“Barbie Doll”: Exploring Issu

The poem’s language provides a very powerful impression. The opening stanza describes the first, formative decade of the life of a “girlchild.” Students can note that she is “presented with dolls that did pee-pee” (2) and that she receives “miniature GE stoves and irons,” as well as “wee lipsticks” (3-4). The euphemistic words “pee-pee” and “wee” are excellent descriptions for the stereotypical “girl toys” that girls are

In the last four lines of the third stanza, students learn that the girl’s “good nature wore out / like a fan belt” (15-16). This mechanical imagery is a prelude to the horrible action in the last two lines of the stanza: the girl “cut[s] off her nose and legs / and [offers] them up” (17-18). The closing stanza presents an artificially perfect view of the girl – the undertaker covers the pain and suffering she went through with make-up, reconstructed nose, and a “pink and white nightie” (22). This stereotypical image is made even more disturbing by the observation: “Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said” (23).

The third stanza is an unidentified period of adolescence and, perhaps, young adulthood. The girl is “advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty, / exercise, diet, smile a

Some topics in this essay:
Marge Piercy’s, , importance gender, required reading first-year, reading first-year college, first-year college students, “barbie doll”, exhorted hearty, reading first-year, required reading, first-year college, college students, third stanza,