Gender Insanity in Barbie Doll, Ken Doll, and The Yellow Wallpaper

637 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of gender stereotypes on individual

Gender stereotypes have a huge effect on our generation now, and in the past. It makes us think in a certain way that we do, about males and females; which can make people insane from the expectations. A few of the expectations for males are that they have to be strong and muscular. On the other hand female’s expectations is weak and feminine. A great example of gender stereotype having the effect of making people insane is Barbie Doll, Ken Doll, and The Yellow Wallpaper. These three pieces of literature with gender stereotype, made the main character go into insanity.

Marge Piercy wrote the Barbie Doll poem in 1973, during the woman’s movement. The title of the poem Barbie Doll, symbolizes how females are supposed to appear into the society. In the poem Barbie Doll, the main character was a girl. She was described as a usual child when she was born. Meaning that she had normal features that any person could ever have. Piercy used “wee lipstick the color of cherry candy” as a smile to describe the child before she has hit puberty. After the character hit puberty, the classmates in her class began to tease her saying “you have a big nose and fat legs.” (Piercy pg. 1) Having a big nose and a fat leg is the opposite of what females are supposed to be presented as in the gender stereotype. In the society that the girl lives in, follows the gender stereotypes that presented females as a petite figure with a slender body. These expectations made the character go insane. She wanted to fit into the society so she “cut off her nose and legs and offered them up.” (Piercy pg. 1) Even though the girl was “healthy, tested intelligent…” (Piercy pg. 1) no one saw that in her, but her appearances. In the end of the poem the girl end up dying, a...

... middle of paper ...

...ooses the room to help her get better, which made him the person in control of what the wife is doing. By making his wife stay inside the room, his wife became insane by looking at the wallpaper and seeing herself like the trapped girl inside the wallpaper. Gilman uses the wallpaper to symbolize how the wife life is like. The wife had become insane and crawled around the room by listening to her husband.

In conclusion to gender stereotype, it can make people go into insanity. The first example was that the girl wasn’t appealing enough to what the society think of how a female is supposed to be presented as, and ends up killing herself. The second example was the boy wasn’t manly enough, and to show how manly he was he end up killing someone else. Finally the last example was not doing anything by staying inside the room crawling around the walls in the room.

Show More
Related

  • The Barbie Doll and Richard Cory

    699 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 wore hints of lipstick. This girl was healthy and rather intelligent. Even though she had possessed many good traits she was still looked at by others as "the girl with a big nose and fat legs". She exercised, dieted and smiled as much as possible to please those around her. She became tired of pleasing everyone else and decided to commit suicide. During her funeral those who she had tried to please in the past were the ones to comment about how beautiful she looked. Finally she had received the praise she was longing for.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Fancy Nancy: The Most Sexist Doll In The Universe '

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine a world where women are the superior gender rather than men. Imagine a reality where women have full dominance in today’s modern society. However, the whole idea of feminism is to promote equality for both males and females; so that women are treated equally to men. It would be wrong to suggest women as the superior gender just as it is wrong to suggest men in that same light. Jane O’Connor’s story, Fancy Nancy: Fanciest Doll in the Universe, excludes the male gender which ultimately does not promote gender equality to her young readers. Although Fancy Nancy is a popular book series, Jane O’Connor demonstrates gender stereotypes

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Comparison Essay

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender relations and differences have been a part of society since the birth of civilization. Gender relations in the past have been mainly dominated by men. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, women are lower that men. Women are never really apart of the play and when they are a part of the play, they are usually expressing stereotypical women behavior. In Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, women are mainly expressed overpowering men. Both pieces include patriarchal elements. Kesey and Shakespeare use various stereotypical female characters as a metaphor for the different roles that women have in society, to express the views society holds on these roles.

    Read More

  • Gender Stereotyping In 'The Kite Runner'

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    Good Morning class, Today I will be discussing one of the many flaws in society, Gender stereotyping. Present in our, Movies, Adverts and literature my 4 books are no different. Despite this ongoing gender stereotyping I still think it is essential to have these novels even if there are clear stereotypes in them. If we aren’t able to read identify and acknowledge such stereotypes, how will we ever know how to differentiate between novels that stereotype and those that don’t.

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's Barbie Doll

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    For starters the title, “Barbie Doll” holds a meaning. It symbolizes the ideal figure of a female body. Society creates this ideal that is embed into every century. It is never ending. It is intended that she must have the twig like arms and legs, the minuscule waist and nose,

    Read More

  • What Is Ecological Adaptation In The Yellow Wallpaper

    1308 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gilman’s main character can be simply read as a woman’s sanity dissipating, but there is substantial evidence for a deeper understanding of the narrator’s transition. Gilman works through the narrator to show how the woman slowly fades from the realistic world and into a new one by way of the yellow wallpaper. The room becomes her reality, and the world outside her window becomes the fantastical delusion. But as the narrator develops into a creature of the room itself, her physiology transforms according to the environment.

    Read More

  • Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Mental Illness

    1526 Words  | 4 Pages

    These thoughts always seem to be optimistic and minimizing of her symptoms. This reflects the standard view of mental illness in the 19th century, which assumed the condition, was just a temporary state of over expressed emotions within a woman. (Gilman. 956) Gilman herself however, used imagery and symbolism to express her ideas concerning her mental illness and the patriarchal ideals that surrounded them. The yellow wallpaper in the story symbolized Gilman’s state of mind. At first, like her depression, the wallpaper was simply an eye sore. It was not disabling to the room however, made it not as appealing as before. As the story progresses, Gilman forms an obsession with the wallpaper. This represents the declining of her mental state and the obsession she developed with her life conditions. We can see the mental illness is now fixated in her like she is fixated on the wallpaper. The wallpaper’s distracting features controlled her mind like her husband controlled her. She was mostly alone when staring vastly into the wallpaper. She begins to see humanly images in the paper. This becomes her sense of social stimulation that her husband forbids her to have. She becomes disgusted with the wallpaper as she is likely disgusted at her disease for disabling her and her husband for limiting her freedom. The humanly image soon develops into “a woman

    Read More

  • Using Biographical and Historical Criticism in Critiquing The Yellow Wallpaper

    441 Words  | 1 Pages

    Evidence of Gilman's life experiences can be seen all throughout the story. The main character in the story, a slightly neurotic woman, is married to a prominent physician. This husband refuses to believe anything is wrong with his wife's health simply because her physical health is intact. Thus, he prescribes for his wife nothing more than relaxation and cessation of her writings. This character clearly correlates to the doctor who "treated" Gilman for her nervous breakdown. The description of the room and the wallpaper is clearly crucial to the story as a whole. The room itself is described as large and airy, with windows facing towards a "delicious garden." The wallpaper does not fit the room at all. It is a repulsive, pale yellow color. The description of the wallpaper seems to function metaphorically. The wallpaper becomes much more detailed and much more of a fixture in the main characters life as the story progresses. The wallpaper essentially takes on a life of its own. This progression seems to represent mental illness itself. As mental illness progresses, it becomes much more whole and enveloping. Gilman attempts to represent the depth of mental illness through the wallpaper. For example, the woman in the story comes to the conclusion that there is a woman in the wallpaper behind the pattern.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes in M. Butterfly

    1569 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...the female and male gender across cultures. This role can cause problems when mistaking a male for a female much like Gallimard did in the play. Everyone from children, to the media, creates stereotypes. Stereotypes corrupt members of society, compelling them to view cultures and gender unfairly. Societies must eliminate the amount of stereotypes that are being distributed to various cultural around the world. Stereotypes are powerful, limiting, and discriminatory, and they prevent people from understanding other cultures fully. Without the demolition of stereotypical ideas, cultures that stereotype others will not see the differences between the stereotypical ideas and the real ideas of a culture.

    Read More

  • Gender Stereotypes In The Glass Castle

    250 Words  | 1 Pages

    Gender stereotypes stem from the media’s portrayal of appropriate female and male behaviors that are considered to be “correct” and “normal,” however, “correct” and “normal” differ everyday because society rapidly changes. As a result of television and its gender stereotypes, the world pegs men and women with weights that forbid them from going on to do certain things they wish to do and forces them to act in ways that they would prefer not to. For example, in “The Glass Castle,” Jeannette’s mother must conform to the idea that women are better caretakers and must be more gentle on young children; while her father, Rex Walls, highlights the typical father figure who is too harsh on children and does understand that kids cannot, and should not,

    Read More

  • A Doll House Gender Analysis

    1348 Words  | 3 Pages

    Literature normally touches on traditional gender stereotypes and the role of the society in building those gender biases. From earlier centuries, gender stereotyping is closely intertwined with every aspect of the social fabric. The play, A Doll 's House by Henrik Ibsen presents a critical reflection of marital norms of the nineteenth-century. This three-act play revolves around the need of every individual, particularly women, to discover oneself, and how they have to strive to establish their identities. This aesthetically shaped play depicts traditional gender roles and the subsequent social struggles that every woman encounter in a stereotyped society. Though, Nora fits rightly to the nineteenth century social norm of submissive housewife

    Read More

  • Sex and Temperament

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    From birth, society assigns people different roles depending on gender and surrounds them with the expectation to act differently. According to Mead, Some feminine characteristics include depend, passive, quiet, weak, soft, accepting, and graceful. Masculine characteristics include aggressive, clumsy, experienced, strong, active, competitive, and non-emotional. Children learn gender roles at an early age from their family, culture, religion, as well as outsides forces like television, magazines and other media. Adolescents read ads filled with airbrushed, perfect women; girls look...

    Read More

  • How Does Bullying Affect Children's Development

    206 Words  | 1 Pages

    If women or men fall out of there stereotype then they can be bullied, frowned upon, seen as freaks, etc. Let’s say if a boy showed up to school in a dress with make up on he will mostly like be bullied and sent home from school. Same as if a girl shows up to school in “tom-boy” clothes and don’t wear makeup are seen as ugly. Or, if a boy is playing with a doll as a kid his parents might discourage him and he might he shamed and he then might feel different. Also, if a girl is playing with toy trucks and go outside in the dirt her parents might discourage her and shame her. This could have a negative affect children’s development. They could grow up to be always feel different and could become depressed. According to Igbo, Onu, and Obiyo,

    Read More

  • Macbeth And Oedipus Rex: Literary Analysis

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    Men are usually associated with dominance, being a higher class, and aggressiveness. Women are associated with being fragile, nurturing, and subordination. The role you play in this world is made up before you’re even born. When you are born and you are a boy they dress you in blue. If you are a female you are dressed up in pink. Gender socialization occurs throughout agents named education family, and what the media thinks is right. All of these example show how gender roles are creating expectations for the gender of the child. Other agents that determine how you act are things such as religion. How the stereotypes of a religion can leave you trapped being someone or something you do not want to be. Things that should be gotten rid

    Read More

More about Gender Insanity in Barbie Doll, Ken Doll, and The Yellow Wallpaper

Open Document