A Feminist Response To Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

Marge Piercy’s “ Barbie Doll” establishes the character to be a young girl who hits the stage of puberty and is then subjected to people's hurtful words that destroy her body image. Before these words she seemed to be a normal little girl playing with all the right toys. The words spoken were with intent to help the girl change her physical appearance so she could be a better version of herself, but in the end the girl felt there was no other option. She could never make everyone happy.

She dies giving birth to the child, and is eventually replaced by another woman, her equal in beauty, but also “proud and overbearing” (125). Afraid of her waning sexuality and jealous of the child’s growing attractiveness, the evil queen sets herself the task of killing the beautiful and kind Snow-white

However, when she gets a new Barbie the following Christmas and ends up destroying it, she learns to accept both Barbie dolls. In “Pretty Hurts” sang by Beyonce, the speaker was taught from a young age to care about appearances. Throughout the story the speaker struggles with herself, and she thinks she is not good enough. In the end she comes to realization, and shes says she is finally happy with herself. Between these two sources, the theme; ‘Everybody needs to learn that you are beautiful in your own way, and don’t need to live up to beauty standards’ is shown between the dynamic character of the speaker in “Pretty Hurts” and the motif/symbol of the two Barbies in “Barbie”.

Feminism plays a vital role in Piercy’s works. She wants to empower women, not emasculate men. “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.” (Piercy, lines 19-22). The girl in this poem undeniably committed suicide.

The development of stereotypes is shown in this short story because one barbie is described with mean eyes and the other one is nice with bubble hair. In the story the barbies smelt like smoke because of the toy warehouse burned down. The girls playing with their barbies state that even though the barbies might smell and have some things wrong with them they are still barbies and fun to play with. The girls

Jane’s perception is emphasized by a conversation between Bessie and Abbott she randomly overhears, after she was locked into the red-room. They both share the opinion that if Jane were “a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her” and that “a beauty like Miss Georgiana would be more moving in the same condition” (31). This statement clearly accentuates the utmost importance of outer appearances and most of all beauty at the time. It displays that compassion and affection were hard to receive when you were not pretty. The reader, on the other hand, probably pities Jane after her horrible experience in the red-room, therefore this emphasize on beauty has to be seen in a critical way.

Euripides created a modern day woman who seeks justice and revenge with her cleverness and power. Medea acted as a feminine heroine who established that women can also be as strong as men. The feeling of being left by someone you love is truly painful hence, Medea expressed her emotions as much as she can and mourned for her lost. It is true that women can be sensitive and emotional so there was Medea portraying a usual woman in an unusual manner.

In the poem “Barbie Doll”, written by Marge Piercy, there is a clear theme of the expectations of women in society. The poem starts by talking about a girl that was normal until she was judge when she hit puberty for having, “A great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy 533). This comment follows her for the rest of her life, until it is implied that she could no longer take the harsh criticism she felt from the world “her good nature wore out”, and because of this, she committed suicide “she cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up” (Piercy 534). Finally when she dies, everyone comments how pretty she looks, and the poem finishes with, “To every woman a happy ending” (Piercy 534).

The two words “Barbie Doll” is an essential part of a little girl’s vocabulary and most every little girl owns a Barbie doll. The doll represents an image of a perfect woman; however, in reality, women should not expect to be perfect. This is a narrative poem which summarizes the life of a young girl. The poem begins with “This girl child was born usual.” This line indicates that the child is born like any normal child.

The woman, who started out strong, is left on display for the world to see what they turned her into. The “cosmetics painted on” and her “putty nose” is what society has made her think was pure beauty. A face where the lips and eyes are cartoonish and the nose was vanishingly small, this is what the world tells women (Talbot). The makeup during the time that Marge Piercy wrote the poem was a bold, vivid eye (H&MUA). The cartoonish look is a step into the trends of the past, for the bright colors that were popular for women during the 1970s.

wise,/ Then wrought a spell of glamour old,/ That bound the poppies on his eyes,/”(Bridges) Morgan is a clever women and uses the poppies to cast a sleeping spell on Launcelot. After she cast her spell she took him, with the other queens, to her castle “there she woke him from the spell”(Bridges). She wakes him up demanding he marry her and love her, but when she rejects him she is furious and keeps him as a

Both authors agree that society's definition of beauty is not realistic. In pearcys poem Barbie Doll.the girl ends up committing suicide because people focused to much on her looks. When she was born she was a usial baby until she went through puberty she was told she had a fat nose and fat legs.in the poem it says “everyone saw a fat nose and thick legs. This figurative language shows us that people focused to much on her imperfections. this evidence soports my claim beacuse even though girl was healthy and strong, this show that everyone focused on her fat legs had big nose and this displays that the definition of beauty is not realistic To add on she was given alot of advise to look prittier but instead she chosse suicide.