"Barbie Doll" is a powerful and poignant poem written by Marge Piercy in 1973. The poem tells the story of a young girl who is given a Barbie doll as a gift and is expected to conform to society's narrow standards of beauty and femininity.
From a young age, the girl is taught that her worth and value are based on her appearance. She is encouraged to focus on her looks and to strive for perfection, and the Barbie doll becomes a symbol of this pressure. The poem describes how the girl cuts off her own nose and legs in an attempt to fit the idealized image of beauty that the doll represents.
However, the poem also suggests that the girl ultimately resists this pressure and embraces her own unique identity. The final lines of the poem read, "She went to and fro apologizing./ Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs./ She was advised to play coy,/ exhorted to come on hearty,/ exercise, diet, smile and wheedle./ Her good nature wore out/ like a fan belt./ So she cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered them up."
This passage shows that the girl has become exhausted and fed up with trying to conform to society's expectations. She decides to reject these expectations and to embrace her true self, even if it means departing from the conventional standards of beauty.
Overall, "Barbie Doll" is a thought-provoking and deeply moving poem that speaks to the ways in which society imposes unrealistic and damaging standards on women. It encourages readers to think critically about the messages we receive about beauty and to resist the pressure to conform to these narrow ideals.
Barbie Doll Poem
Barbie's Positive Influence On Pop Culture 506 Words 3 Pages Although Barbie has conveyed many beliefs through the clothes and jobs she has had, the most controversial belief has been body image. The form of this poem is in free verse. This poem is important because it speaks to the struggles that girls face on a daily basis. The main message or lesson explored in this piece is that people who do not adhere to societies norms are often ridiculed and not given a chance to succeed. Joe': Exploring Issues of Gender". The speaker in the poem acts as an observer, watching the girl go through various events connected to her body image. The rhythm is created by repetitive iambs and anapests.
She dreams of social change, and feminist revival. This journal gives an analysis on Marge Piercy's poem that can help the reader better understand her criticism. Before these words she seemed to be a normal little girl playing with all the right toys. Barbie is a Barbie Doll, which is a symbol for the ideal woman. This powerful poem speaks to the experience of many girls who have felt pressure to conform to unrealistic standards of beauty. This poem speaks to those girls and lets them know that they are not alone.
It has four stanzas and each narrates a part of the Barbie doll narrative from a different perspective. This may occur within both genders. Since first being brought out into the world, Barbie has had an unreasonably shaped body, with a small waist and large breasts. Barbie is contributing to these ideals. Joe': Exploring Issues of Gender". She ultimately died trying to be as perfect as her Barbie Doll, a cookie cutter woman molded by society.
Next, in the second stanza, the author is listing the good qualities of the girl. Meaning Of Barbie Q By Sandra Cisneros 606 Words 3 Pages In the short story ''Barbie Q,'' Sandra Cisneros portrays that Barbie dolls can impact girl's lives as they grow up, and influence the way they act and perceive themselves. She was described as healthy, smart, strong, sexually able, and fast, yet she did not see any of these things. The tone is flat in the first stanza, and it does not rise until later, when adolescent girls begin to mature and their outcomes are less than pleasant. The major theme of the poem is how the life of a person can be destroyed by the accidental loss of self-confidence. Beyond poverty, these dolls represent the effects of the stereotypes that society has implemented to women. She grew up playing with toys according to her gender and was considered smart at school.
These girls grow up in a poor family environment considering that they acquired the rest of the dolls in a toys sale after a store burned down. . The Norton introduction to literature. The poem was written in the point-of-view of a third person narrative. BARBIE DOLL "Barbie doll" is a poem written by Marge Piercy who is a novelist and an American poet.
The little girl grows up and starts to feel pressure from society to look like Barbie. In this section, the tone becomes disapproving; anything less than perfect is considered flawed. Barbie dolls represent an unrealistic body image that many girls aspire to have. The author used "barbie doll" as the title because we all know that barbie doll has unrealistic perfect hair, body, and belongings. She was displayed in her casket, all dolled up.
This formal style enhances the irony: the poet stays detached from the lyrical heroine as if telling her story as a medical case study. She is perfect in every way, with her long blonde hair, blue eyes, and skinny body. By always being told that you are not good enough, you are going to take that one of two ways. In the poem, Piercy is writing about a young girl transitioning from a child to a women and how society and its idea of beauty affects her. The Barbie doll is a Barbie doll that every little girl wants to be. No matter how hard you try, you will never be fully accepted until you die.
Barbie dolls send out the message to little girls that this is how they should look when they grow up. Foundation for Curriculum Theory. Everything for her lost value when in her …show more content… We have to understand this quote and put it to function every day, every time. The plot of this poem is the journey of the Barbie Doll from her creation to her death. This girl had an endless number of qualities for having a wonderful future. To every woman a happy ending.
Piercy and Robinson also utilize diction and literary elements in different ways to convey a similar feeling for the reader. Society controls the minds of the youth. Poems like Barbie Doll, On Turning Ten and I Am Offering This Poem show how this form of writing can carry a powerful message in a few words. Society makes it seem that women have to be beautiful, skinny housewives that are dependent on men. Barbie is a symbol of the ideal woman that society wants us to aspire to, but she is also a reminder of the unrealistic standards that we set for ourselves.
The girl who was strong and intelligent gets ruined when she sees her ostensible defects. This poem also comments on how little girls are also encouraged to worry about being a house wife and mother, instead of trying to make their own place in this world and accepting themselves Barbie Doll Poem Analysis much pressure and eagerness when it comes to a female fulfilling that image of looking like barbie. In stanza three, you can see that the girl was told to play coy and act like nothing happened. Yes, growing up should be, but that is not the case, especially for young women or women in general. In stanza one, the poem is started with a happy beginning, describing the girl playing with her new Barbie doll and how it can do everything such as pee-pee on its own and has her mini-sized appliances such as GE stoves and iron; which symbolize the duties an ideal mother is thought to perform.
