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Essay on barbie doll by marge piercy comment
Specific bullying in children and young people
Specific bullying in children and young people
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Barbie Dolls
Author, Marge Piercy, introduces us to a young adolescent girl without a care in the world until puberty begins. The cruelty of her friends emerges and ultimately she takes her own life to achieve perfection in “Barbie Dolls” (648). At the time when all children are adjusting to their ever changing bodies, the insults and cruelties of their peers begin and children who were once friends for many years, become strangers over night caught in a world of bullying. A child who is bullied can develop severe depression which can lead to suicide; and although schools have been educated in recognizing the signs of bullying, there is an epidemic that has yet to be fully addressed within our schools or society.
Bullying is described as
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In 1862, a soldier named John Flood killed another soldier due to the torment that had been inflicted upon him, he was sentenced to death but the Queen overturned that ruling (The Tablet, 504). “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens published in 1838, is reported to be the first novel in Literary Fiction to include bullying behavior. In regards to school bullying, the first documented case came from the King’s School in Cambridge, England after a twelve year old boy was bullied to death by a group of older boys in 1885 (Koo, 110). Given that bullying was identified so many years ago, it would seem that much more should have been accomplished to defeat this …show more content…
Suicide due to bullying has been given the name of bullycide. One example of bullycide would be Jon Carmichael from Texas who was bullied so harshly that “one day they stripped him naked, tied him up, and stuck him in a trash can, and they taped it with their cell phones and put it all on You Tube” per his mother’s account (Texas Monthly, Hollandsworth). A few days later Jon was found hanging by a rafter from their barn after committing suicide. The perpetrators of this abuse were his fellow classmates and it is reported that “60% of boys who bullied others in middle school had at least one criminal conviction by the age of 24; 40% had three or more convictions” (van der Valk, 41). Bullying behavior not only negatively affects the victims that are singled out and tormented, but from a legal perspective can lead to long term criminal
In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll,” we see the effect that society has on the expectations of women. A woman, like the girl described in ‘Barbie Doll’, should be perfect. She should know how to cook and clean, but most importantly be attractive according to the impossible stereotypes of womanly beauty. Many women in today’s society are compared to the unrealistic life and form of the doll. The doll, throughout many years, has transformed itself from a popular toy to a role model for actual women. The extremes to which women take this role model are implicated in this short, yet truthful poem.
My friend, Kevin, was just two short months away from graduating high school, but he never got to see that day because of bullies. No one had a clue; he had a remarkable family and a great group of friends. He did everything he could to leave a smile on everyone’s face, and he earned the nickname, “Cheeks,” because of his huge, friendly smile. No one understood why such a cheerful person would want to take his own life, but it was because bullies harassed him for months, and no one knew. According to the Center for Disease Control, “Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year” (Bullying and Suicide). Bullying is an ongoing issue that seems to evolve rapidly, and the world of
The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is an embodiment of insecurity. She points out that society wants young women to look and act a certain way and the poem is basically using sarcasm to point out just how superficial and unachievable perfection really is. “Barbie Doll” has a dark tone, but real. The perfect ideals of society force the girlchild to change and hate herself to the point of death being the only way achieve beauty and perfection. In this passage, Piercy uses sarcasm, similes, and descriptions of the physical attributes of womanhood and femininity to emphasize the larger theme of society’s view of perfection, which lines in the superficial appearance of women.
The poem "Barbie Doll," by Marge Piercy is a moving and interesting poem written in 1973 that focuses on a little girl's entrance into womanhood and the struggles that comes with it.
In such a cruel society young woman tend to feel pressured with keeping up a perfect image or appeal just to please everyone around them. The speaker in this poem is third person, the audience is very clear focusing on society and parents raising young girls. The overall theme is how society has a standard of how pretty someone is. It causes woman to feel pressured into looking and acting a certain way. A “girl child” is born and once she hits puberty, she is humiliated for what other people point out and see as her flaws. Soon she tired of trying so hard to be what she was not. She eventually got what she wanted which was to look pretty, though it cost her own life. In this eye opening poem “Barbie Doll”, Marge Piercy gives a great representation of how society’s view affects a young woman’s self-image using similes, gruesome symbols, and strong irony.
Bullying is the leading cause of suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of deaths among young people. Bullying results in about 4,400 deaths per year (“Bullying and Suicide”). Bullying someone doesn’t just have to be making fun of the person. There is all different kind of bullying, there is cyber bullying, physical bullying, emotional bullying, etc. 43% of kids have been bullied online that has led to suicide (“11 Facts about Suicide”). So many people are being bullied, but do not want to say anything thing or tell anyone, but they need to get help. Some people do not think what they say to others is hurting or damaging, but to others it can be destroying them and making them feel like suicide will end the hurt that being bullied constantly is causing. A few words can either make or break a person, even if they say they are okay. “In 70% of all teen suicides, another teen knew about it and did nothing” (Portner). Emotinal...
The first reason anti-bullying laws in school are necessary is they help prevent suicide. Studies show that in America today, “suicide is the third leading cause of death among youth ages twelve to nine-teen”(Leavasseur 3). These are the ages that school aged children are most easily influenced. “Suicide rates have quadrupled the rate at which they were in 1950” (Stacy Teicher Khadaroo 1) as education has become more necessary. “For every death recorded, research suggests that many more teens think about or attempt suicide” (Stacy Teicher Khadaroo 1). Because it is a place students are forced to spend the majority of their young lives, the responsibility to prevent their students from becoming another statistic has fallen upon the shoulders of the schools today. When schools fail to accept these responsibilities to enforce rules against bullying things such as what happened to Rebecca Ann Sedwick take place.
In November of 2012, a 14 year old girl committed suicide in Canada after receiving numerous threats from 2 of her classmates because of a “falling out” in the girls' relationship. This past year, a freshman at Rutgers University took his own life after a video revealing his true sexuality was discovered and put onto a commonly known website for all the university to see. The well known “Columbine Shootings” shocked the world because the shooters were said to have been picked on and bullied in school. The effects of bullying, even in one’s childhood, can haunt them forever: “Sometimes, a whisper in an elementary school classroom can echo for decades. A threat called out in a middle school hallway can cling to the subconscious into adulthood. And an insecurity exploited in a high school cafeteria can redefine a future” (Johnson 1). It’s clearly obvious that bullying can take lives and torture the people whom loved the victims of such cruelty. People, not just kids and teenagers, but people are bullied everyday across the world.
Even though I work in a school district where we are expected to watch videos on bullying annually, this series was eye opening to the real problem of bullying. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development three out of ten children are a bully, victim, or both. Another statistic from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development reveals that 3.2 million youth are bullied and 3.7 million youth are the bullies. These statistics are staggering. The characteristics of bullying is repeated aggressive behavior that is carried out over time with the intent of inflicting verbal, nonverbal, or physical harm to another individual. Normal peer conflict happens infrequently between two equal
Bullying is a growing concern in a society where status and exercising power over another human being are increasingly important in developing one’s social circles. Dan Olweus (Norwegian researcher and founder of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program) defines it as an “aggressive behaviour that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power. Most often, it is repeated over time” (Violencepreventionworks.org). School victimization is an especially delicate matter that has only really been in the public eye for the past half century, as more and more researchers and psychologists pointed out its short- and long-term negative effects on targeted individuals. It has since been widely investigated and numerous programs have been developed in an effort to address and prevent the many forms of bullying that exist today. The negative effects of such an abusive behaviour are various and can greatly differ from individual to individual. However, there are three main consequences that can be associated with school bullying, which are: school avoidance, depression/anxiety and even suicidal attempts.
Three million bullying incidents are reported each year in the U.S. and over 160,000 kids skip school each day because they are scared of being bullied (Havenrich). Suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24 year olds and sixth leading cause of death for 5 to 14 year olds ("Bullying"). Bullying has been going on for decades (Garby), and goes unnoticed by many everyday. One out of every four school students encounters taunting, teasing, shoving, and called names daily by school bullies (Havenrich). Bullying happens on the playground, during class, and to and from school (Wright). Bullying has become a big issue and some states are making laws to stop bullying (Garby). It damages the people being bullied, effects the bully himself, and sometimes the people that did not take part in the bullying.
In the past few years, bullying has gotten so bad that people decided to take their own lives to escape the pain. Bullies use violent behaviors to harm their victims verbally and physically. Usually, the victim is too frightened to fight back and too embarrassed to inform adults. People choose to bully others for a broad range of reasons (media or the want for power), but not getting love and attention from dysfunctional families is the main reason ("Why do people bully?" n.d.). In the end, however, everyone experiences consequences. The bullies become lonely and violent while the victims suffer from depression. Family and societal issues have led many people to become aggressive and think that it is permissible to deliberately humiliate others; they will then gain an overwhelming power and a sense of autonomy from watching their victims' pain, which causes them to not realize the negative outcomes that they might encounter like loneliness, depression, and possibly even death.
Throughout history, bullying has always been a serious problem in society. It can happen to anyone, ranging from children to even adults. In the past, bullying was thought of as a part of growing up, it was something that every child would have to go through in school. Bullying is defined as an act of aggressive behaviors that is intentionally done to cause someone pain or discomfort, this behavior is often repeated on a regular basis. Research have shown that bullying can have a strong negative affect to the development of physical, social, psychological skills of the victim. Despite the countless amount of research and “anti-bullying” campaign, bullying is still a national crisis that is happening in our lives and our schools. Bullying
Bullying has become a major deal worldwide, with numerous cases of bullying leading to suicide. It is a tragic event when someone takes their own life from the torment of a bully, but a bully should not be charged with manslaughter, because it is not the bullies’ fault that the individual decided to commit suicide. However the bully should be charged with harassment and have to spend a jail sentence, also including a bullying fine. The concern is if bullies should be charged with manslaughter, but there are multiple cases of bullies happening every day. Bullying in current society can be anything, kids now a days cannot do anything without it being considered bullying, because it hurts another person feeling or they have an over protective parent.
Bullying is something that is not something new and is actually something that society continues to face. Over the years, bullying has been looked at as being so ordinary in schools that it is continuously overlooked as an emanate threat to students and has been lowered to a belief that bullying is a part of the developmental stage that most young children will experience then overcome (Allebeck, 2005, p. 129). Not everyone gets over the extreme hurt that can come as an effect from bullying, for both the bully and the victim. Because of this, we now see bullying affecting places such as the workplace, social events and even the home. The issue of bullying is not only experienced in schools, but the school environment is one of the best places