Barbie Doll Analysis

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

“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.

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

Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll,” helps us realize how hypocritical society is and how much we criticize and bring other people down. “She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty” (lines 12-13). In this example, it shows that people would tell the girlchild to act a certain way, quiet and reserved, but then go back and tell her to act loudly and cheerfully. This example helps to prove my point that society has a lot of expectations for women by using irony. “In the casket displayed… everyone said” (lines 19-23). This use of imagery helps us understand how girlchild’s body looked while it was lied down in her casket. This shows how society has

Negative self-image among women has been a struggle in society for a long period of time. Social media, magazines, and the pressures of society has caused many young girls to feel bad about themselves because they do not look like the clothing model on the runway or the bathing suit model on the front of a magazine. Females grow up with the pressures of having to be in shape, wearing the best clothes, and putting on a full face of makeup for a male to find them attractive. Society has deemed that only "fit" women are beautiful, and that idea has caused women to harm themselves, develop anorexia, and feel insecure of themselves daily. Two works of literature that discuss the struggles women face from society is Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll"

In the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, we read about a young girl who has self image problems. Due to the expectations of society, she is not happy with her physical appearance. She had many good qualities but is unable to see these for herself. Instead she only sees is a “a great big nose and fat legs”(Piercy,1936). In order to conform to society’s idea of beauty, the young girl was “advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and

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.

The classmate in this poem is a metaphor for society and how through puberty both sexes go through changes and become more aware of one another as well as pass judgment between both sexes, particularly more in women. The girl realizes that standards have been set for her and she needs to look a certain way to be beautiful. However, according to society she is just a girl with “ a great big nose and fat legs” and thus affecting her emotionally which has negative effects on her self-esteem and putting pressure on her emotionally ( Piercy 791).

Why when we are alone do we think about flaws or other characteristics about ourselves that are not “good enough? “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy gives the readers a new outlook on the standards people uphold for young girls. When you see what is expected you begin to realize how unrealistic these expectations are. Throughout the poem Marge Piercy talked about things that were often expected from young girls such as appearances, hobbies, and even characteristics. The theme of this poem is” people set unrealistic expectations on young girls that can cause an affect on their self-esteem. ” was mentioned and as we went deeper into poem the pain she was truly going through was revealed. She believed the only way it would all be over is if she killed herself, which was the impact the author wanted you to feel. This is shown by the attitudes of the poem and the figurative language.

All of her other attributes such as her intelligence and the fact that she was healthy, are disregarded, because she isn’t what society sees as beautiful. She is so insecure about these ‘imperfections’, she believes that if she cant be ‘perfect’, she might as well not ‘be’ at all, so she disposes of what she thinks are the ugly things about her, but ends up dying in the process of trying to please the world around her. She does all of this just to try and fit the mould society has set for her, to make sure her exterior appearance is ‘perfect’. This longing to be perfect ties in with the metaphor of the title “Barbie Doll”. Evidently, Barbie dolls have nothing but their appearance, and this metaphor perfectly frames the absurdity of the idea of appearance being the most important element in a woman. Throughout this poem, sarcasm has also been used to reinforce this idea. In the last stanza, during the resolution of the poem, the line “Doesn’t she look pretty?” is particularly significant in the development of the resolution of the poem. Even though the girl has died and lying in her casket as they speak, her appearance is still the thing that is

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.