Marge Piercy Barbie Doll Essay

There are many ideas as to what makes a feminist icon. Samantha Brennan discusses about a childhood female character that represents feminism and a body-confident role model. In her article "Miss Piggy's Feminism, Redefining Human Relationships through Martial Arts" Brennan creates an educational diction through viewing how Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show has the potential to be a feminist icon. Writing with a proud and didactic tone throughout her article, she shows how Miss Piggy's character is a good choice as a feminist icon. Brennan states that at a younger age she did not look up to Miss Piggy but as an adult she sees the qualities that the character has as a feminist icon.

Many girls dream of their knight in shining armor, a perfect wedding, and a happily ever after ending. Disney princesses give them hope to find love and happiness along with emphasizing their want for the beauty and grace princesses illustrate. Authors of “Cinderella and Princess Culture” and “The Princess Paradox,” Peggy Orenstein and James Poniewozik respectively, agree that most girls like princesses. However, these articles convey differing parental opinions on lessons girls learn from princesses and the unfavorable effects this has at their young age. Orenstein describes her negative views on princesses through her experiences with her daughter and the knowledge of Andy Mooney’s business decisions on princesses.

In “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “Homage to My Hips” by Lucille Clifton, women are presented with societal expectations for their gender. The girl in “Barbie Doll” is told that she has “a great big nose and fat legs.” In the following stanza, the girl is described as healthy, intelligent, strong, and a number of other positive qualities. When the comments about her nose and legs continue, she is encouraged to lose weight, smile, and be pursued by males in order to be of worth. She loses her former good qualities in exchange for society’s standards for perfection.

“Beauty is not just a white girl. It's so many different flavors and shades.” A quote most famously used by Queen Latifah. Julia Alaverze the author of ‘I want to be Miss.America’ faced the struggle of loving and appreciating her beauty when she moved to the United States with her family.

“My brother is also a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the same thing.”(376) The writer is trying to describe the prestigious life that men in the society had, and how women were forced to follow their rules. Marge Piercy wrote “Barbie Doll”. The poem main idea was based on girl child influenced by the idea of other people living in the society, rather than her own. “This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.”

In “The Flapper,” the poem describes what is like to be a flapper and how a flapper acted. This poem makes sure to highlight how women felt and why they wanted to be flappers. Both the novel and the poem talk about flappers and have similar themes, plots, and symbols about women during the ‘20s. Similar to the novel , the poem has a strong message about women and how they were thought of.

While many young girls love the princesses and look up to them, others view these characters as negative role models. Disney Princesses have always appeared in movies as young women who dress in elegant gowns, have sexy bodies and perfect hair. They are always paired with a prince who lives in a castle, meaning that he has a lot of money. This description of what the Disney Princess is like; give us a big concern in the influence this image is giving to the little girls. Unfortunately, what girls learn as children carries on into adulthood.

I think that the poem "Barbie Doll" was a very telling poem that really helped to sort of paint a picture of the way that standards on appearance and beauty are in our society. Piercy builds the outrage by saying that women are looked at upon to be coy, but also to be cheerful and jovial when coming onto others. Her choice of words leads to the conclusion that the women of our society are boxed in on how they should look and act. The imagery that the title "Barbie Doll" shows is that of a sense of normality; since Barbie Dolls are the norm for girls today. So many women are told what to wear, how to behave, what their weight should be that it degrades them.

We all have different perceptions of people, just the same as the people who came before us. Every decade in America’s history since at least 1900, there has been a change in what society defines as beautiful. For example, in 1900-1910 the Gibson Girl was what everyone wanted to be. She was created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson (“Body Image…”).

But after purchasing it, Lisa realizes that the doll represents “the perfect woman” to society but is an unrealistic role model to young girls. The writers of the episode use invective, irony, and hyperboles to reveal that the media and corporate America make sexist statements about the role of a woman. This can have negative effects, like low self esteem, on the mind of young girls who are

It shows two of the ten panels in her series of gigantic femmages, and we can see that they are in different colors style. The left side panel is basically dark with various patterns, and the right side panel is in bright colors with those patterns. This picture is consists of fabric and acrylic, the reason why Schapiro used these materials is because she wants to point out that women had been doing the collages works since long time ago, which can date back before Pablo Picasso introduce women to his art works. Schapiro was interested in hiding metaphors for womanhood in her pictures, and she called her works femmages. This series of gigantic femmages is based on the Japanese Kimonos pattern, fans and robes.

In the 1960s and 1970s, psychopharmacological medications were starting to be well-known in American and became very popularized by mothers, single women and other females . These women were dependent, typically, on one specific medication, an anti-depressant known as Miltown, or ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ . Miltown is advertised as a way to cure all women’s day-to-day problems and continues to work all day . Women were encouraged to take this anti-depressant because it would help please the other people around them . Women were also encouraged to take Miltown with or without a mental disorder, because it cures that all day unpleasantness .

From the 1970’s much has changed in how media would typically portray women as housewives who wanted to please their husbands by catering for them and looking after the children and home. Since then various legislations have been enforced which changed how media could portray women, now in modern media women are represented as beautiful stereotypes who every woman would want to be like. Their body image is still important in how they are viewed by the public and the media are very strong to bring this forward for the given audience. Here is where gender and identity come into account. Women’s magazines formulate images of femininity which are diverse in how women look aesthetically and their lifestyle; once this has been accomplished they

Advertising through magazines and television defined and transmitted the role of women and motherhood (Stoneham, Holt). During this time the ‘Seven Sisters’, a group of magazines traditionally aimed at homemaker women some including: Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, and Woman’s Day, reached over thirty four million consumers, which is a great deal of women to convince what lifestyle they should live. In addition, propaganda was used to put women “back in their place”, after mem came home from war (Holt). Many television shows presented a set example of a normal american life, the most memorable one being, “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” (Stoneham). June Cleaver, Donna Reed, and Harriet Nelson were all television show mothers who acted the part of the idealistic housewife of this time period.

“Beauty. At the mention of this word, most girls are inclined to take a quick look into a compact mirror or run a few fingers through their hair, sizing themselves up with the nearest advertisement featuring a flawless bottle blonde.” The fascination of women willing to spend hours in the bathroom to be prepared for the day to look like a model when only traveling to the corner store. Most would not even walk out of the house without makeup on in fear they will be judged by their appearance. The short story, Barbie Q, also shows the concept of girls trying to be “perfect.”