Barbie Doll: What Caused Her To Die?

What caused her to die? In the poem, Barbie Doll the poet, Marge Piercy, describes the girl child who was born pretty like a normal baby. Barbie doll is used as a symbol to describe pretty, which leads people being jeered at for their appearance and expect them to have a Barbie doll like figure. This poem describes how Barbie doll caused this girl her life. Not being like a Barbie doll caused her to commit suicide, she is dead or at least part of her is dead. This poem also shows how sexuality is introduced to the child early in the life. The poet starts the first stanza, in which the girl is born, with happiness. The poet describes the child playing with Barbie doll that makes, pee-pee, sounds and has her own mini-sized appliances such as GE stove and iron. In the line, “and miniature GE stoves and irons” (3) the poet cleverly features the role of a girl as a mother, and the ideal

The line, “and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” (4) the child is introduced to makeup, which represents confidence, confidence that you look pretty. The red lipstick shows how sexuality is introduced. All of this are qualities that any girl would want to have. But, what happens when a girl hits puberty is described in lines 5-6, “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: / You have a great big nose and fat legs.” “The magic of puberty” might be a sarcastic way to describe the maturing women. In the first line of the third stanza, the poet says that society advises the girl to “play coy.” The Barbie doll can also be described as coy since all it does is a smile and never say anything. The poet also says that the girl was encouraged to “exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.” In other words, the poet is saying that the society encouraged the girl to keep her body in shape all the time. At the end of the stanza, the girl is fed up of