The poem “Barbie Doll”, written by Marge Piercy, describes the life of a female, with physical features outside the measurements that society deems attractive. The title “Barbie Doll” is indicative of the mold that society provides for the female form and personality. The poem progresses through the female character’s life from birth to death and alludes to the pressures that face females to belong to societies ideal. This ideal is detrimental to a female’s confidence and diminutive of her role in society.
The author breaks the poem into four stanzas, each stanza can been seen as a phase of the female’s life. The poem begins with her birth, her toys, through to her rude awakening into adolescence were it is assessed that she is not pretty. Her nose and legs are seen as not fitting into the society’s proportions, apparently a fate worse then death, as the female proceeds to cut them off, killing herself.
How could the opinion of a person become so dependent on the dictation of society, and how does society make their views apparent? Closer inspection of the poem leads to some possibilities. The toys described in the poem are typical female toys,
“… Presented with dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE sto

This is probably the biggest blow the poem carries towards the diminutive role of a woman’s life. On a person’s death bed positive comments are made, whether this comment is true or false doesn’t matter, the concept being pretty in death having value or significance is absurd. The value the society places on beauty is increased by this image. The weight of the picture pretty in death leads to the thought: was she lacking the intelligence to pursue thought or did she have much of an opportunity.

In an ironic warp Piercy then continues to follow this women through to her death bed, at which point she is finally stated as being pretty,

Alas, all these features that should be considered useful to her are diminished in sight of her large nose and legs. Society is seen to have no apparent use for her. A notable phrasing is “tested intelligence”, this does not necessarily imply that she possessed social intelligence. The next lines of the poem describe her actions,

“She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.”

Society has encouraged her to think inadequately of herself, and she does. If she was of higher social intelligence it could be argued that she could ignore society’s presumptions based on her appearance and proceed to follow an interest. However the female of the poem continues to try to become accepted by her peers. She is encouraged to be good-natured and try to become beautiful and lovely. The woman becomes annoyed and cuts off her nose and legs. This is a desperate gesture and not necessarily realistic, it is symbolic of the female frustration