Comparing Women In Barbie Doll And Homage To My Hips

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In “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “Homage to My Hips” by Lucille Clifton, women are presented with societal expectations for their gender. The girl in “Barbie Doll” is told that she has “a great big nose and fat legs.” In the following stanza, the girl is described as healthy, intelligent, strong, and a number of other positive qualities. When the comments about her nose and legs continue, she is encouraged to lose weight, smile, and be pursued by males in order to be of worth. She loses her former good qualities in exchange for society’s standards for perfection. Eventually, the pressure to be attractive leads her to commit suicide and finally, people begin to call her pretty when she has a “turned-up putty nose” in her casket. In contrast,