Patriarchy In Marge Piercy's What Are Big Girls Made Of
“Pulling someone under will not save you from drowning- popping someone else’s balloon, won’t make yours float any higher- blowing out someone else’s candle will not make yours burn any longer; yet that’s the paradox of bullying- it’s all about preservation but it almost always ends in destruction.” (Anonymous). When contemplating the effects of patriarchy and how it actively affects society, it is deceptively easy to point out men, and machismo as the sole and only problems women have to face. However, the problem is more difficult than that, and to blame men alone, would be ignorant, alongside such a conclusion, not addressing the other half of the problem. Men, and admittedly businesses looking to make a quick buck, do create unfathomable
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Marge Piercy openly criticizes and comments on the ideals of beauty in society in this poem, at one point stating, “She is manufactured like a sports sedan. She is retooled, refitted, and redesigned every decade” (What are Big Girls Made Of). In this passage Piercy explains that standards of beauty are rarely “standard”, but rather they change dramatically and rapidly with times, and tend to be unrealistic. From pointing out the torture practice that was French fashion in the 1800s, to the ideal woman of the late 50’s, ‘Cecile” being chased after and then abandoned by the late 60’s, it brings a clear and concerning point to mind. When women reduce themselves to looks, how can they ever be enough, since what is considered beautiful one day, is considered old fashioned, or out-of-style the next. Women in real life try to change their bodies, like clothes. When curves are in, women try to get implants, wear clothes that rearranges their skinfolds, and purposely gain weight. In reverse, when “skinny” is in style, women will starve themselves, get liposuctions, exercise to exhaustion, etc. All of this simply because they wish to be beautiful in the world’s eye; they want to be enough. But as Piercy states throughout the poem at several points, it seems as though there has never been a time when there was not “A woman made of pain”(). It should not have to be this way. A woman she be concerned about being healthy, not being destructive towards one health for the sake of
Marge Piercy openly criticizes and comments on the ideals of beauty in society in this poem, at one point stating, “She is manufactured like a sports sedan. She is retooled, refitted, and redesigned every decade” (What are Big Girls Made Of). In this passage Piercy explains that standards of beauty are rarely “standard”, but rather they change dramatically and rapidly with times, and tend to be unrealistic. From pointing out the torture practice that was French fashion in the 1800s, to the ideal woman of the late 50’s, ‘Cecile” being chased after and then abandoned by the late 60’s, it brings a clear and concerning point to mind. When women reduce themselves to looks, how can they ever be enough, since what is considered beautiful one day, is considered old fashioned, or out-of-style the next. Women in real life try to change their bodies, like clothes. When curves are in, women try to get implants, wear clothes that rearranges their skinfolds, and purposely gain weight. In reverse, when “skinny” is in style, women will starve themselves, get liposuctions, exercise to exhaustion, etc. All of this simply because they wish to be beautiful in the world’s eye; they want to be enough. But as Piercy states throughout the poem at several points, it seems as though there has never been a time when there was not “A woman made of pain”(). It should not have to be this way. A woman she be concerned about being healthy, not being destructive towards one health for the sake of