Margie Piercy's Barbie Doll

Beauty In today’s society, girls are pressured and influenced to achieve the perfect body image. Society tends to express more acceptance on skinny thighs, tan skin, and big breasts. Too much time and energy is being put into the physical appearances and not enough on self-esteem and inner beauty. In Margie Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll,” this is exemplified through the poet’s attitude on how the implication of words can destroy a girl’s self-confidence. Although girls have other positive traits, their feminine abilities and appearances are usually treated as more important. To begin, the poet’s irony is expressed more so at the end of the poem. The fact that a person is pretty only after they have died, is quiet ridiculous. “Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said.” (l. 23) This illustrates that a person is only beautiful laying in a casket because they are dressed up to look their best. The author expresses this in “with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie.” (lll. 20-22) Piercy has painted the imagery that everyone now thinks she is pretty, like a doll, while lying in her casket. Next, the poet’s attitude on inner and outer beauty is quite disturbing. “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back,

This is represented in, “You have a great big nose and fat legs.” (l.6) Someone with low self-esteem will always remember those hurtful words and will start to believe they are true. On the other hand, someone who has high self-esteem will not let those words have any impact on them. The things we say, can typically make or break a person and the way they feel about themselves. The author in the poem made it obvious that the girl had low self-esteem. Those negative words had such an impact on her life, that she could not stand the hurt and pain