Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll
Society’s Expectations on Women The poem, “Barbie Doll”, by Marge Piercy, is about a normal “girlchild” who gets criticized by society for not looking like a perfect doll. She changes herself to fit society’s expectations just to fit in, but only in the end does society see her as “pretty”. Piercy’s purpose of the poem is to show how society has appalling expectations of how women show look and act. Imagery, irony, and tone are terms that show how vile society's expectations are.
Imagery helps the reader to visualize the theme by showing how society envisions what a girl should play with and how they should look. The images of “presented dolls” shows how society teaches girls at a young age to be perfect like a doll. At the beginning of the …show more content…
It is clear that the poet is disappointed with the way society dictates the lives of women and how it forces women to believe that they are less if they are not perfect in their physical form. Piercy shows how society looks at imperfect women: “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: / You have a great big nose and fat legs” (lines 5-6). The negative and cruel words, “big nose” and “fat legs,” further convey the disappointment in the poet’s voice, because these words are said to the girlchild by her own classmate, which reveals how cruel people are; however, it is not so much the classmate who is at fault for saying such cruel things because society has taught everyone to believe this to be true. Piercy is also despondent when the girlchild changes herself to make everyone else see what they want to see. The sarcastic words, “magic of puberty,” are also ironic because growing up is supposed to be “magical,” but the pressures to look like the iconic Barbie threatens all girls and turns something natural into something negative, which also forces them to feel like they are not good enough and have to change to fit in. Overall, the poet is disappointed in society for judging and criticizing the girl for being herself. No one should change for an individual’s ideal, nor should one apologize for not being a perfect Barbie doll. Therefore, society shouldn’t affect anyone to change to be like everyone else, even though in reality no one is truly
Imagery helps the reader to visualize the theme by showing how society envisions what a girl should play with and how they should look. The images of “presented dolls” shows how society teaches girls at a young age to be perfect like a doll. At the beginning of the …show more content…
It is clear that the poet is disappointed with the way society dictates the lives of women and how it forces women to believe that they are less if they are not perfect in their physical form. Piercy shows how society looks at imperfect women: “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: / You have a great big nose and fat legs” (lines 5-6). The negative and cruel words, “big nose” and “fat legs,” further convey the disappointment in the poet’s voice, because these words are said to the girlchild by her own classmate, which reveals how cruel people are; however, it is not so much the classmate who is at fault for saying such cruel things because society has taught everyone to believe this to be true. Piercy is also despondent when the girlchild changes herself to make everyone else see what they want to see. The sarcastic words, “magic of puberty,” are also ironic because growing up is supposed to be “magical,” but the pressures to look like the iconic Barbie threatens all girls and turns something natural into something negative, which also forces them to feel like they are not good enough and have to change to fit in. Overall, the poet is disappointed in society for judging and criticizing the girl for being herself. No one should change for an individual’s ideal, nor should one apologize for not being a perfect Barbie doll. Therefore, society shouldn’t affect anyone to change to be like everyone else, even though in reality no one is truly