"Barbie Doll" is a short poem written by Marge Piercy in the 1970's. The poem starts off with a little girl that is given a few gifts that are all girls are said to receive at this time period. As this girl gets older and she hits puberty and no longer looks beautiful in the eyes of society. She is a perfectly normal girl on the inside and she tries very hard to fit in, but no matter what she does she is only viewed as ugly. Eventually she can't take it anymore and she changes her physical appearance. Finally on her death bed she is viewed as beautiful. In "Barbie Doll" Marge Piercy presents her opinion of gender roles and stereotypes that women faced in the 70's through the toys that are presented to the little girl, the treatment that the girl receives for looking different, comparing her to an object, and her choice to use the word consummation as one of the final words of the story.

Like many girls in the US, the little girl in the story is presented with a miniature stove, an iron, a baby doll, and a tube of lipstick as she grows. Each of these toys are designed to set her up for the common gender roles that are placed on females in this time period. The first three toys; the stove, the iron, and the baby doll, all set the stereotype that women should be stay at home mothers that cook and clean the house and take care of the children. When Psychologist Kit Yarrow was asked about dolls by Lini Kadaba he said "When little girls play with dolls, they're practicing being a mommy, practicing tending and nurturing"(Kadaba). The  baby doll teaches girls how to handle real babies, stove shows girls how to cook and that its good for them to cook, and the iron teaches little girls how to do laundry. The toys are all used to show little girls some of their wifely duties that were expected on them in this time period. The lipstick that is given to the little girl doesn't necessarily teach a little girl how to become a house wife, but it does show her that there are expectations of how she is supposed to look. Along with the expectation of how she should look, the lipstick shows girls that what's on the inside isn't as important as how you look.

Many people in the world pride themselves on being an individual, when in reality most people are put down for being different or having a unique look. If you aren't as pretty, or are just different, then what people believe you should look like you are don't fully fit in with people and are often made fun of. In most cases your appearance means more to the people around you than your actions or personality. Piercy shows that your looks are valued more than your actions by the way that she structured her second stanza. "She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sex drive and manual dexterity. She went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs" (Piercy 194). All of the positive things are listed together creating a positive tone about her, but it is all outweighed by the final say that she isn't pretty enough on the outside to fit in. The third stanza goes even farther to say "She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle" (Piercy 194). Not only is this girl being told that none of her attributes are good enough, but that she should just try to accept this fact and "wheedle" to try to make people think she isn't that bad 

People can only live with the belief that they aren't good enough in the eyes of other people for so long before they can take it no longer. "Her good nature wore out like a fan belt. So she cut off her nose and legs and offered them up." (Piercy 194). In this part story the author transitions from describing the girl as a person and starts to make her sound like on object. The use of "fan belt" is a great way to describe what is happening in this girl's life. Fan belts get used in cars every time they are turned on and they start to wear down just like the girls ability to shrug off being told that she isn't good enough. If you allow a fan belt to get word down it will eventually snap. This is exactly what this girl did, she wore down and she snapped. When she snapped she cut off her nose and her legs.  

Immediately after comparing her to a fan belt, the girl is then portrayed as a doll herself. In the fourth stanza of the poem on page 194 Marge writes "In the casket displayed on satin she lay with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned- up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie." Marge uses words that are more commonly associated with objects, like dolls. "Painted on cosmetics" makes it sound like you are painting a house, or painting a toy. Using dressed instead of wearing, leads the imagination to picture a little girl dressing a doll or the thought of someone changing her, not something that a women is wearing. This is where the title of the poem can come from this comparison of her to a doll and that society treated her like a doll by molding and dressing her the way that society believed she should look like. 

When Marge was writing the concluding stanza, she could choose from a variety of words that would help bring the story to an end. Out of all the words she chose to say "Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending." (Piercy 195) Consummation can have two separate meanings, it can mean "The ultimate end", or "The consummating of marriage" (Webster). This is a very interesting choice because it can either mean that in the end she is happy because she is viewed as pretty. On the other hand she could be symbolic in the way that with marriage she will be physically ending, but rather her life as an individual and giving into the stereotype of being a house wife.  With the symbolism she doesn't actually die, but when the story says she is dressed up and has cosmetics on, Marge is actually talking about the girl getting ready for her wedding.

In conclusion the author of this poem Marge Piercy did an amazing job of hinting towards her dislike of the gender roles and stereotypes that women had to face throughout the early to mid-1900's. Women in the 1900's were told that they had to be housewives and take care of the children. Even from a young age little girls, like the one in the story, were given miniature household items and baby dolls to teach them how to work in the house and how to become a mother.
