Pier Coy Girl

In the second stanza of lines seven through eleven, we see how absurd people can be for judging the girl solely on her physical appearance. The girl is described in line seven through nine as being “healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Piercy 624). She is completely normal, has two arms and two feet as most people do, and her attributes checks her off as a functional human being, capable of taking care of herself and others. Yet all of this is still not enough for people to look past her physique. It shows how her value has been undermined by others just because she has a “big nose and fat legs” (Piercy 624). What makes matters worse is that in line ten, the girl “went to and fro apologizing” (Piercy 624). It is ironic because she should be mad for
It never ends. Some people are predators and she happens to be the prey. According to lines twelve through fourteen, young girls are expected to "play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” (Piercy 624). Why must they do that? Who is to say how a woman should behave? Living in a patriarchal world, most women strive for the ideal look in order to please men. Since the 1970's up until this day of age, the idea of a beautiful woman was one who was slimmed up and toned all over (Bahadur). Being skinny just so happens to be what society deems as attractive, thus leading to a trend where most females feel like they need to look a certain way or else they would be of no value. The whole idea is completely twisted. The girl in this poem is perfectly healthy without any life threatening health conditions and yet she was still strongly advised to exercise and diet because of her “fat legs”. It is like telling the girl to go and starve herself because her pants size do not fit store