One would never know that a simple walk through the grocery store could be analogous to a bombardment of societal ideals. Lining the rows are magazines plastered with celebrities, actors, and models that create an expectation and ideal for the way men and women in society should look and act. Back in the 1960's through these mediums and Barbie doll, society and media produced an image of the ideal women who is inferior to the man and must have a specific physical appearance of beauty in order to be accepted (Burkett). As a result of this unattainable perfection, second wave feminism surfaced. Second wave feminism was focused on "...achieving social justice which it defined as providing women and men with similar opportunities to grow, develop, express, and exercise their potential as people" (Mandle). In the poem "Barbie Doll" the author Marge Piercy uses many literary devices to detail the story of a girl who grows up during "...the late 1960's and early 1970's" (Hangler) in order to display how she must conform to the ideal set up for women by society to finally be accepted. By looking at the irony of "girlchild's" health and her death, the use of symbolism, and word choice, we can see the social and cultural obstacles both the girlchild and women in society experienced and fought to overcome during the 1960's and 1970's. This is important because it reveals the domestic images and roles that women played in society during this time period and the ideals set forth by society and media that second wave feminism fought against with the goal of achieving equal opportunity. 

Piercy uses irony at the end of the poem when the girl finally decides to conform to society's ideals and "...cut off her nose and her legs" or in other words, kill herself (Piercy 194). After she commits suicide, she is described as having "cosmetics painted on" and "a turned-up putty nose" looking like an actual Barbie doll (194). The next stanza refers to "everyone" saying, "Doesn't she look pretty?" (195). "Everyone" in this case refers to society and shows the irony that now she looks like a real Barbie doll and fits the ideal physical attributions of a woman in society at the time. Despite being dead, she is finally viewed as acceptable in society, and because she has conformed to societies ideals, it is "a happy ending" (195). This is ironic because death does not seem to matter; all that matters is physical attributes. Piercy also uses irony when talking about the health of the girl. She is described as being "healthy" and "possess[ing] strong arms and back" (194). It is ironic because though the girl is substantially healthy and strong, society does not view her as healthy because her physical appearance does not fit the Barbie doll like image that the 1960's and 1970's demanded. This time period "...promoted the female body ideal as slim and slender..." (Graber). It is also ironic how the girl "...went to and fro apologizing..." (Piercy 194) for the way she looked, as no one should have to apologize for not having a perfect physical appearance because there is no such thing. However, the girl felt the need to do so because during the 1960's and 1970's it was believed that "...because women were biologically different from men, they were...inferior..." (Wood). Due to this idea that women were inferior, the girl was embarrassed to be seen negatively by her peers. Piercy uses irony when describing the health of the girlchild and her death based on the fact she did not look the way society seemed fit as a reaction to show that no one should apologize for not being perfect and meeting society's unrealistic ideals. Similarly, second wave feminism fought against this unattainable perfection in an attempt to break the social barrier for women so they would no longer have to conform to the physical ideal set up by culture and media of the time.

The use of symbolism in this poem makes evident many ways the ideals set up by media and culture of the 1960's and 1970's influenced the girl in the poems life and the way it affected her as she grew up. In the first stanza Piercy lists toys that the girl was given once she was born, such as "dolls that did pee-pee...miniature GE stoves and irons...and wee lipsticks..." (Piercy 194). These toys, though they are just items for children to play with, prepare the girl for the future predestined roles and ideals set up by the society her and all women were expected to conform to. The dolls that the girl was given that did pee symbolize motherhood, and the girl's preparation in taking care of children by first taking care of her dolls. The toy stoves and iron symbolize domestic jobs that the girl would be doing once she grew up because even though once she got older she "tested intelligent" (194), during the 1960's and 1970's a woman's intelligence did not matter. Women had social expectations to work at the home and be mothers and there was not equal opportunity for jobs during that time because men were considered superior (Burkett). The use of symbolism of child toys shows Piercy's reaction to the ideal set forth by the society of the time that women should do housework and take care of children regardless of their intelligence. Piercy uses the symbolism in an effort to show that the girlchild was not able to live up to her potential because she was unable to do anything with her intellect. Second wave feminism also fought to falsify the idea created by the society that women were better "suited to domestic life than to politics or careers" (Wood) and to allow women to reach their full potential.  

Piercy also uses symbolism of the lipsticks which represent the standards of physical appearance and beauty set up by society for women and mothers, teaching the girl at a young age she needs to look a certain way in order to be accepted once she gets older. At the end of the first stanza a classmate comments negatively on the girl's physical appearance. The classmate symbolizes the ideas of the time as articulated by media and because the girl does not fit this physical ideal of beauty, she is considered ugly. The title "Barbie Doll" refers to the toy plastic dolls and how they symbolize certain aspects of the girl and certain physical beauty expectations she was expected by society to meet. In the third stanza it mentions how the girl is to "play coy" which means to be shy and just smile, and this relates to the symbol of the Barbie doll because a Barbie just smiled and does not talk (Piercy 194). Another way the Barbie doll is a symbol is because Barbie is skinny with the tiniest of waists and similarly the girl was expected to "exercise, diet" and in turn be skinny just like the doll (194). Symbolism is also apparent in the colors white and pink. After the girl has committed suicide, she lies in a coffin with make up on, pretty, finally being accepted in the eyes of society, and she is "...dressed in a pink and white nightie" (194). Pink symbolizes femininity and white symbolizes purity. These colors show that as she lay dead she finally has conformed to what society believes femininity is in its physical beautiful aspects finally meeting the physical ideal of Barbie doll. This idea of the girl finally being viewed by society as feminine and beautiful while she lay on her deathbed shows the societal struggle she faced in trying to please the public and not be cast aside by society, which ultimately led to her death. Through this use of symbolism in showing physical perfection that is finally achieved on the girl's deathbed, Piercy shows that the idea of perfection for women set up by the media and society of the 1960's and 1970's is impractical. This impractical perfection was also being fought against by second wave feminism in its attempt to rid the society of the idea that women should conform to the media and culture's ideals.

The word choice Piercy uses in the poem shows how, as the girlchild matures, she does not meet the physical ideal set out from society and is unable to overcome the obstacle of not being accepted. Piercy uses the word "magic" (194) when describing puberty. This word choice is interesting because puberty is a time of physical change and maturation. During puberty women are now able to sexually reproduce and secondary sex characteristics start to appear. There is nothing magical about puberty, as it is biological process, yet the word "magical" suggests that she can fit the physical ideal set out by society and fit into her culture, without any effort or sacrifice on her part. This means that the word "magical" hints to the idea that once a woman goes through puberty she becomes a beauty instantaneously, but for the girl in this story that is not the case. Another peculiar choice of words is the word "fan belt" when describing how "...her good nature wore out..." (194). A fan belt is a belt that turns the fan in an engine. By using this word Piercy is showing that just as when a fan belt dies and gets thrown out because it is no longer useful, the girl could not overcome the physical standard put forth by the society of the time; thus, her "good nature wore out" and she got rid of herself through death (194). Like Piercy, second wave feminism sought to bring awareness to the impractical idea of perfection set forth by society in order to break the social barrier.

The social norms and expectations for men and women are laid out in society by magazines, models, actors, and movies. In 1973 when "Barbie Doll" was written, the media set up the same kind of expectations and ideals for men and women. During the 1960's and 1970's second wave feminism arose in order to fight the idea that men were superior to women and the physical expectations of beauty women were expected to meet (Mandle). Also, women's intelligence was disregarded and they typically worked on domestic jobs as they sought to defy and overcome the barriers of society and culture in order to achieve equal opportunity. In the poem by Marge Piercy, the ideas that second wave feminism fought against are portrayed through the life story of a girl who grows up learning what is expected of her and of women during that time, but she is unable to meet the aforementioned expectations until laying in her casket, a result of suicide. The irony of health and death, the use of symbolism, and the word choice are the literary devices used in the poem to illustrate the obstacles women during the 1960's and 1970's faced as second wave feminism tried to break the social -barrier and achieve equal opportunity.
