Wendy Molyneux and Marge Piercy, both female authors of different generations, use different elements and ways of writing to overall suggest similar ideas regarding how women are viewed in society. While Piercy's writing is aimed more at women's long-lasting self-image and self-esteem problems through telling a story, Molyneux focuses on those topics, as well, but addresses them through ridiculous stereotypes of women that are repeatedly circulated throughout the media and generally throughout the minds of many, particularly men. These pieces speak to one another because they do not directly state the issues of our sexist society, but separately bring up the major problems through either satire and hyperbole, or real life situations. 

In Molyneux's piece, she addresses problems regarding the female gender, like sexism and self-esteem issues, by using elements of satire and hyperbole and through writing only through the actions that a stereotypical woman, according to the media, would perform. She discusses everything from women being the in the kitchen, to women only focusing on their appearance, to cat ladies, all the way to every woman being "in love" with John Stamos. By directly stating these stereotypes, Molyneux indirectly presents the issues that she finds unacceptable within our society. Inversely, Piercy states specific instances   ones that are viewed as societal problems - that many women come across and backs them up by concrete examples of women having those same stereotypes forced upon them. She mentions that the girl in her poem is "presented" with dolls, kitchen appliances, and makeup all before she even hit puberty. It is important that even though these issues are brought into conversation in different manners, the two authors still hit on the exact same stereotypes about the female gender. There are clear reasons why two women of different backgrounds were raised into adulthood focusing on the same problems: because they are prevalent throughout our society.  

Though Piercy's piece focuses on self-esteem, she does connect both of the ideas presented by each author. By titling her poem "Barbie Doll," she ties in elements of stereotypes of women as well as self-image problems that many women have obtained throughout their years. Barbie dolls are generally known to present what people consider to be "the perfect woman," when it is hardly realistic of what real women appear like. When females, typically younger girls, see that this is what an "ideal" woman is to look like, it can cause major self-esteem issues, which is the main point of Piercy's writing   that these issues can cause damage for life. The girl that Piercy speaks of in the poem was a regular child with ideas of high self-worth, but later when she learns she does not look like the dolls she played with, her life was never the same. 

In Molyneux's writing, she makes her piece more authentic and relatable by connecting harsh aspects of reality that women have to experience fairly often, some more than others, by describing them as "crosses we have to bear," insinuating that we must account for the experiences that all women have to live with. Even in a satirical voice, she touches on sensitive subjects, like women having to pay for their own rape kits or PMS. What Molyneux does that Piercy does not is state, without delay, facts about what all women have to deal with, not insecurities with which some women have to deal. Saying this, however, does not undermine things like insecurities in the slightest, it just sheds more light on instances that all women connect with, rather than just a select few. 

Both of these pieces of writing underline the fact that personality and what someone can bring to the table, aside from their appearance, tend to be glazed over or not even considered in many situations. Today, many women of all age are aware of the fact that their appearance is one of the main factors when it comes to what others think of them. Molyneux repeatedly records that she is not even a funny person and would be awful at writing a comedy piece anyway   simply because she is a woman. Piercy adds that despite the girl's good health and intelligence, among other strong qualities, she apologized for everything she did since "everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs." Though Molyneux adds humor to her way of bringing up a serious subject and Piercy adds her thoughts with grim words, both of them can speak to the same message and bring about an awareness of a serious topic. It is important to notice that this topic is clearly worth taking note of, since both authors mentioned it multiple times throughout their pieces. Both Molyneux and Piercy approach the topic differently, but each clarify that women are being told that the fact that they are a woman and the way that they appear or dress is what people will notice and remember, rather than their personal attributes and strengths. Molyneux, though being satirical in voice, brings the sense of seriousness that Piercy writes with when discussing her authentic evidence. The two authors tend to lead with lighter subjects and wording, and then dive into the serious turning points that are meant to get their readers to stop reading and start thinking of the issues at hand, many of which people also recognize, but do not realize that there are ways in which we can end this everlasting problem within our society.

Though Piercy's poem ends tragically, she describes the girl in death as having a happy ending because she is finally being called beautiful. Piercy ascertained that this poem would make readers fired up and angry once they finished the poem, for she progressed so much throughout the poem of this girl having lower and lower self-worth, and once she was finally gone, the people who caused her low self-worth were the same ones who talked nonsense about her being ugly and called her beautiful in death. People see this kind of behavior all of the time, but by Piercy putting into words, the nonsense that people talk when something traumatic, like a death, happens, she opens up another level to her poem that began as addressing a problem revolving self-esteem issues in women. While Piercy discreetly floods readers with strong feelings and thoughts as they read her poem, Molyneux directly talks about those kinds of feelings that women have in a less serious tone, but still does not diminish from their importance, which could be considered a show of how the times have changed throughout the time periods of these pieces of writing.

It is important to consider the time periods in which both of these were written. Piercy's "Barbie Doll" was written a while back in 1971, whereas Molyneux's "I am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece" was merely written six short years ago in 2009. Despite the pieces' thirty-eight-year age gap, the same topics are still being covered. Though there are always exceptions, each piece of writing reflects its own time period in that looking at evidence of other articles and poems, writers were much more serious and straight-forward about their concerns, whereas people of this present time seem to be able to find more humor in serious situations but are still able to present the authenticity of their concern. Through either method, readers can see that the issues they present are genuine concerns. Although there is not a substantial amount of evidence to give away that "Barbie Doll" was written forty years ago simply from reading the poem, "I am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece" clearly shows the times it is referring to   bringing up subjects such as John Stamos, Grey's Anatomy, and eBay. By either having a timeless piece or a piece in a standstill period of time, each author can project their messages onto readers of any age and each one will be able to make some sort of personal connection. For ages, young girls have been playing with dolls and experimenting with red lipstick, like Piercy mentions at the beginning of her poem. And with all of the stereotypes mentioned in Molyneux's piece, there is something that at least every woman can connect with in the slightest. The ability that both authors have, to be able connect with their readers, was used to their best ability and very wisely, at that; for having a connection with a piece about serious topics inclines one to want to change and solve the problem in discussion. Two women doing that, even with nearly forty years in between publishing dates, have the power within their writing to get people to start recognizing and solving issues discussed, varying from stereotyping women, to boosting their self-esteem and letting them know that they are capable of doing good and accomplishing things in the world, just like Molyneux and Piercy have. 

Recognizing the ways in which Wendy Molyneux and Marge Piercy used different stylistic elements and ways of writing to overall suggest similar ideas responding to how women are viewed in society is important when considering the ways in which we, as readers, can respond and hopefully bring a change to the problems they so appropriately addressed. While they did not go about confronting problems in the same way, they were on the same page when it came to focusing themselves on an issue, even decades apart from one another. Clearly, the problems have not yet been solved, which is why it is important to recognize the work that these women and countless others have put forth in order to create a world where women are no longer stereotyped or put down just for being born a "girlchild," as Piercy calls it. Recognizing that Piercy's writing is aimed more directly at women's long-lasting self-image during and after life and Molyneux focuses more on the never ending issue of sexism, these pieces speak to one another because they confront the issues with which need to be spoken about and handled.   

