The Plastic Insecurity In Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll

The characters in the poem and short story “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “The Birth-Mark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne can both relate to one another in the fact that the public sets expectations for women. “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:/ You have a great big nose and fat legs.” (Piercy 5-6) This quote from the poem “Barbie Doll” is an exceptional example of our general society making fun of an adolescent, who does not meet the societal expectations that have been set for women, until a tragic event happens.

Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, with assistance from Jack Ryan, an engineer. The controversial toy was released by the brand Mattel in 1959 at the American International Toy Fair in New York. Barbie has had many alterations throughout its years. These changes occurred because of many things, one of which being fashion. The fashion of Barbie has changed due to the change in fashion in the world.

“There is nothing more rare, nor more beautiful, than a woman being unapologetically herself; comfortable in her perfect imperfection. To me, that is the true essence of beauty.” This beautiful quote stated by Steve Maraboli is directed towards women, but instead should be directed towards both the male and female audience. Body shaming has been around ever since we can remember. In the early 1900’s was when the perfect body image movement really started.

Ashamed of his monstrous looks…. the beast concealed himself inside his castle. “Beauty is in the hands of the beholder” the most famous English quote. Beauty comes in two forms inner beauty and outer beauty, but we tend to believe beauty comes from magazines, models and those of music videos. What does society teach us about beauty?

In today’s world it seems to be that society influences his or her own perspectives on what type of body image someone should portray. This is especially the case for women all over the world. I agree that society should not be permitted to set certain physique standards for women, making them feel compelled to fulfill them in order to feel “accepted” amongst each other. As a result, women suffer from low self-esteem, from feeling unattractive, and from dissatisfaction with how their body image looks likes to society.

"Barbie Doll” is a powerful poem that provides a feminist view on the expectations of women in society. Marge Piercy sarcastically demonstrates the idea of being as perfect as a Barbie doll in her poem. She tells the story of a normal girl who grows up into a woman that is constantly told she is not perfect. In response to these comments, the girl cuts off her nose and legs in order to satisfy those around her. It is only in death that she is finally admired as the perfect woman.

In the article “Plastic, Fantastic Barbie” by Amy Goldman Kass she rebuttals against the war on the Barbies that girls around the world have loved since the beginning of their 54-year career. Koss defends the physical stature of Barbie saying that “Kids don’t care about Barbie’s proportions; they just appreciate that she’s older than they are and can therefore take greater risks and have wilder adventures.” (Kass 1) She makes that point that children don’t necessarily care about what their dolls look like they just want something pretty to play with. The majority of little girls don’t look at Barbie and immediately want to have her body if anything they look at her make-up and clothes, which are entirely obtainable for anything.

Imagine living in a world without diversity, uniqueness, or hope. Everyone would have similar interest, no differences, and no social standards would be set. Unfortunately, in the world, we live in today discrimination exists, if a person who's not powerful or white tried being unique the society would bring down his hopes because he isn't like the normal person. In Sandra Cisneros's "Barbie-Q," and Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven," both of the authors write about the world with no diversity, hope, and role models. Both stories reflection of upper middle white class dominant control and exploit of the poor lower class.

91% of women are unhappy with their bodies. 5% of women naturally possess the bodies that are regularly displayed in the media. 80% of ten year old girls in america fear getting fat. 7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough. As a result of my research I found that the body standard the media sets for adolescents leads to disorders, Suicide and self loathing.

Waxed Generation by Michael Koenigs suggests that modern day media propels teenagers towards achieving utterly unrealistic standards of beauty in unnatural ways. Michael states, “Unfortunately the times have given my generation a perverted perception of beauty.” (Koenigs) He strongly believes that the digitally enhanced images magazines put forth to show teenagers, cause the people of this generation to strive for unnatural beauty. The “bombshells” and “hunks” featured in these magazines drive teenagers into insanity as they try to achieve these impossible standards.