The late 19th century came with many changes in society. It provided a different focus on women in America. For instance, in 1973, the second wave of feminism was transforming and that is when the poem "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy appeared. Marge Piercy is a writer who focuses on social and cultural issues such as conflicts in gender, environment, Jewish identities, but most importantly women's lives. Barbie Doll may force the reader to question why society was the way it was in the 19th century. However, in the first wave of feminism, women were expected to stay in their homes and be housewives; they were not allowed to do anything else. With the change in history kids were given dolls, stoves, irons, and lipsticks the color of cherry. This is relevant because this sends off a message to kids that they will be expected to grow up and will most likely be using stoves and irons a lot. In addition, they will be expected to look like the Barbie dolls they once had when they were young. By looking at "Barbie Doll," we can see that society's expectations for women were not fair; they often sent insecurities to children and made them feel like the way they looked now was the wrong way. It states that young girls are going to grow up to be beautiful housewives. This also puts so much pressure on them as they are growing up, they may feel that if they do not turn out beautiful they will let society down.

Even though Barbie sends off a bad picture to little kids, the Mattel Company has tried to fix all criticism as the years go by. In stores, you see that Barbie has once been an astronaut, president, architect, engineer, and a doctor. Now they are trying to let girls know that they can be anything they want, yeah Barbie is still skinny, pretty, and perfect, but she has more professions that some girls want in life. Over the years, Barbie has transformed into a better figure for children. She no longer sends the wrong message to children, she allows them to realize there is more to a women's life than people think. Barbie perpetrates a successful woman and provides insight to improved things in life. To tie this along to the poem, Marge only sees Barbie as a doll that tells girls that they must be skinny and pretty. She made this poem before Barbie dolls were changed into women who worked outside of the house. These young girls do not know what is actually wrong with the way the Barbie is made. All they do is thank their parents for giving it to them and play with it. 

In Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll", she explains the expectations society gives off to the young children based off the toys that they receive and are told to play with. Little kids are often "presented dolls that did pee-pee" and given "miniature GE stoves and irons and lipstick the color of cherry candy, (Piercy 194)."  According to this, we as children were expected to just take care of their kid, cook, and look good for their husband. Society is wrong for this, there should not be a certain way someone should look in order to matter in the world. The way Piercy describes the thoughts of the girl in the poem, makes the reader think that the girl was unhappy with the way she looked because of her childhood and therefore changed her appearance, "so she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up, (Piercy)." The girl believed that she had to look like this perfect Barbie, which forced her to change her appearance. This is a perfect example of the insecurities the toys she received as a little kid gave her. The first line of this poem sounds like it would be the start of a fairytale because Piercy uses certain words in it that makes it seem that she was a normal child. She was normal until she reached puberty and from her recent childhood experiences, she realizes that she was not the way society wanted her to be.  

In addition, "Barbie Doll" also gives many stereotypes connected to the women in the 19th century. It states that women must be pretty, "she lay with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie" (Piercy). Not every girl is going to be perfect in the world, so you cannot make this expectation that one needs to be. A girl is born and grows up into this woman, which by all means should stay that way. No one should have to change because a Barbie doll made them think they should. There is also a boy Barbie but it still creates the idea of being perfect. Two scientists named Isabelle Cherney and Jessica Dempsey did an investigation on the role of neutral and ambiguous toys. Testing this several times, they found that boys and girls tend to go towards toys that better suits their gender.  Cherney and Dempsey published the article "Young children's classification, stereotyping, and play behavior for gender neutral and ambiguous toys" which states that the stereotypes in toys are different between neutral and ambiguous toys. For example, an ambiguous toy can be a boy toy with a girl color. What this means is that most toys send off the wrong message, like is a boy supposed to like the color pink because it is the color of an airplane? Girls want to be able to play with stuff boys play with, most girls want to grow up and do jobs that men do. However, society back in time did not allow this they stuck to the usual, which were dolls. Girls should not have to be pronged to one type of toy they want more, "studies indicate that girls show more variability in masculine and feminine toy play than boys do" (Cherney and Dempsey). Society should not base a girl's appearance off a basic Barbie Doll because most of them want to be different and society does not allow them to. The stereotype that girls should only play with girl toys is dumb and the stereotype that girls should be perfect like Barbie is not fair.  

Another article, "Pink Gives Girls Permission" introduces that girls should only play with girl toys and boys should only play with boy toys. Society is stuck on the fact that girls only play with dolls or should only play with dolls. For example, in the article it says, "toys traditionally associated with girls were more likely to include dolls," (Weisgram). This may have been true in the 19th century, but now more girls are turning to both feminine and masculine toys. The children do not know any better because their mother is the one that gives them these toys and this is a huge factor. The mothers of the children lived in a much more messed up society so they have not really learned a better way to set their children up to grow. Kids do not know any better, "children pay more attention to items that are deemed by society as appropriate for their gender," (Weisgram).  Furthermore, kids do not really care how the toys look they just want to play with something that attracts their attention. A major factor in the choice of a child's toy is based off society, according to Weisgram. Most girls are given dolls and other household toys to coincide with society's thoughts of women. 

"Barbie Doll" was written during the time of the second wave of feminism when women became to have a say in government and were allowed to leave their homes without feeling guilty. Women started to throw away all the insecurities and things that told them they had to be perfect beautiful women. They started to be happy with the way they looked and did not want to change a thing about the way they looked. Women even protested the beauty pageant because it showed that women were prized and congratulated for being beautiful. During this time, women began to love themselves for more than just looks and to start seeing themselves as more than objects for men. Now when you look at the world women want to be more than just housewives, they want to have kids and careers. Society's view on women is so much better now in the 20th century, we came a long way and got so many rights now. 

In the 19th century, the Barbie doll would symbolize that women were going to grow up, stay in the house, and take care of their children. Some of the people who lived in this time period maybe considered this Barbie and decided to change their appearance, which is wrong by society. Women can be whomever they want and look however they want, no need to try to look like a toy. The Barbie doll is overrated and should not be a toy for little kids it sends off a wrong message to kids. Girls do not understand the effect a Barbie doll has on them as a little kid but as they grow up and realize it then it is too late. They just need to be whomever they want and not worry about what other people think. 

In conclusion, Barbie gives a negative effect to the people who decide to play with them. Barbie has no flaws, she has a nice car, nice house, and every job in the world, and what most women want a perfect boyfriend. No one in the world really has all of those things unless they are rich. So what if innocent little girls that are given a Barbie doll are not in a rich family what effect would that have on her? She is going to want all this stuff and it will be heartbreaking when she cannot afford it. Women need to just throw away all the Barbie's and not even give it to their daughters. As of right now Barbie is getting very diverse and is constantly getting more stuff to go along with what she already has. We do not have the luxury as women to get all of this stuff or to have all the professions she has. How many women in the world do you see with as much stuff that Barbie has? Not too much right. "Barbie Doll" was a valid example of how women can take this visual of Barbie and turn it into something bigger than it needs to be. Most of all do not change the appearance because of some Barbie Doll.

Cherney, Isabelle D., and Jessica Dempsey. "Young Children's Classification, Stereotyping and Play Behavior for Gender Neutral and Ambiguous Toys." Educational Psychology 30.6 (2010): 651-669. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.

Weisgram, Erica S., Megan Fulcher, and Lisa M. Dinella. "Pink Gives Girls Permission: Exploring the Roles of Explicit Gender Labels and Gender-Typed Colors on Preschool Children's Toy Preferences." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 35.5 (2014): 401-409. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.
