
The 1960’s and 1970’s were defined by a series of cultural revolutions, notably a change in the treatment of women and women’s rights. Women in this time felt more comfortable in fighting for what they believed in, and standing up for their rights. Many artists took a stand of their own. Whether it be Helen Reddy in her song “I Am Woman,” or, for the purpose of this piece, Marge Piercy with the publication of Barbie Doll. This era of feminism was known as “second-wave feminism,” and it focused more on issues involving sexuality, abortion rights, and society’s roles for women. This differed from first-wave of feminism, which focused mainly on suffrage for women. While the first wave of feminism was run by mainly the elite women in America’s cities, second-wave feminism was a true grass-roots movement, with more middle-class women in America taking a stand. It was this factor which truly separated second-wave feminism from any other movement in American history. Piercy’s work represented the past treatment of women in the United States, even after the first wave of feminism, and was used in order to show the growth that the nation needed to take in order for women to be treated as equal in every sense of the word. Gender roles and behavior, the institution of marriage, and a woman’s self-worth in America during the 1960’s and 1970’s, as shown in Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll, helped to shape the second-wave feminism movement.

Society had long cast women into certain roles that were extremely hard to break out of, which mostly meant that women had to stay at home instead of working. If women did work, they were faced with a multitude of challenges that the average male in the workface did not have to face on a daily basis. Piercy began Barbie Doll by recognizing the trap which society set on women from the onset of childhood. Piercy notes how, “This girlchild was born as usual / and presented dolls that did pee-pee / and miniature GE stoves and irons” (lines 1-3). Piercy was very specific when using the word “girlchild.” It created a distinction that women were placed in their roles, even as children. The main character in Barbie Doll was made sure she knew the role of women at such a young age, that she seemingly had no choice but to fulfill that role. Piercy had recognized what the second-wave feminism movement was pointing out, that “society had organized most of its basic institutions on the supposition that caregivers were nonparticipants” (Greenhouse 2043). Women in that time had no room to grow because society’s institutions did not give them the chance. There was little opportunity for women to find a career, and to be given the opportunity to advance in that workplace. In today’s society, it is commonplace for a woman to be successful at her job and advance up the chain over men. That fact in itself shows the effect that second-wave feminism had on the United States. Piercy was making note of how it was now recognized that institutions did not allow women to prosper and grow. The movement that was second-wave feminism pointed out the facts that the rest of society knew, but did not want to face head on. It was this proliferation of the obvious that struck the American people in a way that was new to them, and allowed for the growth of women to break the roles society placed on them that Piercy recognized from the onset of Barbie Doll.

As well, society’s role for women was at its most basic form when it came to marriage. Women in this time were expected to do anything their husbands told them to do. Piercy made that clear when showing that the main character metaphorically “cut off her nose and her legs / and offered them up” (lines 17-18). Piercy is making the statement of how conforming to a husband’s needs no matter what was hindering women’s growth. A woman would sacrifice all, whether it be her nose and her legs, in order to please her husband and do right by him. Throughout the era of second-wave feminism, many women took a stand against marital ties in a very untraditional way. Many were distraught over the lack of power women had in marriage so, “many embraced ‘lesbianism’, preferring to forge romantic, social, and sexual unions with women rather than men. Some lesbian feminists were genuinely gay or bisexual, while others embraced homosexuality more out of conviction than instinct” (Zeitz 679). The use of marrying other women at that time was used in order for women to feel like they were united together in the cause for justice. Women coming together to fight may be the exact reason why second-wave feminism was so successful as a grass-roots movement. It was the uniting of women everywhere in order to stand up for themselves, not having the elite stand up for them. That personal connection for many when it came to the movement helped to make it so successful in reforming the lives of women across the nation. Piercy tapped that connection when it came to her writing of Barbie Doll. She was in touch with the movement and how its strides would change the life of the main character of the poem. Piercy’s work represented the past, and what the second-wave feminism movement was working so hard to change.

 In a similar way, the self-worth of women changed throughout the second-wave feminism movement. Piercy makes it clear in Barbie Doll that the main character, “possessed strong arms and back, / abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity. / She went to and fro apologizing.” (lines 8-10). Piercy shows how women were viewed in the past, no matter how hard the truth was to swallow. If a women was not skinny, beautiful, and adored, society then only looked at the most negative aspects of a women. The second-wave feminism movement took it upon itself to change that. Women deserved to feel confident about their bodies no matter what. This is the main difference from the first wave of feminism, as this new era, “met to discuss issues ranging as far and wide as sexuality and body image… consumer imagery of women” (Zeitz 679). Men never had to face public criticism over their body, yet women faced that issue on a daily basis. Second-wave feminism brought up the topic that many did not want to talk about. Yet, that allowed for society to change the way it acted towards women who may not have looked like a Barbie Doll. Piercy is proving in Barbie Doll that women did care how others thought about them, and that was a part of society that was holding women back from fulfilling their own form of self-actualization. This hindrance of one’s growth was exactly what the second-wave feminism movement wished to rid the nation of.  

In the same manner, as second-wave feminism changed the woman’s image of herself, Piercy noted how in the past, women had been “advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty, / exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle” (lines 12-14). Women seemingly had no control over themselves, they were at the whims of the people around them. As the second-wave feminism movement took hold, it became clear that one way women felt like they could control themselves was through the legal right to an abortion. It was obvious that “women needed control over childbearing in order to participate as equals in work, politics, and other spheres of citizenship” (Greenhouse 2043). Piercy detailed the past in which women essentially did not even have control over their own bodies. Yet what the second-wave feminism movement made clear was that, even if just given that bit of control, it would allow women to gain equality in the rest of society’s fields.

Thus, Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll was the foundation of which the second-wave feminism movement worked. It was the status quo that desperately needed to change. The only way to fully understand the basis for Barbie Doll is to see how society’s norms and values had changed through the second-wave feminism movement. By seeing the outcome of the movement, the reader gets a better idea of the place where Piercy was writing. Society had come a long way in just a few short years, yet the only way to keep growing equality in all forms is to never settle with the status quo.
