From a very young age, children are taught about gender roles and social expectations. Children's toys play a critical role in teaching these stereotypes. The plastic Barbie doll exemplifies the image of sexuality and gender roles in not only today's society but also back in the late 20th century. The Barbie doll changed social expectations of women and the implications of its image of sexuality and gender roles are embodied in the poem by Marge Piercy. In today's culture, society has painted an impossible portrait of the ideal woman, and has thus created the high rise in negative self body image in adolescent women that continues throughout their lifetime, which can lead to drastic measures such as plastic surgery. 

Around 1959, the Barbie doll was introduced to the U.S. and it became very popular among girls. As its popularity started to rise, it sparked controversy among mothers because of the doll's deliberate stance on feminism and sexuality, which creates impossible women standards to live up to. Later in the 20th century, around the 1970s, not only were the mothers around the country concerned but also second-wave feminists started protesting the Barbie doll. The protests were all about the Barbie doll expressing sexist stereotypes, racism, and unrealistic body image. It was around this time period that Marge Piercy wrote and published Barbie Doll. Second wave feminism played a critical role in shaping Marge Piercy's ideals as she was writing her poem. According to Linda Gordon in the New Labor Forum, the distinctive mark of second wave feminism was "its view that autonomous structures of gender, race, and class all participated in constructing inequality and exploitation" (Gordon 22). Therefore, women saw the Barbie doll as a threat to their womanhood because it dehumanized women and subjected them to inequality. The second-wave feminism was a hard period for women across the U.S. fighting for equality in the work force. Therefore, the introduction of the Barbie doll was considered an extra struggle for women to achieve perfection. Women were very critical towards the Barbie doll, because they looked at the doll as a symbol of a working girl with success and fabulous clothing; in other words, exactly what women in this period were struggling to achieve. In her poem, Marge Piercy uses the Barbie doll to describe how girls from a very young age are made aware of different stereotypes. In the poem, Marge Piercy writes "...and presented to dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipstick the color of cherry candy" (Piercy 194). Girls are presented with a Barbie doll that can both urinate and own material things such as miniature GE stoves and irons. The miniature GE stoves and irons symbolize a stereotype for a woman's tasks in the house. They have to take care of cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry. Also, they have to look good while they do it. Young girls are also introduced to wee lipsticks with the same color as cherry candy through the dolls. This symbolizes that women have to look good at the same time, and the lipstick also represents how a woman can be sexy or charming. The Barbie doll teaches girls at a very young age that not only do they have to take care of all the housework, but they also must radiate beauty while doing it.

 Because of the introduction of the Barbie doll, women had to live up to the new standards of being a woman. Not only did they have to make an adjustment to society but society did not accept them if they did not make the adjustment. During puberty, when the playtime and dolls were over, a young girl goes through a major transition: from girl to woman. In the poem it is written: "Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy 194). When going through this transition society, in this case a classmate is making aware that the girl is different from the new stereotype of a woman, and therefore she needs to change or adjust. Throughout the poem, the girl is made aware that she is different, and this results in a change of her look. By explaining this, Marge Piercy makes a good example of how society and such a simple thing as a doll can shape a society's expectation about gender roles. 

In a time where women were struggling to get out of the house, away from nurturing and cleaning, Barbie was introduced and it created protests around the society. The Barbie doll became a role model for girls to look up to. The doll symbolizes how a girl should look and be. This symbol is a central theme in the story of Marge Piercy. Girl's perception of how to look was a result of the Barbie doll, and society's look at women changed quickly. If girls did not have similar shaping as the doll, especially during puberty, they were made aware of it as shown in the poem when it states "Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy 194). Society began to see a sizeable increase in cosmetic surgeries, such as plastic surgery and Botox. The dramatic change of body image and shape through surgery performed by educated doctors was a result of a change in social expectations regarding women. In this period, women had to adjust society's expectations to fit in and struggle for equal opportunities. 

As a second-wave feminist, Piercy looked to focus on social and cultural barriers to equal opportunity. One of the biggest questions that arises in the poem is what does it mean to be truly beautiful. Piercy looks at plastic surgery as a symbol of the death of one's natural beauty. In the poem it is written, "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. Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending" (Piercy 194). This depicts a woman lying on a surgery table ready to go through surgery because of her appearance. The way the author describes this situation using terms like casket, cosmetics painted-on, dressed in a nightie, and consummation at last all gives the reader a picture of death. The casket symbolizes the hospital's gurney, the undertaker's cosmetics are the surgeon's surgical markings, and dressed in a pink and white nightie represents a hospital gown. The surgical team looking down on the woman represents society telling women what beauty and happiness is, much like the Barbie doll does to little girls in the same way. The big question about natural beauty is also shown in the poem, where it is written: "She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity... Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs" (Piercy 194). By stating this, Marge Piercy claims that the girl in the poem possess everything that society used to consider as natural beauty: healthy, intelligence women with a natural sexual drive. All that does not matter if these elements of natural beauty are not what is expected of woman in a society. Society looks past all these elements and only focus on the outside because of the way the Barbie doll looks. Women had to offer their natural beauty to be accepted. 

Social expectations played a critical role in shaping women back in the late 20th century. How a woman was supposed to look changed dramatically when the introduction of the Barbie doll took place, and the doll became a major influence on stereotypes. Already in a very young age, young girls started to learn these stereotypes, which sooner in their lives lead to a negative self-body image and eventually dramatic body changes such as plastic surgery.   
