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Female stereotypes in media
Essay about feminist literature
Essay about feminist literature
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Feminism has yet again become a prominent topic in recent years and the issue is ripe with controversy due to the tendency of sexism to be more subtle now than it was in the past, such as back during the Women’s Suffrage Movement. While, superficially, Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” seems an antiquated, obsolete analysis of insignificant stereotypes that are no longer relevant in modern society, this isn’t the case as one looks deeper. Marge Piercy paints an exceptionally bold, audacious, and, at times, almost grotesque picture of 1973 sexual stereotypes which decidedly still holds true over 40 years later. “Barbie Doll” candidly addresses both the devaluation of women into only having worth within the female stereotype and the shameless sexualization …show more content…
“Lipsticks the color of cherry candy” (4) suggests quite a lot. “Cherry candy” obviously represents an extremely bright red color. Red lipstick has an intense connotation of being associated with sexy and sexually promiscuous women. Because red is such a sexualized color, the line really calls back to the idea of being both a young, innocent child and a girl, inescapably female. Further, the “cherry” part has quite a lot of significance as well, if not more than the color. Cherry is often used as a sort of slang term for the hymen where “popping your cherry” means to lose one’s virginity (What Does Pop). It could be that the cherry colored lipstick is encouraging the “girlchild”’s sexuality or perhaps referring to the value of holding on to her “cherry,” or, in other words, her virginity. In the last stanza of the poem the “girlchild” is “displayed on satin” (19) in her casket and “dressed in a pink and white nightie” (22). Satin is reminiscent of luxurious satin sheets on a bed or even of the material of a slinky, sexy pink and white nightie. While a nightie is a rather obvious sexualization, the colors are significant as well. Pink is often associated with women, especially young girls. It has a certain …show more content…
Walking into almost any store that sells toys shows quite clearly that there is a difference between toys for girls and boys. While some stores, such as Target, have attempted to at least partially address the issue by trying to remove labels such as “girl” and “boy” from their toy sections, it was met with a significant amount of backlash from the public showing just how much farther we still have to go on such issues (Luckerson). Furthermore, despite such attempts to move forward, girls are still actively encouraged to maintain the housewife stereotype through toys such as the It’s Girl Stuff! Cleaning Set containing a toy dust pan and brush, broom, and cleaning spray that was manufactured and sold as recently as 2014 (A Cleaning Set). Even worse, the sexualization of and enforcement of beauty standards for females as a whole, and especially for young girls, has arguably become more rampant in recent years. Makeup, skincare, and weight loss companies have been targeting girls through marketing at progressively younger ages (Cardona). Teen magazines further enforce the unrealistically high beauty standards for women with articles such as one that presents Hollywood celebrities Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, and Heather Graham as “role models against which readers can calibrate their own behavior” (Gibbons). Only
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.
“If Barbie was designed by a man, suddenly a lot of things made sense to me,” says Emily Prager in her essay “Our Barbies, Ourselves” (Prager 354). Prager’s purpose for writing this essay is to explain the history of Barbie and how the doll itself has influenced and continue to influence our society today. Prager is appealing to the average girl, to those who can relate to the way she felt growing up with Barbie seen as the ideal woman. Emily Prager uses a constant shift between a formal and informal tone to effectively communicate her ideas that we view women today based upon the unrealistic expectations set forth by Barbie. By adopting this strategy she avoids making readers feel attacked and therefore
The treatment of females from the 18th century through the 21st century have only gotten worse due to society’s ignorant judgment of the gender. Of which, is the change from the previous housewife like actions to the modern day body figure. This repulsive transaction is perceived throughout literature. From the 19th century’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin in 1894 and the 20th century’s poem, “Barbie Doll” composed by Marge Piercy in 1971.
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.
Every woman grows up knowing that they one day want to be beautiful. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she gives an in depth look at what negative effects the concept of beauty can have on an individual. From infancy to a full grown adult woman, beauty has been a way of thinking and lifestyle. As a little girl you are given petite shaped, blonde, blue eyed dolls. While boys are given brawny soldiers and mechanical toys.
The Barbie is a plastic, man-made female toy, which has perfect facial symmetry, unnatural body dimensions, and perfectly unblemished white skin. In Chris Semansky’s Overview of “Barbie Doll,” he explains that the Barbie “is invented to show women have been socialized into thinking of their bodies and behavior in relation to a male-controlled idea” (Semansky). The title directly alludes to the Barbie toy, which represents a design of a man-made construction of the female image that shows an unnatural human form that could only exist inside the imagination of men. Throughout both “Barbie Doll” and “The Birthmark” you will find the female protagonists seeking an ultimately perfect form, free of the characteristics that those around them see as unworthy. It is as if they are chasing the blueprint of perfection that is present in the Barbie. The original Barbie came with three outfits a bathing suit, a tennis outfit, and a wedding dress (Semansky). Her outfits clearly symbolize restrictions forced on female privilege, identity, and autonomy, where “she embodies the ideals and values of her middle-class American community” who expect her to “spend her days at the country club and her afternoons cooking dinner for her husband” (Semansky). This is directly similar to the “outfits” those around the women in “Barbie Doll” where the girlchild is born
The socialization of children is greatly affected by the toys they are exposed to while growing up. Looking through magazines and walking down the aisles of toy stores it is clear that toy companies are supportive of cultural gender roles biases. Toys designed for girls are commonly found in pink boxes; typically these toys involve housework or taking care of children, for example, dolls and easy bake ovens. On the other hand, “boy” toys are found in blue and black boxes, and a lot of them involve construction and cars.
In a world where many are led to believe that they fall short of what society depicts as “perfect”, it is still true that everyone is beautiful in their own way. There are even more demands on girls now a days than there has ever been before. Some may think they need to fit in, so they become someone they are not or they begin to act like a totally different person. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, illustrates society’s high and unrealistic expectations on the physical appearance of women, while failing to see that a woman’s self-esteem is at risk of being diminished.
Stone, Tanya Lee. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us. New York: Penguin Group, 2010. Print.
In the poem “Barbie Doll,” Marge Piercy suggests that girls are peer-pressured into fitting social norms based on appearance rather than on other qualities. The poem begins with the speaker describing a girl’s early life with barbie dolls, then progresses to society’s influences on her: “She was advised to play coy,/exhorted to come on hearty,/exercise, smile, and wheedle” (ll. 12-14). The use of passive voice emphasizes the girl’s reluctancy to be “advised” and “exhorted,” two words synonymous with “to urge.” At the same time, the speaker leaves out the subject of the sentence, the people who urge the girl to imply that it could be anyone—in other words, the society. She is forced to “play coy,” “come on hearty,/exercise, smile, and wheedle,” all actions portraying an acceptable image.
Barbie, a doll manufactured by Mattel, Inc., encourages an unrealistic body image, racial insensitivity, and contradictive goals, and it is having a negative influence on young girls everywhere. Launched in March 1959 by Ruth Handler, an American business woman and president of Mattel, Inc., Barbie quickly became popular and has gone on to sell three dolls every second, in over one hundred and fifty countries. However, Barbie’s rise to success has not been wholly positive – there have been numerous controversies, parodies, and lawsuits, all addressing a number of issues. One such issue is how Barbie promotes an unrealistic and unobtainable body image. For example, to scale, Barbie is five feet, nine inches tall, has a thirty six inch chest, eighteen inch waist, and thirty three inch hips. Had Barbie been a real person, she would not be able to walk, much less hold her head up. Secondly, Barbie is racially insensitive and perpetuates stereotypes. “Mexico Barbie,” from Barbie’s “ethnic” line, comes with a passport and a Chihuahua, as well as stereotypical red lace ribbons in her hair. Lastly, Barbie portrays goals that are both unobtainable and contradictive. Barbie has had a variety of careers, such as being a doctor, astronaut, and President of the United States, but also engages in stereotypical domestic activities, such as cleaning and baking. These characteristics are affecting young girls in a time when they are most developmentally susceptible, and teaching them a number of negative lessons.
In her “The truth about girls and boys, toys and TV” (2016), Naomi Riley claims that kids shouldn't be given the idea that dolls/pink toys are only for girls and trucks/blue toys are only for boys, each kid should get to choose what they want to play with. Riley supports her place by using scientific experiments by researchers and many pieces of evidence which illustrate the truth, young children are brought into the spotlight of popular culture showing that at a young age kids are given the toys that agree with their gender instead of choosing what they want. Using strong evidence Riley hopes to point out the ways people often choose what they want based on their gender in order to spark awareness in the readers about kids wanting the gender
While many parts of society dealing with gender inequality have made great strides in recent years, there is one area in which reform is lagging behind. Gender roles have been a steady source of influence in the toy market since the mid 1900s. As stated by Elizabeth Sweet, a sociologist at the University of California, “The world of toys looks a lot more like 1952 than 2012” (Sweet, 2012). The ideas of gender norms in this market are a good reflection of the current state of our society’s beliefs with these sorts of issues. In this era where family structures and gender roles are becoming more and more diverse, the ideals in the toy market are aiding in turning back time to a
Marge Piercy is a poet and feminist that participated in New Left and Student for a Democratic Society. Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll,” explains society’s expectations for women. When the girl in the poem gives into her peers pressure to look and act a certain way, the poem's theme is shown; when a person acts how society wants them too, they are killing themselves. The poet, Marge Piercy, shows this theme throughout the poem by using poetic terms such as; irony, simile, and symbolism. Piercy shows how a person kills themselves when a person acts how society expects them to through irony.
Historically, women been trapped in the web of social expectations that have been set out for them. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s 18th century poem “ Saturday: The Small Pox,” as well as Marge Percy’s 20th century poem “Barbie Doll” both demonstrate these same social expectations, even though they were written two centuries apart. As a result of the historical social expectations to be thin and beautiful, many women behave irrationally, lose their individuality, and lose their self worth.