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Marge Piercy's Poem, Barbie Doll

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In Marge Piercy’s poem, Barbie Doll, she reminds young adults that the must have childhood toy was a Barbie Doll. Barbie, at one point, became so popular that every little girl was dying to have one. One main points of the short poem was asking the reader to examine what comes to mind when you think of a Barbie doll? Most will say a toy from a previous childhood. The overall view of this poem is about a girl who was born not like everyone else and she never gets a chance to make her own decisions in life. She always tried to satisfy everyone around her and to just have them accept her the way she is. She realized that she didn’t need to change anymore and just gave up her life to please people. In a society to be accepted you have to change …show more content…

When I was 7 years old my mother got me a Barbie doll toy. It was one of the most gorgeous dolls that I ever gotten at the age of 7. I played with that thing 24/7-- every day of the week. My mother, for the first time, said I could take it to school with me. So I did. All my friends saw how new the doll was and started making fun of me. They said things so mean that I went home and cried in my room till I fell asleep. I use to please all my friends to get them to accept me the way I was. I really didn’t hit puberty as a young girl until I turned 9 or 10. Someone said I was fat all around my body which kind of made me upset even more. According to the poem “Barbie Doll”, a classmate said you have a great big nose and fat legs. Which was really mean to say to her at a young age. (Barbie Doll). There are bullies out there in school that will be riotous mean to the kids that are very special in life. I would never kill myself like in the poem. She did all this stuff to please her friends and family like get plastic surgery and wear makeup. In the poem it says in the casket displayed on satin she lay with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie. Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending. (Piercy) What it lead to was nothing and she realized that in the end she didn’t need it anymore and she just gave up. Just

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The poem Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy is a short poem that talks about a little girl who is born just like any other little girl. She plays with dolls and little ovens and messes around with makeup. She is fine and unbothered with her life till she hits puberty. Around that age she has a classmate tell her “you have a big nose and fat legs.” She was a girl who was healthy, strong, and intelligent but, she was apologizing to everyone for what they saw.

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She no longer wanted to be a beautiful young woman. She could no longer find peace as a human being. The

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With the constant fear of ridicule and discrimination, we still try and define ourselves, though we are always under the society’s scope. Marge Piercy, in her poem “Barbie Doll”, gives us a look at the influence of our surroundings and how something as innocent as a doll can trigger these insecurities. Our strive for acceptance and “perfection” can cause major emotional damage on anyone who identifies as a woman. Young girls look at these depictions of “perfect” bodies, such as a barbie doll for example, and compare themselves. In the poem “Barbie Doll”, Piercy talks about a young girl who she described as “...healthy, tested and intelligent...” (247) but, she was picked on by peers who said she had “a great big nose and fat legs.”

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The poem Barbie doll by Marge Piercy is about a little girl who grows up only to kill herself for not living up to society’s standards. The speaker shows how she had a normal childhood and was happy playing with here baby dolls and toy stove. However, during puberty, her body changed and everyone noticed. She was criticized for her “fat nose and thick legs”. She tried to change by dieting and exercising, but soon tired of doing so.

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Barbie is a doll that was introduced in 1959, she took the world by storm with her fashion and changing careers. She greatly influenced pop culture and the thoughts and beliefs of people. Barbie has been involved in many controversies over the years due to her body image and the high body expectations that she sets for young girls. She has had a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence. Barbie has had positive and negative influences on fashion, interests and beliefs of a certain year, which continually changed throughout the decades.

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The tone of “Barbie Doll” is anger. In this poem, anger is another important quality. She became angry because people was making fun of her. “Her good nature wore out like a fan belt” (Piercy, line 15-16). She became disgusted with people making fun of her, so she cut off her nose and legs.

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The freedom of being able to change Barbie’s clothes into her various wardrobes sold gives the young children playing with her the sense of individuality. Although Barbie has brought a lot of controversy to the table within the years it has been on the shelf, her portrayal has not changed because after all she is just a doll,

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The story tells the reader about how two girls, each owns a Barbie doll with their one outfit piece and they made a dress out of worn socks for the dolls. One Sunday, they both went to the flea market on Maxwell Street, where the dolls of the other characters in Barbie were sold with lower price as a big toy warehouse was destroyed by fire. They did not mind to buy the dolls at the flea market even though the dolls were flawed, soaked with water and smelled like ashes. Barbie is widely pictured as a successful girl, who is perfect in every way; with her beautiful face, a slim body, nice house, secured job and a handsome boyfriend which is the fancy of every girl. The story tells the reader of the expectancy for women to have this immaculate figure, ignoring the fact that each person has different body fat percentage and body mass index which may affect their sizes and weights.

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It portrays how two girls make best of what they have and look past all of the flaws that each Barbie doll may have. Meaning that they do not care that their Barbie doll does not look like the rest of them, they still view the toy as a doll to play with. It shows how the two girls view beauty and what it means to them. The lesson learned in this short story is that you should not judge a book by its cover; there is always something beautiful about someone or

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The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy suggests that girls are fatally and ultimately entrapped by society's definition of what feminine beauty and behavior is. In our society we believe that women should be perfect. We want women to be as flawless as a Barbie doll and in doing so we create many struggles for women because no one can ever achieve that goal. The poem gives off a sense of irony when “society” compares a young girl to a Barbie doll. Our society has an ideal that was created by the influences of popular media and culture that is impossible for anyone to reach.

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But where did it all start and how did you get to this position? You’re five years old when you receive your first Barbie doll. Your innocent mind looks at the plastic figure as just a symbol of inspiration or a relatable toy used on the playground

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