Barbie Doll Essay

Critical Analysis on “Barbie Doll” Marge Piercy uses a variety of literary devices to express how unfair society’s standards are in her poem “Barbie Doll”. The poem tells the story of a young girl going through puberty. As she grows, her classmates begin to be rude to her and criticize her looks, particularly her nose and thighs. The girl tries desperately to fit in by changing her looks and it wasn’t enough. Eventually the girl cuts off her nose and legs and offers them up to her peers. This…

Barbie Doll is a narrative written by jewish-American writer Marge Piercy, it was published in 1971. Piercy writes this poem during an era of second wave feminism (Grimes, Linda. Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”. Letterpile). This poem is known for it’s message of how society’s expectations were for women and how pressuring it was for them. In this Poem the author uses personification, imagery and metaphor etc, to describe the meaning of this poem, and how the expectations of society can hurt.…

Marge Piercy’s poem Barbie Doll depicts how society’s standard for beauty creates a serious body image problem in many individuals especially among women. This standard is full of false ideals which contribute to the altered perception and definition of beauty nowadays. Women are provided with a very fine margin on how to look, dress, and behave to be considered beautiful. Many women of today struggle to keep up with the society’s expectation of women. Some even go as far as getting surgeries…

The poem “Barbie Doll” written by Marge Piercy is about a girl who is pressured to look beautiful by her classmates in school. However, her classmates’ expectations were unrealistic. When the girl couldn’t take the pressure anymore of trying to look pretty, she kills herself. I determined the theme of this poem by its title and figurative language. First, I figured out the poem’s theme by its title and figurative language. For instance, the title’s name is “Barbie Doll.” A barbie doll is a…

“Come on Barbie, let’s go party,” is not what the people are saying. With a new generation, new thoughts and ideas come alive. Though body image has always been on the minds of the people, the idea of what is right and wrong has seemed to change drastically. A certain doll always comes to mind when the topic of body image is brought up, she is none other than the infamous Barbie doll. With Barbie's long blonde hair, blue eyes, long legs, unrealistic slim waist, pointed feet made only for the…

the world is Barbie. She has offered young girls dolls, dollhouses, and the accessories that goes with them since 1959. Barbie has been very influential to young girls, affecting how they dress and even act. Unfortunately, the controversy that surrounds Barbie has begun to grasp attention through social media and network television. Many believe that these dolls promote an unrealistic body image to the young women who own them. Some individuals take it to an extreme and develop “Barbie…

In “Barbie Doll,” Marge Piercy destroys the preconceived notion that a woman has to be “perfect” to be beautiful. Piercy uses the title, diction, and repetition to show that a woman is not perfect nor should she be expected to be. Piercy uses the title “Barbie Doll” as a way to bring the image of a stereotypically “perfect” woman to the forefront of her audience’s mind. The use of the title juxtaposed against the “girlchild[‘s]” (1) own body in “you have a great big nose and fat legs” (6)…

Girls are optically discerned as Barbie dolls, this fascinates the girl to a point where they consider the doll as a representation of what they must look homogeneous to, and what the world wants them to play with. Little girls revere Barbie dolls as if they can show them how to be pulchritudinous. Barbie dolls have become the incipient role models for adolescent girls and at this time in their lives, kids are helpless in understanding that Barbie’s image is an unauthentic figure of how a woman…

may have drastic results on the way they perceive themselves later on life. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she shows how a perfectly fine young woman can be torn down by society, and society can ultimately ruin a person (Piercy 522). From eating disorders to Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Piercy in “Barbie Doll” shows that Barbie still has a harmful effect on young women today. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she writes, “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back,…

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…