Barbie Doll Analysis

“Barbie Doll”: Staying True to Yourself

Society can take over the way people see themselves. In Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll,” a young girl was judged for her looks and being herself. Due to this young girl’s strong mind set, she tried to stay true to herself, but could only handle so much pressure. Throughout her entire life, she was being compared to a symbolic perfect Barbie Doll who had the beautiful cosmetic fixed face that everyone imagines girls to be, and the irony of how pretty everyone thought she was on her deathbed demonstrated how the standards in society make people second guess who they really are.

Perfection is an impossible achievement for a human; hence, when this “girlchild” is being compared to a “perfect,”
symbolic Barbie Doll through harsh words from a peer, her natural reaction is to feel insecure and even mortified at the fact that maybe all people saw her the same way. The person she thought herself to be was actually not who others saw, and this brought about much emotional turmoil. The Barbie Doll is a plastic model of what girls consider to be a “perfect” symbol. They see the doll as a skinny, tall, and beautiful girl covered in makeup-- the complete opposite of this young girl, which makes this girlchild feel less of a person for not being as perfect as this female ideal that has been created by society. When she is told, “You have a great big nose and fat legs,” her peers force her to believe she must fix what isn’t really broken (line 6). This idolized Barbie Doll is the example of what society expects every girl should look like. The word “fat,” symbolizes that girls think everyone should be thin and that even her nose has a size--as if size matters in every regard. It is obvious that the classmate’s words affect the girl quite negatively since there is usually so much peer pressure on top of societal pressures. Hence, “she cut off her nose and her legs / and offered them up” (lines 17-18). She gave in to the peer pressure and had plastic surgery done to look symbolic to a plastic Barbie Doll. The girl getting plastic surgery to fix her insecurities or imperfections of her body symbolizes how high and pressuring the standards are in society. She didn’t seem to have thought about her own imperfections until this classmate brought it to her attention. Because of the cruelty of such words, she felt she needed to fix herself because she wanted to fit in so badly. In the end, society made her second guess herself.

When people think of girls, they think of shopping or makeup, and the imagery of them comes from the Barbie Doll living in her perfect world and always having her hair and makeup done.
Today’s world demonstrates girls as these skinny twigs that are always on diets to fit what they think society expects from them. Some are happy with their body and who they are, but regardless of what they think about themselves, there will always be people who try to knock them down. The young girl was described as: “She was healthy, tested intelligent, / possessed strong arms and back, / abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (lines 7-9). The list of qualities above are examples of the way people are categorized and seen. The description of the girl gave a sense of imagery of how well rounded she was, except for the fact that she didn’t have the “Barbie body.” She was happy with who she was and her body, but when someone told her otherwise, she started questioning herself. The girl was, “ advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty, / exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” (lines 12-14). Those list of activities are what most people imagine Barbie to act like: play dumb and not be yourself. She was also told to eat less to be skinny, just like the Barbie image everyone expects. Due to all the insecurities society had given this poor young girl, she followed into the footsteps of a “Barbie” girl and lost herself on the way. Imagery of the fake Barbie girl everyone wanted to be was
in every girl’s head and that is how their perspective of life is going to look like.

Life shouldn’t be lived trying to live up to everyone’s expectations; the young girl lived her life trying to always please society and ironically please everyone.
People should always try to stay true to themselves even when so many people are pressuring them to change. At the end of the poem where the young girl is described, “In the casket displayed on satin she lay / with undertaker’s cosmetics painted on / a turned-up putty nose” (lines 19-21). In her casket, she is buried under makeup and fake cosmetics; ironically, all this work she got done to please everyone was only seen when she was dead. They also “packaged” her like a Barbie Doll, lying on satin, which is what she wanted to be in life. During her funeral, “dressed in a pink and white nightie. / Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said” (lines 22-23). The gown she wore in her deathbed, is similar to what Barbie wears and when she was dolled up to fit everyone’s expectations and finally got the approval she needed. This young girl went through her life always trying to get everyone’s approval when all she needed was her
own.

In conclusion, the author explained how society can make people change who they are for someone’s approval that doesn’t even matter. The symbolic Barbie Doll the girlchild ironically became when she was dead, indicates her urgency to fit in and change who she was emotionally and physically just because of a rude remark from a classmate. Words can have a huge effect on a person if they allow it to get to them.