"Motherhood is bliss." "Your first priority is to care for your husband and children." "Homemaking can be exciting and fulfilling” (Modern Feminism internet). This was some of the advice women would hear among society. This was what society believed women were good for. Modern day feminist poets, like Marge Piercy focuses on women. “Her novels and poetry often focus on feminist or social concerns, although her settings vary” (Marge internet). Her poem “Barbie Doll” is an example of her showing her feminist writing. In the poem “Barbie Doll” , Margie Piercy writes about a girl who is shamed by society because of her looks; the poem tells the life of the girl from her youth to adulthood, in the midst of her transitioning to becoming a young lady she will become a victim of society’s word and not be beautiful until she is dead from all mutilation done to her skin.
This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
The in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs. (Lines 1-6) In the first stanza,
In lines ten through eleven however, the reader learns that this is still not good enough. The gift of being healthy, having brains, being strong, and maintaining a wonderful sex drive is not enough for society. Society does not want this, she is still at fault. The girl still has a fat nose and thick legs. Her fat nose and thick legs was the only thing that society saw. She is left to apologize for this because it is nobodys fault, but hers. It is the girlchilds fault for not having te external beauty that her classmate and peers are looking for so she has no choice, but to apologize for not meeting their
“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “ David Talamentez on the Last Day of Second Grade” by Rosemary Catacalos are two poems that show a unique view into society and the roles society expects people to fill. Sometimes those expectations can lead people to take drastic measures or even cause defiance in some people. The irony of this is that it seems the more we push people to be what society wants the more it drives them to be what they don’t want.
In both poem “ Barbie Doll” by Merge Piercy and “ homage to my hips” by Lucille Clifton, they both expressed the different way on how our society wants us, women to look and act in order to be except into the society. Our society condemned any women who are to act differently from our norms. In this society and in every culture aspect they are always stereotype, women always been taking advantage of no matter what century we are on. In “Barbie Doll” the author tend to provide more effective critique of society expectation about our body image than “homage to my hips”.
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
206 paragraph one, (line 1), Sandra Cisneros reveals a model of how girls see themselves in the future. The girls felt the dolls represent the same story and scenario each time they came together and play with each other. The attitude, style and quality of dolls. The interchanging of clothes, character's likes and dislikes as depicted the deception by a doll; from a child's point of view. The girls noticed that when the male Barbie doll drops by the other Barbie would steal him away. A typical boy meets girls; girl thinks boy is cute; boy leaves with the opposite girl. This is a reflected of Sandra Cisneros’s short story "Barbie-Q, "p. 206 , paragraph 1 , (line 2 , 3 , 4 , and 5 ) . The girls are tired of the social scene the boy Barbie represents. They only want to play among themselves without any boys. The girls enjoyed looking forward to Christmas and receiving gifts of clothes for their Barbie dolls. This is also, reflected in the insults the girls shared among their future Barbie dolls. In the short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros, the girls enjoyed going to the flea market, purchasing used clothes for Barbie dolls. Barbie dolls meant so much to the two little girls because they didn't care if their Barbie dolls were wearing hand-me-downs; second hand doll clothing sold alongside the street. The joy came from undressing and dressing up the dolls. The girls even found career clothes to match up to their doll's future. In the short
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.
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...
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.
Hippie Barbie, written by Denise Duhamel uses the symbols of the contemporary life of the fairy-tale lifestyle into reality. The words and ideas used in this narrative poem give fantasy a different perspective. It is inferred that the speaker is a female Barbie specialist, who reflects her knowledge by using the popular Barbie doll as the main character. Throughout the poem, she gives key points that have female perspective; for instance, kissing Ken, thinking about having mixed-race children, and walking a poodle. She establishes a story-telling tone, which introduces Hippie Barbie as a real woman. The speaker is trying to address to all Americans that know deeper into Barbie doll life. By using the word “hippie” she gives a sense of rejection, opposition and liberalism towards things. Hippie Barbie reveals the ugly truth about the society based on appearances that we live in.
Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” is a great representation of how society’s expectations have brainwashed women into trying to look and be something they are not. This poem is important because society needs to start doing things to make women feel better about themselves instead of bringing them down. Girls need to start realizing from a young age that no one is perfect nor can they reach the unrealistic expectation of looking like a Barbie. Stop treating woman like objects and dehumanizing
In Marge Piercy’s poem she states “ She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.” If a young lady possesses all of these things then why would she not feel that she was up to par? How could intelligence and capability not be enough for this girl who was obviously a well rounded individual? The idea of what her classmate thought about her appearance caused feelings of inferiority, because in our society everything truly seems to surround physical beauty. When you are beautiful you have more opportunities, you receive more attention, and it is suggested that you live a better life. Thi...
To achieve this body, women will starve themselves or eat way below the accepted calorie count. Women will do anything to achieve the body they see so many models have. This is exhibited in the poem, Barbie Doll. In this poem, Marge Piercy uses a Barbie doll to convey the hardships women go through to achieve a body that they like. For example, “So she cut off her nose and legs and offered them up” (Piercy). Figuratively speaking, it can be inferred that since Barbie was not satisfied with her appearance, she sought out methods to change them. Barbie wanted to fit in and since everyone was making fun of her appearance, she decided that the only solution is to change what other people make fun of her about, to something that they would like. This shows that Barbie wanted to look like what everyone liked so bad that she would to go as far as to cut off her own nose and
The Chimney Sweeper and the Barbie Doll: An Unlikely Pair At first glance, the poems The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake, and Barbie Doll, by Marge Piercy appear to have no tangible similarities. However, upon further analysis and interpretation, they can be seen as somewhat akin. In these two poems, the harsh treatment of children, the use of imagery, and children’s self-image in the poems are comparable. The differences between the two poems include the time period in which they were written, the background of the characters, and the characters’ reactions to the problems that they are faced with. Although the surface level information in the poems Barbie Doll and The Chimney Sweeper is easy to contrast, if one dives a little deeper, one will find that the deeper concepts of the two are tantamount.
In the beginning of “Barbie Doll”, pleasurable and unpleasurable imagery is given so that the reader can see the extremes girls go through to be considered perfect.
After reading “The Doll House” and “Trifles”, the idea of females being inferior to men is portrayed. Both plays, are in a much older time period. But from a feminist view, females are still sometimes given the doubtful role in today’s society. Both plays, are very different, but much alike in the ways the females are treated, never taken seriously, nor are they appreciated.