Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

In Marge Piercy's , "Barbie Doll," we see all to well about how society pushes its agenda on how women should aspire to look and behave. In our patriarchal society, girls have been taught that to be women, they are to be weak,vulnerable,soft spoken, kind, nurturing,emotional,and dainty like. Girls are also taught they have to look a certain way or measure up to a " barbie doll," image to be considered "sexy". In the poem," Barbie Doll," in the following lines:

"She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle."

we see how it ties into what I was saying above about society has it's moldings on what a women should be. The poem shows that from childhood, girls have dolls that go "pee pee," that come along with little stoves and irons, that also come with little lipsticks of cherry red. For years women were thought only good enough to do house work and nurture children. A woman was only to be in the private sphere of the home and not in the public sphere of the workplace. Women were to keep a certain image. They were taught to wait hand and foot on their husbands, to never argue,to always smile and just be pleasant and dainty at all times.The media does a lot to push these " barbie doll," images of what women should act and look like. Magazines, music, television and ads all bombard us with images that are overtly sexual, explicit and is their ideal look of "perfection".These influences shape young womens cultural views about what they should look and behave like. It pressures young innocent minds to conform to what society says is the "right attitude" to have when trying to be the "ideal woman," or in this case, a "barbie doll." The pressures that society pushes then sets up young girls for low self esteem sometimes resulting in eating disorders or depression for trying to measure up to something that is pretty much impossible.

"She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs."

In these lines Piercy is showing us that in this society most times a woman being intelligent,healthy is overlooked as something that isn't important unless she's attractive too. Looks are deemed to be more important than being intelligent or having a good sense of character. the next few lines also show this:
"Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up."
Often some women will go to the extremes to live up to society's ideal of "perfection," even harming themselves or letting go of their good nature to be something they aren't. Just as women will do it, young girls will do what it takes to " fit in," to be accepted by their peers. Unfortunately, young children aren't mature enough to handle peer pressures and teasing done by others, resulting in harming themselves physically or even trying to kill themselves.