Stereotypes In Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

In Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” Piercy illustrates the dangers of conformity and stereotypes. “Barbie Doll” also illustrates how society has control on women’s lives. Now a days a woman cannot be herself without being judged because she’s not acting or looking like the rest of the women. The girlchild in the poem is surrounded by stereotypes. She seems to have no choice in her playthings. She is “Presented dolls that did pee-pee/ and miniature GE stoves and irons/ and wee lipsticks the color cherry candy” (lines 2-4).

In the poem readers start to see that the tone of the poem changes when her body starts to change, “The magic of puberty, a classmate said:”(line 5). That’s when readers realize that her body changing is what is causing

her to have low self-esteem, and they also realize that’s when society is starting to notice she doesn’t look like a Barbie doll. In fact she’s nowhere near being like a plastic doll: “You have a great big nose and fat legs” (line 6).
Piercy in the beginning of the second stanza describes great qualities of the main character: “She was healthy, tested intelligent, /possessed strong arms and back” (lines 7-8).

They are qualities every woman would be proud of, but the main charter couldn’t be proud of those great qualities because society was judging her because she had an athletic look. She couldn’t be proud of them either because she was trying to look like a model/ Barbie doll like society wanted her to look. In order to please them she was overlooking those great qualities she already had. “Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (line 11): this last line in the second stanza is very powerful because it’s saying despite everything she’s doing to fit in, society would always see her as a fat nose on thick

legs.
She was told to smile, to exercise, and to charm people. “She was advised to play coy,/ exhorted to come on hearty,/ exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” (lines 12-14). Even though she wasn’t happy with the person she was becoming, she did it so she could blend and fit in to what society was expecting of her.
In the last half of the third stanza she becomes very angry at herself, She becomes frustrated because no matter what she does, she can’t make herself look like the Barbie doll society wanted her to look like. She gave up. She was done. She couldn’t take it anymore. She was tired of trying to fit in, so she cut off what society didn’t like, “Her nature wore out/ like a fan belt. / So she cut off her nose and her legs” (lines 15-17). This is where the reader realizes, wow, she gave up because she knew no matter what she did, she would never be able to fit in. The reader also realizes that the girlchild gave in and got surgery done on her legs and nose so she could look pretty like everyone wanted her to look. It’s very sad to see that this poem was written in 1973 and nothing at all has changed in the world today. Girls have to look and act certain way in order fit in.
In the beginning of stanza four the author describes “In the casket displayed on satin she lay/ with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on, / a turned-up putty nose (lines 19-21). The reader realizes that the surgery didn’t go well and that’s when the girlchild lost her life. She finally got the nose she wanted. The nose that society hated was gone and replaced with “a turned-up putty nose” (line 21). This last stanza is describing her death. At the end of stanza four that’s when society begins to accept that she fits in. “Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said. / Consummation at last. / To every women a happy ending” (lines 23-24). The girlchild was never accepted for the way she was. Only after death that she could finally please society; now she looks the way society wants her to look.
This poem although it was written 42 years ago, reflects society today in 2015.

It shows that if girls do not conform to the society’s norms, they will be excluded and will never be able to fit in. The only way anyone could be able to fit in is by completely changing the way they look and are. Many teenage girls are forced to think that they have to look a certain way in order to be perfect, even though these teenagers are already normal and healthy they try to alter their beauty in order to conform to the norms of society. Many teenagers would do whatever it takes to be able to feel pretty and be accepted by society even if means going through surgery at a young age. Most girls aren’t strong enough to take in all the pressure of looking perfect and end up taking their lives. Young women in the world today are forced to change the way they are so they won’t be judged and called names (in other words get bullied) just because they aren’t as girly, hearty, and skinny as the other young women around them. This doesn’t only affect teenagers, it affects women in general. It affects

everyone.