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The portrayal of women in literature
Representation Of Women In Literature
Female roles in literature
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Perfectly Imperfect Society has a reputation of what a women should strive to be. Throughout the years ridiculous expectations has labeled a women. A woman should know how to: cook, clean, raise kids, take care of the household, be seen not heard, all while maintaining their figure and looks. Women are the heart of the household and family in most situations without her everything would fall apart. Society has corrupted the minds of many with the false images of women. In the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “Marks” by Linda Pastan they share a common theme of women in their society in time. that are being upheld to certain expectations. Both poems were written within ten years of each other; showing that not much about the view on women had changed. They share a similar tone and feelings on being judged by others. Today the same feelings and stigmas are still imposed on a women life. Women in today’s society are judged on appearances, behavior, and superficial ideas that have been embedded by society. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is the epitome of what views from society can affect you. The title itself has a deeper meaning. A Barbie doll is known for its ideal physique, perfect hair and teeth, and an incredible wardrobe. It is a fake impression of a women’s appearance that is generally played with by little girls. It is an icon around the world and role model to many young girls. Young girls are impressionable and their self-esteem is not fully mature. “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” (Piercy). This little girl is like any other girl. She is presented with dolls to play with, and other toys to pra... ... middle of paper ... ...t of a woman’s’ perspective in daily life. “Barbie Doll” shows a perspective of a little girls’ idea of what is expected from her at a young age. “Marks” shows a perspective of a woman with a family that has achieved what was expected for a girl. The women in both poems are personifications such as a plastic doll or a letter grade. They both are compared to objects that have less value than the humans beings they are. Everyday woman are faced with challenges that have been around for decades. Women still fight for equality and stigmas of double standards. Women are powerful and are responsible for the family and domestic duties. Obsession with appearance should not be such a big issue. Everyone is shaped differently and has unique special features. Women face the challenge or being a superficial lady that society has enforced into the expectations of being a woman.
“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”.
“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
In the short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros, the young girls didn't mind they did not receive other things such as new Barbie's or Ken Barbie's and the friends to go along with the dolls (206). These girls were just happy to play with their own dolls. The girls have bonded with each other and they enjoy playing with each other's dolls. A doll brings two or more children together for fun and social entertainment. Have you ever listened to a child frequently you will hear a child say " so what” that means the child really don't care, it don't matter; nothing else mattered to the two little girls. In the short story "Barbie-Q,” by Sandra Cisneros to purchase a brand new Barbie doll meant that the dolls are expensive in the store so the girls are very happy and pleased to own a second hand Barbie. When the parent places the dolls in the child's hands the dolls take on the character of the owner's beauty; culture; how girls see themselves and the future when the kids are all grown up. Barbie is a fun toy to dress up. Each child has her or his own imagination of a Barbie doll. I, too, myself, like watching all the different cultural background Barbie dolls in the malls or Macy's Department Store around Christmas times. Most large department stores dress
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.
The speaker is trying to address 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 the appearances that we live in. Using personification as her strongest tool, she uses Barbie to establish a somewhat comic parallel world with real women. The author introduces her poem with; “Barbie couldn’t grasp the concept of free love.
The girls feel that people need to mask their imperfections and true selves to uphold the image of how they are supposed to be. These dolls were found in a less than desirable place, such as “Lying on the street next to some tool bits ,and platform shoes with the heels all squashed, and a florescent green wicker wastebasket, and aluminum foil, and hubcaps, and a pink shag rug, and windshield wiper blades, and dusty mason jars, and a coffee can full of rusty nails”. They find another Barbie with heals in the depths of junk. They cover up the physical flaws of the burnt barbies with pretty outfits such as the “Prom Pinks” dress. One of the girls state “as long as you don't lift her dress, right? - who’s to know.” This attempt to cover up where the dolls came from and their imperfections seem to parallel their feelings about themselves and where they come from. The girls have an image of how their dolls would be if they were new. This could be the role society plays on the image of how women are supposed to be and look
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.
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.
Throughout history women have been portrayed as inferior to men in all ages. However women have transcended from being too inferior to men to actually being portrayed as naive in the sense that women only care about their beauty since that is the only thing that society cares about now. This has now spread to age in society where now women are portrayed by the media as sex symbols so that could be enticing to society. In the “Fat Girl” by andre dubus the main charcter Louise is pressured by her family members espically her mother to lose weight so that she can fit into societies portrayal of women.In the poem “the barbie doll” by margie piercy the female charcter is forced to correct her body images in order to fit with that of which society
Marge Peircy's "Barbie Doll" and Sharon Olds' "The Death of Marilyn Monroe" are two poems that deal with society's influence over women. However, the two women describe in the story are completely different on the outside, but the inside is much more similar. The female in "Barbie Doll" has no identity and no name, where as the female in "The Death of Marilyn Monore" is the icon Marilyn Monroe. Although these two women remarkably appear to be opposite, they have one thing in common - their own death- and society's opinions, stereotypes, and expectations murdered these two women.
The societal pressures faced by women is, arguably, the main topic of Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls,” Mary Wollstonecraft’s essay “Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Women” and Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll.” “Boys and Girls” deals with those societal pressures faced by women within both the home and family life. Alternatively, “Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Women” and “Barbie Doll” deal with those societal pressures faced by women in society at large. All three show how societal pressures are acting against women, but “Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Women” and “Barbie Doll” go even further by showing the negative effects of these pressures.
One of the chief reasons that these poems are perceived as being dissimilar is the difference in the time periods in which they were written. During this time, which was shortly after Barbie dolls became popular, a plethora of attention was being directed towards the appearance of women, both old and young. Society now has a perception of what it believes should be considered beautiful or attractive in a woman. This could have easily caused many women, no matter the age, to feel self-conscious, much like the young girl in the poem.
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.