The Pressure to be Beautiful
Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll,” portrays a young, healthy girl who was just like everyone else, but when puberty struck, her peers told her of her flaws. Even though she was intelligent and healthy, the pressure from her peers made her so depressed, she thought plastic surgery, and in the end, suicide were her only answers to having the perfect body. The end result reflects what happens to many women and young girls in today’s society that face mainstream media’s perspective of “beauty.” One’s beauty is often not determined by what’s on the inside, but by being tall, slender and blonde. Like in “Barbie Doll,” many women and young teenagers lose themselves to body image, self-esteem and pressures of having the
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Having a low self-esteem can lead someone to dangerously extreme measures such as plastic surgery and liposuction. According to the President of the National Research Center for Women and Families, Diana Zuckerman states, “In 2003, more than 223 000 cosmetic procedures were performed on patients 18 years of age or younger, and almost 39 000 were surgical procedures such as nose reshaping, breast lifts, breast augmentation, liposuction, and tummy tucks.” As she continues on to discuss whether it is acceptable for teenagers to receive these kinds of surgeries she also states, “Cultural phenomena such as surgical makeovers on numerous television programs, however, make it increasingly difficult to agree on what constitutes a ‘normal’ appearance and when the desire to improve one's appearance is questionable or even crosses the line to psychopathology” (Diana Zuckerman). This is reflected in “Barbie Doll,” when the young girl is informed of her flaws so much her “good nature wore out,’ which resulted in her self-esteem being low, and in the end, she cut off her nose and legs, and offered them up. To continue, other extreme measures such as, eating disorders: anorexia and bulimia can affect children and adults of all ages, with proper diagnosis and treatment, recovery is possible. According to the Healthy Teen
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.
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.
In the poem “Barbie Doll” the speaker take more drastic measures to make herself acceptable to society. In line12 the speaker takes drastic measures to fix herself, “So she cut off her nose and legs.” This action will lead to her death in the end of the poem which would not have happened if her peers did not mock her about the way her nose and legs looked. People are aware of their own imperfections, but when people mock them and do not accept them because of it, that is when the drastic measures of starvation, excessive exercising, and depression can begin. It can happen without the pressures of society, but if society mocks them, it pushes the person further in to a state of
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.
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.
Fashion is Damaging Women Fashion is a constantly changing industry; what is trendy one day is outdated the next. The 21st century has been a catalyst for a large movement in fashion. Paris, New York, and London are some of the main contributors to the fashion industry (“Fashion Capitals”). Along with being the main influences in fashion, they have significantly connected the world on a global level. Even on a local level, students and young adults indulge in fashion as a way to express themselves.
"Barbie Doll" offers a sad but realistic view of the drastic consequences that can occur from living in a society that judges young women by unrealistic, false, and superficial values. Too often society fails young women by refusing to recognize, appreciate, and value true beauty, that which lies in young girls' hearts, spirits, and characters. These are the only true things that make a young lady beautiful, and the only qualities that can provide lasting happiness.
The media has had an increasingly destructive effect on young people who are becoming worryingly obsessed with their body image. The media is saturated in sexual imagery in which young people have to face every day. The sheer volume of sexual imagery in the media today has resulted in the vast majority of young people to become hooked on looking as near to perfection everyday by using the latest products and buying the latest fashions. This used to be enough but lately the next step to achieving perfection is cosmetic surgery. Everyone wants to look attractive, especially teenagers who are not only put under massive strain to succeed but to look beautiful and climb the ranks of the social ladder, and it seems that the only way to achieve the much desired beauty is to turn to drastic measures.
In a world where many are led to believe that they fall short of what society depicts as “perfect”, it is still true that everyone is beautiful in their own way. There are even more demands on girls now a days than there has ever been before. Some may think they need to fit in, so they become someone they are not or they begin to act like a totally different person. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, illustrates society’s high and unrealistic expectations on the physical appearance of women, while failing to see that a woman’s self-esteem is at risk of being diminished.
Many people today feel insecure about their bodies. They feel that people will judge them more if they have a crooked nose or eyes that are too close to each other. Some get liposuction if they feel too fat or breast implants because they think it will make them more attractive to the opposite sex. These people who do not feel happy about the way their bodies portray themselves to others often feel that way because, according to psychologist Alan Feingold, “Physically attractive people often receive preferential treatment and are perceived by others as more sociable, dominant, mentally healthy, and intelligent than less attractive people.” (Feingold, 304-341) The individuals who think they are ugly can transform themselves from “ugly ducklings” to “swans” by using plastic surgery.
In “Barbie Doll,” the girl was bullied from a young age into high school. Rather than seeing that she was smart, healthy, and strong, people noticed that she had “a great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy 7). Rather than helping the girl become satisfied with herself, people tried to change her. They told her to play hard-to-get, exercise, and diet. No one seemed to notice anything about her besides her nose and legs.
To many, the notion of a teenager undergoing plastic surgery is appalling and unbelievable. For others, such as eleven-year-old Julia, a nose job was able to help her lead a happier and more normal life. To eighteen-year-old Kristen a breast augmentation is a traditional rite of passage of the family. She claims that she “just wanted to look normal,” and that after surgery, she does. (Sweeny, 2009) In these types of cases, cosmetic surgery can be beneficial to the confidence of teenagers in what Ann Kearney-Cooke calls “an epidemic of low self-esteem among girls.” (Sweeney, 2009) Whether it is a physical deformity, such as protruding ears, or simply a lack of something that other peers have, such as large breasts, cosmetic surgery can help teenagers cope with self-worth in a world where beauty is ridiculously selective. However, aside from the confidence-boosting possibilities resulting from teen cosmetic surgery, there are many reasons why it should not be taken lightly for an adolescent. Although cosmetic surgery can potentially be beneficial, there are also many extreme risks for teenagers, including medical complications and in some rare cases death, and thus should be solely a last resort after meticulous analysis for serious cases. Furthermore, neither the adolescent brain nor body is even fully developed.
People are always complaining about how they aren’t as pretty as models on billboards, or how they aren’t as thin as that other girl. Why do we do this to ourselves? It’s benefitting absolutely nobody and it just makes us feel bad about ourselves. The answer is because society has engraved in our minds that we need to be someone we’re not in order to look beautiful. Throughout time, society has shaped our attitudes about appearances, making it perfectly normal and even encouraged, to be five feet ten inches and 95 pounds. People have felt trapped by this ideal. Society has made these beauty standards unattainable, therefore making it self defeating. This is evident in A Doll’s House, where the main character, Nora, feels trapped by Torvald and society’s standard of beauty. The ideal appearance that is prevalent in society is also apparent in the novel, The Samurai’s Garden, where Sachi is embarrassed of the condition of her skin due to leprosy and the stigmas associated with the disease. The burden of having to live up to society’s standard of beauty can affect one psychologically and emotionally, as portrayed in A Doll’s House and The Samurai’s Garden.