The Barbie Doll and Richard Cory Essay

Launched on March 1959, the Barbie doll is a toy that was first put on display in New York. It quickly garnered a lot of attention with the target audience of the creators, young girls. This doll was different than its previous dolls because it was a doll that was an ideal representation of a woman. Thus allowing young girls to use their imagination to create and act-out what this doll’s life is like and what their future would potentially be. To successfully understand this toy, we must think like C Wright Mills, a sociologist who asks to use our sociological imagination, the intersection of one’s biography and history. This artifact reflects and perpetuates the dominant ideology of how to perform your gender the “right” way in the early 1960s. I will argue this demonstrates West and Zimmerman’s concept of “doing gender” which is clarified with Judith Butler’s concept of socialization of gender.

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.

In the short story, “Barbie-Q” By Sandra Cisneros uses a Barbie doll to portray the two young girls inner struggles with perfection and identity. Cisneros wanted to use two girls from families with limited incomes to get the surprise of having a local toy warehouse and stacks of burnt Barbie dolls, which immediately makes them available for a bargained price. The characters that Cisneros uses help show a flow of consciousness by using a variety of adjective and listing to capture the voice of these two girls. She also wanted to show the young girls infatuation with Barbie dolls. This shown when one of the young girls is describing her Barbie doll in comparison to the other

In the essay 'Our Barbies, Ourselves,' Emily Prager explores the history of the Barbie doll and talks about the Barbie doll itself. Prager seems convinced that the Barbie doll was an object created by a man and that Barbie reeks of sexuality, sexual innuendo and serves as the anti-feminist embodiment of every man's fantasy. In her own expressive and persuasive modes to fashion an essay designed to persuade the reader that the Barbie doll is a twisted and corrupt tool designed by men to combat the feminist revolution. Though her attempts at persuasion are commendable, I was not swayed in my opinions on Barbie. If anything, I just found fault with this writer's point of view, and I found her

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

Picture yourself as the ‘perfect’ woman. Embodying every woman’s dream. You are undeniably gorgeous, weighing in at 100 pounds, standing 6 feet tall and holding nearly 150 careers (barbiemedia.com). Yes, this is the beloved, ever so ‘inspirational’ childhood toy, the perfectly perfect Barbie Doll. Barbie is America’s most beloved toy, considering young girls between the ages of three and eleven own at least 10 Barbie’s throughout their childhood (‘Life in Plastic’). As creator of the Barbie Doll once said, “My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented that a woman has choices,” (Handler). However, Barbie has proved to serve the opposite effect and

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.

In Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag is living in a “perfect” society, thinking he is absolutely happy, but further discovers deep inside him that this was untrue and the doubts he has become the root of his unhappiness. As the story progresses the reader begins to see that Montag is not a happy person and instead he is deeply troubled. Likewise, in the poem “Richard Cory”, Richard Cory is shown to the readers as a man who is living an opulent lifestyle, living richer than a king while his less-fortunate neighbors sit and long for his privilege. The people living in his town assume he is ultimately happy due to his wealth, though it is shown in the last stanza that he committed suicide. The reader infers that Richard Cory was actually not happy and was instead just painted over as happy by his people. Both men lived a life of false happiness before finally realizing that they were both unhappy and it also understood that happiness is not just a feeling that resides on the surface of a person but runs

“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.

“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’s intelligence has been one of the most debated topics about the doll. While some say that she is just a “bimbo,” others find her to be a positive role model with all that Barbie can be. Schroeder says that by playing with a Barbie that was either a Doctor Barbie or a Vet Barbie will send a young girl to a therapist, and the infamous quote that one Barbie said “Math class is tough” (Schroeder 2). While some of the things that Barbie used to be about looked badly upon the dolls intelligence there have been may improvements since

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.