Barbie Doll: A Girls Quest for Perfect Plastic Proportions

Society’s cultural icons present an unrealistic and unattainable standard of beauty. The superficiality represented within cultural icons such as Barbie, revolves primarily around physical attributes rather than personal essence. The closer children come to acquiring the physical characteristics of the cultural icons set before them, the more socially acceptable they become. In Marge Piercy’s poem Barbie Doll, Piercy examines the struggle of the girl child who tries to conform to society’s preordained standard of beauty. Examining the negative influence society has on children, she illustrates through extremes how the progression of a small incident can lead to disaster. Making use of literary styles like comedy, satire, exaggeration and irony, Piercy addresses how society has distorted the characteristics a girl should possess.

Piercy carefully constructs the idea of a girl child establishing that this girl could be anyone. Furthermore, Piercy adds to the concern being addressed because she has been stripped of a very important part of her identity from the beginning.

Using comedy, Piercy examines how the girl child is trapped by a society that has alre

The girl child couldn’t live up to society’s high standards or the pressures of her culture, so suicide became her final option. The girl child’s open casket funeral is shocking because in death, society still judges her appearance. With cosmetics, and for once a socially acceptable nose she finally gains her acceptance from society and her peers, “Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said.” (23 pg. 815) This almost macabre in that death has finally provided her with the looks to gain everyone’s acceptance. Moreover the poet employs the literary devices of irony and satire to show how convoluted the situation is, “Consummation at last. / To every woman a happy ending.” (24-25 pg. 815) Obviously when a girl kills herself to be accepted, it is not a happy ending, yet this line shows that the girl had to fight for acceptance and only when resorting to extremes did she succeed.

The poet shows how the remark has altered the girl’s self-perception, overlooking her personality traits, because these aren’t criteria that peers judge her by. While listing the child’s attributes, Piercy draws attention to her self-perceived flaws, emphasizing a situation in which a girl would exchange individuality for acceptance. If it weren’t for society’s close-minded views on what characteristics are important for a girl to have, she wouldn’t overlook the abundance of great qualities she possesses, “She went to and fro apologizing. / Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.” (10-11 pg. 815) This exaggeration shows how severely society has brainwashed the girl into believing that appearance is more important than personality, intelligence or independence.

Our culture is stripping girls of their individua

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