbie doll is a toy that young girls play with. Barbie is an unrealistic way of how a young girl should look and can ultimately lower one’s self-esteem. The company that makes Barbie decided that it would be beneficial for young girls to see the different body images one can have. On the other hand, in the poem “homage to my hips” the speaker Lucille Clifton is proud and appreciative of her hips. She is able to go against the standard norm of how society wants girls to look and gives her hips the importance that they are actual people themselves. Although “Barbie Doll” and “homage to my hips” have a similar theme while the poets used a different structure and literary devices to portray how society sees a young girls’ body image.

The emotions of feeling nothing for one's country and the judgmentalness of underage girls really evoke emotions in my heart that I cannot understand. As I write and record my thoughts and feelings, remember the main messages of these poems. In this essay I will discuss why I believe the two poems ‘Barbie Doll’ and ‘Self Portrait with No Flag’ are better than the poems ‘Quilted’ and ‘The End and the Beginning’ based on their language, imagery, and overall impact on the reader. Both sets of poems are unique and interesting in their own way, with different strengths and weaknesses that make them stand out from one another. The ‘Barbie Doll’ is superior to ‘Quilted’ in its use of language and imagery.

The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy depicts a child that was once a normal girl child because she looked reminiscent of a normal girl. She played with dolls and miniature stoves, which made her, seem even more like a normal child. She then enters adolescent puberty which causes drastic changes to her physical appearance, which ultimately cause her to become insecure about herself. The poem “The Leap” by James Dickey also depicts a female character going through her adolescence as a top runner within her grade level. The poems do have some similarities; however, they also have several differences.

The poem “Barbie Doll” represents the struggles of young girl who wants to fit into the ideas of feminine beauty that sets by the society. The poem begins “This girlchild was born as usual” (Piercy Line 1). The author depicts a normal young girl who is healthy, brilliant and plays with doll. In the poem the girl was being bullied by her classmate and told her that that she has a “big nose and fat legs” (Line 6).Then she was advised to go on a diet and exercise .The girl struggles to become what the others want her to be .She feels being unaccepted because of her imperfections. Just like the speaker in the poem “Suicide Note” who struggles to meet her parent’s expectations .Both women can’t handle the pressures sets by others and commit suicide.

Both poems use names from iconic beauty icons. Barbies are seen by little girls and are the first things to influence how they should define beauty. Normally the dolls have skinny bodies and small noses and are able to have multiple careers and are admired by men. Thus, little girls grow up wanting to be like Barbie. Marilyn Monroe is a sex icon who looks other women began to copy. Unlike Barbie she was curvy and had an acting career, but she was also adored by men. Both icons influenced women on how to look and impress men, but the influence becomes problematic and difficult to maintain because only dolls and superstars to can survive that life. Even idols cannot survive that life, as proven by Monroe. Only Barbie, an object can be seen as the “perfect woman.” Both poems use these names to highlight how impossible it is for women to seen as normal or to be accepted as they are. Thus, an early death can happen when the pressure is too much to handle and each poem has a tone of sadness at both women’s death. However, the Death of Marilyn Monroe encourages women to live and not be like the icons they admire, while Barbie Doll see’s it fit to strive for beauty until the

“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 dolls are trying to improve their race representation by creating more diverse Barbies so that little girls of different ethnicities don’t feel left out. According to Kristina Milnor, “between 1993 and 1997 the American toy company Mattel produced the “Great Eras Collection,” a series of Barbie dolls dressed to represent historical moments ranging from Eighteenth-Dynasty pharaonic Egypt through 1920s America” (215). Mattel released ten different Barbies in the Great Eras Collection in hopes of having a more diverse line, along with Mattel’s trademark Barbie. The ten different Barbies come from different historical periods that have different skin colors and have different clothing to represent racial diversity. In hopes of trying to boost little girls of color self-esteem, Mattel tried to make the line as diverse as possible, but there is a problem. According to Milnor, “here are ten dolls in all, beginning (since they appeared out of chronological order) with Gibson Girl Barbie, proceeding to Flapper Barbie, Egyptian Queen Barbie, Southern Belle Barbie, Medieval Lady Barbie, Elizabethan Queen Barbie, Grecian Goddess Barbie, Victorian Lady Barbie, French Lady Barbie, and finally Chinese Empress Barbie,” which are all considered high class status (215). This is a problem because it does not reflect all little girls. There is race representation in this line but having all the dolls portrayed as high social class does not represent most of the little girls playing with

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.

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

I feel like there's nothing wrong with having protection, but it's how you use your protection that determines weather or not it should be legal. Me personally would say that the open carry law should be legal because there's so much happening especially murders, and robberies. People of the United States need protection at least to carry around with them because you never know what can happen especially at night time. Now I don’t condone in people just using their protection to go wild with their weapon and shooting people with no reason behind it, but what I do know is that I want a gun of my own when I am old enough to purchase one just for protection, and to protect my future family. The new year brought a new law that's generated a lot of heat in Texas the open carry law of handguns. In Texas you can now openly carry a handgun in a hip or shoulder holster. You don’t need to conceal a gun like you did in the past. In Texas in order to openly carry a gun, you have to have a concealed- handgun license. You have to at least be 21 or older. You also have to complete classroom training and pass a shooting test. You have

Henrik Ibsen one of his most famous literature works “A doll’s house” and Kate Chopin’s short story “The story of an hour” portrays to the Victorian era, when women didn’t have rights at all. Both authors were born in an era where they saw or lived a women’s life, and many women faced many aspects in life, such as being submissive to their husband’s, they were viewed as possessions than as people, and they lived a life that they weren’t satisfied with during the Victorian age. Even though Ibsen did not live the life of a woman, he still saw how woman were being mistreated, in spite of being a male he knew that woman’s were taken for granted. Ibsen’s play corresponds to his point of view of how women were seen as manipulated as “dolls”, and Chopin’s story “The story of an hour” was based on how women values were not tolerated. Both literature works consist of two women that were easily maneuvered by their husband’s that have little concern for their beliefs or feelings. Both characters, Nora and Louise lived a life where their words are meaningless to men, their reputations were not important in a society where men were seen as superior than women. Both works of literature, “ A Doll’s house” and “ The story of an hour” uses similarities and differences aspects to portray to the Victorian era that resemble in their writings.

Just from looking at the title of the poem, we can see that the author believes society's expectations of women are unrealistic. A barbie doll is supposed to be a figure of a “perfect” woman that is tall, skinny, and flawless. This look is obviously unachievable for a human being to accomplish. Barbie dolls are also only given to young girls. They are shown at a young age what they are supposed to look like and how they are supposed to act. This is where girls are first introduced to their female roles in society. A doll is fake and made of plastic, incapable of being intelligent and having a mind of its own. These are the issues that Piercy addresses throughout her poem “Barbie Doll.”

The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy in relation to diversity alludes to specific aspects of gender, mainly targeting the female gender perspective and expectations. In the poem, Piercy is writing about a young girl transitioning from a child to a women and how society and its idea of beauty affects her. My interpretation of the poem is that the girl is basically crying out for help saying look I am healthy, intelligent, and strong but no one sees or cares about those things because the only thing they see when they look at her is her outside appearance and what society considers to be the flaws that she possesses. Although this was written in 1936 Piercy accurately describes the feeling of being defined or constricted by society to think, act, and look a particular way which is similar to that of todays society which is fueled by social media, where some find personal gratification and self confidence fueled from likes and retweets they receive.” Barbie doll “ is the perfect title for this poem because for the longest time a Barbie was a sign of something perfect and beautiful, a toy enjoyed by everyone and a conventional symbol for little girls all over the United States. Similarly the girl was conforming to be sort of like the Barbie doll in a way because of societal expectations and the want to be viewed in a particular light by ones peers.