The Female Body by Margaret Atwood looks at the different ways the female body is viewed. She uses seven vignettes to show how the female body is viewed in the world. Additionally, she uses many rhetorical devices to reveal her perception of the fallacies associated with women. In the first vignette, Atwood talks about how the female body is viewed related to physical appearance. She explains that when she applies the many various things to her body, it is no longer her body. By using personal experiences, Atwood satirizes the masculine precept of society and its flaws. The masculine society objectifies women based on their appearance and it incurs the degradation of a modern female society. The second vignette continues to parody the …show more content…
perception of society. Atwood uses an extensive list of ‘accessories’ that a stereotypical or objectified female would be in. The abundantly long list confounds the covering of feminist satire. Atwood decides to explore both roles in her essay to see how women are perceived within both genders. Her diction underscores gender roles, as the clothes they’re wearing or the use of the word “virgin” physically represents them. The third vignette is possibly the most powerful and lengthy vignette. Here, Atwood compares the female body to what appears to be Barbie doll. She explains how the bodies are comprised of plastic and various lights. It is these lights that she references when she describes the body anatomically. Atwood goes on to name all the systems with various colors. The paragraph concludes with the statement “The reproductive system is optional, and can be removed... We do not wish to frighten or offend,” which mocks the apparent offensiveness of the actualized female body (Atwood, 491). The fourth vignette continues to reference the Barbie doll.
She uses third person diction to construct an image of what the male and female consider regarding a situation that is not declared. Just like every other girl, it is implied that the daughter in the situation wishes to conform to society by having a Barbie Doll. An ironic situation arises as a result because the father doesn’t want his daughter to be influenced by the doll. He is concerned with how she may perceive beauty as a consequence of it. He states, “It's not just the pointy plastic tits, it's the wardrobes. The wardrobes and that stupid male doll, what's his name, the one with the underwear glued on?” (Atwood 491). The situation is ironic because throughout this vignette, women are characterized as being “fake” or “plastic”. Although the father’s concerns are valid, he doesn’t realize that his daughter would otherwise spend the rest of her time wishing to have the doll. Eventually, she would become just like that doll. Atwood summarizes this by saying “repression breeds sublimation.” (Atwood 491) Moving on to the fifth vignette, Atwood suggests that the female body is an item that is being sold. She portrays the body as a “door-knocker, a bottle opener…and out comes your nut”. Additionally, she suggests that the female body “does not merely sell, it is sold” thus creating a sardonic attitude when she says that prostitution is “patriotic” (Atwood,
492). The sixth vignette is short and combines with the seventh vignette. Here, Atwood crafts a compare/contrast statement concerning the female brain and the male brain. Atwood states, “Each female body contains a female brain.... Bad dreams” in which she objectively implies that females possess a more multifaceted brain and therefore view things differently and with more thoughtfulness. The male brain is described as divided into different sections; therefore the male brain is better and simpler according to males. She states, “The left brain doesn’t know what the right brain is doing” thus objectifying a male’s brain. This creates an effective argument concerning the female body and also crafts a contentious link to gender roles. Concluding her work, Atwood makes a comparison between the male and female brains. She begins by debasing the female brain and its functions. Atwood then brings up marriage by likening women to something that can be put on 'lockdown' or something you can keep under your command by stating: “Catch it. Put it in a pumpkin, a high tower.... settle it down, so it can never get away from you again” (Atwood, 493). Atwood then culminates with the understanding that men finally value the female body when they feel like they lack something within themselves. They can never admit that they value women because they fear that they will eventually lose it, which is ironic because you usually need to value something in order to not lose it. Ultimately, Atwood makes it abundantly clear that both feminine and masculine societies should be treated equally as they are both fundamentally humans. Atwood satirizes feminism throughout her entire work. She highlights the degradation that women face as a result of their body.
When the narrator first compares her Barbies, she thinks that she needs perfect and new Barbies to fit in with everybody else. The narrator does understand that her family does not have money, but she simply works around it. Although, she wants more Barbies it was unlikely for them to get them. The narrator says, “Because we don’t have money for a stupid-looking boy doll when we’d both rather ask for a new Barbie outfit next christmas. (14-15)” The narrator has to make do with what she has. She can not have a boy Barbie because it is not in her parents budget. This affects her and it makes her lose confidence in herself because she does not have what everybody else has. After the narrator receives her partially messed up Barbies, she says, “And if the prettiest doll, Barbie’s MOD’ern cousin Francie with real eyelashes, eyelash brush included, has a left that that’s melted a little-so? If you dress her in her new ‘Prom Pinks’ outfit, satin splendor with matching coat, gold belt, clutch, and hair bow included, so long as you don’t lift her dress, right?-who’s to know. (16)” Even though the Barbie has a melted left foot, the narrator moves past this. She will just cover it up with a dress. The narrator wanted new and perfect Barbie’s in the beginning, but she realized that these Barbie’s are not everything and she can make them her own. She is not defined by her Barbies. Sandra Cisneros used symbolism and characterization to describe how the narrator had a hard time coming into her own identity and finding
Her body reflects strength and confidence something that other women in the novel were not seen to
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
“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
In the short story, “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisneros, you can see how ones social class can affect their lifestyle and outlook on the world. The theme of this short story composed by Sandra Cisneros is destitution. Cisneros starts the story with incidental symbolism, a portrayal of the Barbie dolls "Yours is the one with mean eyes and a ponytail” (14) and "Mine is the one with bubble hair” (14), then precedes to explain the dolls attire. Which clearly they made themselves "This and a dress invented from an old sock when we cut holes here and here and here…” (14). We can see Cisneros' aim was to furnish the onlooker with the kind of circumstance the characters are in and how they manage being poor to the point that they can't have decent looking Barbie dolls, nice outfits, or a good quantity of toy accessories.
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
According to “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language”, the word “feminity” is defined as “the quality or condition of being feminine or a characteristic or trait traditionally held to be female.” Further speaking, feminity is formed by various socially-defined and biologically-created gender roles played by women influenced by a number of social and cultural factors. For example, the traditional gender roles of women include nurturer, birth giver, homemaker and caregiver. However, marked by a series of women's rights movements starting from the 19th century, women’s gender roles, as well as the ways how society and men perceive women, have been largely changed. This significant change, described as a process of female awakening, was widely reflected in many contemporary literature works. This essay will specifically focus on the construction of feminity in two short stories, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “The Stoy of an Hour” by Kate Chopin through examining how the authors define “feminity” in their treatment of female characters.
Women play a key role in this novel in many ways. In the case of...
Pollitt says, “This lady was at girl birthday party and she gave the girl a Barbie as a gift, but the birthday girl’s mother didn’t like that” (Pollitt 545). This quote explains that the mother of the birthday girl doesn’t want to enforce the gender issues with her daughter that is the reason why she dislikes the Barbie because it described a
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.
There are many female writers, some known better than other. Female writes most of the time focused their stories in experiences or personal point of view on what is going on around them. Other women write fiction of unusual worlds and character that people can relate to with the struggle or experiences. Margaret Atwood the “Canadian nationalist poetess is a prominebt figure concerned with the need for a new language to explore relations between subjects and society“ (Omid, Pyeaam 1). Atwood wrote her first novel called, “The Edible Woman”; this first novel categorized her as feminist, based on the main character of a strong woman. In an interview with Emma Brockes, Atwood affirms, "First of all, what is feminism? Second, which branch of it? Am I against women having rights? Actually, no. Am I really a puppet of the women's movement? No, I'm too old for that. I've been writing since 1956 and there was no women's movement in sight at the time”. Atwood does stands for women’s right but she never thought of being feminist while writing her stories. Atwood writes about strong women because just like any other female they are tired of reading about weak and submissive woman in books. Is clear that Atwood began writing before the woman movement started and that means she was ahead of her time. Atwood’s works is not just feminist her works represents her art and the way she feel about the world. Margaret Atwood is a poet, critic, novelist, and activist. Atwood’s stands for issues that trouble her and that she sees that are obstacles for her community. Through her entire writing career peoples can see that culture, science, feminism, and environment is reflected in her words and her expression to tell a story the only way she can. Her sho...