
In the 1960s the image of women was changing. Through “Barbie Doll”, we learn the stereotypical things that little girls are “supposed” to be doing or playing with. Often when children are growing up someone will say something about their appearance.  When something is said to children they might take it to heart and try to change the things that are “wrong” with them. Often it is much harder than that. Through “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy it is important to understand images of women.

Children growing up during the 1960s and today are expected to act a certain way. “This girl child was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee” (348). This little girl was given these toys because they are what girls are supposed to play with. On the other hand, little boys are meant to play with toys like cars and trucks, if they fall they are expected to just up and “man up”. So, little girls on the other hand are usually raised to wear dresses, play with dolls, and not play in the dirt. Many things contribute to this ideology for the generations growing up. With this there are also certain ways that children believe that they are supposed to look. One thing that contributes to the way that girls believe they should look are Barbies.  Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll explains what little girls get as it is what they are supposed to get. The children get no choice what they get to play with, dolls or trucks.

When little girls play with Barbies they see the shape of their body. The shape that Barbie has is unattainable. If Barbie was an actual person, she would display problems such as anorexia. So, if she displayed these problems as a human, the little girls that want to grow up to look just like her have the same problems that she would have as an actual person. Because Barbie is not an actual person, children do not see the problem with wanting to become her. They cannot physically see the problems that she would have as a person. If she were a person, I believe that she would not like the body that she was in. She is much different than most women of the time (Brown, Knight).

Body image is something that many children have to face. “She was healthy, tested intelligent…Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (348). Growing up, children really do not notice things like what their body looks like. In Dittmar, Hlliwell, and Ive’s research, “Barbie Make Girls Want to Be Thin? The Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5- to 8-Year-Old Girls,” they experiment on girls to see how they react and what their reactions are to Barbies. They got a lot of different responses from each age, the older ages notice the body image more than the younger ages. Through the research, they learned that Barbies and other images actually do affect the images that children have.

Barbies are not the only things that create problems for women on body image. Advertisements also create problems like this. The women that they put in the advertisements are beyond what any women can look like. They are behind special lights and the product is displayed in a way that is not normal. Often sellers do this so the consumer will buy more of the product because if they have/use more it will work better. This often happens with the age of women also. A product will be used on a younger woman and the older generation that wants to use that product also feels in a way that they are not good enough to use the product. As they do not look the same way as the younger people who are in the advertisements.

In the 1960s, women’s body image became a bigger thing. This is because of the rise of second wave feminism. Second wave feminism was the wave of feminism that occurred in the 1960s. Through the feminist movement feminist were aiming for equality between men and women. Often during this time men and women were not treated fairly. They were not paid the same and seen as not the same, there were many roles that women were not allowed to have. Ideals like this gave women ideas that they were not good enough. If they were not good enough to be in the community do things they believed they were not good enough for themselves. They wanted to change the way that they looked. Often when you think of women of any time-period there is a stereotypical person that you think of. That person is usually the person that most people are trying to become.  

Feminist believed that everyone, men and women, should be treated fairly. It did not mater their background or what they looked like. Feminist wanted women to be comfortable with who they were, what they were doing and how they looked. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is about body image of women and how women are supposed to act. “Barbie Doll” lays out exactly what little girls get as children and how they are then treated when they get older. When children go through middle school, their peer and themselves start to notice things both their bodies like the sizes were different. Through understanding body image of women, the reader should be able to understand “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy.
