From the Mattel toy models that young little girls admired on shelves of toy stores and human doll transformations videos that are popular on the internet, Barbie and many other plastic heroines have made a huge influence on today’s modern women. Marge Piercy’s poem, “Barbie Doll”, explores the awkward obstacles of puberty and the pressures of reaching the standards of beauty and acceptance. This story of a young normal girl being conformed into the lifestyle of being “perfect” is a true example of the effect that today’s society has on our young female audience. Piercy’s commitment shines through this poem with feministic charm, sarcasm, and personal free verse.
The poem, “Barbie Doll”, was written in 1969, which was the era of …show more content…
“She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll” poem, lines 7-9). She has finally reached puberty and was going through the awkward anxieties of acne, boys, fitting in and social life. Though she is seen as nothing but flawless in her own unique way by the naked eye, she is also seen as nothing but “a great big nose and fat legs”(Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll” poem, line 6), by society and possibly her peers. She has the mentality, health, and personality, but her physical appearance in people’s eyes is not seen as beautiful. But like they always say, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” “She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle. Her good nature wore out like a fan belt. So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up”, (Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll”, lines 12-18). Of course, she had to keep a positive mindset while trying to get to her weight goal, but with all the diets, pills, remedies, and myths, she started to breakdown inside feeling like a failure to look like the photo shopped skinny models in the magazines. As stated in Piercy’s poem, “A Work of Artifice”, she says “The bonsai tree in the attractive pot could have grown eighty feet tall on the side of a mountain till split by lightning. But a gardener carefully pruned it”, (Marge Piercy, “A Work of Artifice”, lines 1-7). She shows us that the distortion of the bonsai tree, caused by the gardener, can be compare to the drastic process that humans go through to change their own appearance. “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”, (Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll, lines 19-22). Like many people of today, mostly celebrities, the girl rather go under
The poem, “Barbie Doll”, was written in 1969, which was the era of …show more content…
“She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll” poem, lines 7-9). She has finally reached puberty and was going through the awkward anxieties of acne, boys, fitting in and social life. Though she is seen as nothing but flawless in her own unique way by the naked eye, she is also seen as nothing but “a great big nose and fat legs”(Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll” poem, line 6), by society and possibly her peers. She has the mentality, health, and personality, but her physical appearance in people’s eyes is not seen as beautiful. But like they always say, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” “She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle. Her good nature wore out like a fan belt. So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up”, (Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll”, lines 12-18). Of course, she had to keep a positive mindset while trying to get to her weight goal, but with all the diets, pills, remedies, and myths, she started to breakdown inside feeling like a failure to look like the photo shopped skinny models in the magazines. As stated in Piercy’s poem, “A Work of Artifice”, she says “The bonsai tree in the attractive pot could have grown eighty feet tall on the side of a mountain till split by lightning. But a gardener carefully pruned it”, (Marge Piercy, “A Work of Artifice”, lines 1-7). She shows us that the distortion of the bonsai tree, caused by the gardener, can be compare to the drastic process that humans go through to change their own appearance. “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”, (Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll, lines 19-22). Like many people of today, mostly celebrities, the girl rather go under