The Pressure To Be Beautiful In Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

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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 …show more content…

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

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