




The poem “Barbie Doll” was written in 1973 during the time period of second wave feminism. Second wave feminism was issues on the political rights and equal rights and opportunity for women.  The poem has history behind its words and helps us relate that time period to ours. If you read the text of the poem, and don’t know any history of second wave feminism in the time frame; readers might not know what the authors intentions are for the poem and why she would write it. Once researching history behind “Barbie Doll”, you will then have a new understanding of what the text is implying and will help readers understand how second wave feminism and the poem connect through what the writer has been through. The radical version of feminism helps readers see the perspective of the writer and gives the poem a new and deeper meaning.

Stephanie Gilmore wrote a review on three books: “No Turning Back,” “Tidal Wave,” and “Feminism in the Heartland”. All of which illustrate the history of feminism. These books describe feminism throughout the past and the goals they completed. “No Turning Back” talks about the background and all the “cultural forces” that gave rise to feminism (Gilmore 1). Out of the three books that Gilmore talks about, “No Turning Back” states the broadest view on feminism. She then discusses the main points of Freedman’s work and how “Feminism is a belief that women and men are inherently of equal worth” (Freedman 190). Freedman’s work then discusses the point of how the place and time are important for when feminism started. The historical context of feminists didn’t see eye to eye, which is still a little bit of a problem for them today. Freedman states that the “United Nations' International Women's Year meetings feminists are becoming aware of the differences among women's daily living conditions, access to formal political change, and historical cultures.” (108-12) This helps us see, even though different types of feminists are having problems seeing the same point of views, they are also working together towards common goals. Gilmore goes on to talk about Evan’s work “Tidal Waves.” Gilmore converses about how Evan’s piece is different from Freedman’s and that her work discusses history at a single point and how this single point created a “wave” of feminism throughout the end of the 20th century. Gilmore discusses the work and talks about how the century was changed through the activists of feminism. The third book “Feminism in the Heartland” by Judith Ezekiel talks more about the 1970’s feminism. Gilmore describes that Ezekiel’s view on feminism during this time is a little different and instead of the view of feminism dying out in the mid 70’s, she believes it flourishes and continues throughout the timeframe with Dayton Women’s Liberation (DWL). Evans helps people see that feminists “changed America at century’s end-and are continuing to do so, both in the United States and beyond.” (193). “Feminism in the Heartland” illustrates that the women of the past affected the present and goes into depth about the second wave of feminism and its results. These articles discuss feminism in the past and how it relates to the future and Gilmore even states “we see how feminism changes across both time and space.” (1)

Lucas Richert wrote a review on “Radical Sisters” which talks about the different organizations for feminism. She uses the book to discuss how there are differences in feminists and the different actions they take to complete their goals. The difference between radical and liberal feminists is illustrated through the article, but as Valk states “the line separating liberals and radicals are often blurred” (8). The liberal feminists “wanted legal and statutory reform.” while the radical feminists “wanted to free women” and “in some instances advocated the toppling of America’s capitalistic economy to terminate patriarchy, racism, and imperialism, thereby creating conditions in which an inclusive democracy would blossom” (Richert 8). This strongly relates to the poem with the writer being radical. Now we are able to start seeing a different view of the poem through the eyes of the author. Then the article talks about the ways different feminists felt about society and how it should be fixed. Valk also talks about the lesbian feminists and the Black Power feminists. During the black power era, “most black power activists reacted negatively to organized feminism.” (Valk 11) black women were trying to advance “gender equality through racial oppression.” (Valk 11) Than the story describes lesbian feminism and how they changed feminist philosophy. This helps readers see that feminists weren’t all together and that there were different sections of feminism that didn’t completely connect and the article helps us see the differences between them.   

 Researching history helps people recognize the messages in stories. “Barbie Doll” was a poem that was written in 1973 during the middle of second wave feminism. On the surface, the poem just seemed like a girl that got bullied after puberty and killed herself because she didn’t have “beauty.” But there is more to “Barbie Doll” than just that summary. The history behind second wave feminism helps us understand the poems underlying meaning. Once the reader gets an understanding of the history behind the poem, “Barbie Doll” becomes a story about women as a whole and how they aren’t treated as equals. As the story begins, the girl that is born is completely normal and doesn’t have any problems. Once the poem goes towards her teenage years and the girl goes through puberty, she begins to get made fun of. This part of the story is significant to the second wave of feminism and helps readers see that this is the point where women begin to get judged. Piercy also states that the girl is intelligent and healthy, yet the girl gets made fun of for how she looks. By the time the poem is coming to an end the girl kills herself and that is when cosmetics is put on her and now in death she looks “pretty.” The ending to the story “to every woman a happy ending” is a strong message to all women during the time period (Piercy 349). The message that Piercy is saying to all women is too stand up and fight for equality or you will end up with this fake happy ending. Without the history behind those words, readers wouldn’t know who she is writing that for and why.

“Tidal Wave” and “Feminism in the Heartland” both help relate to the timeframe of feminism during the 70’s and how the author of the poem felt during the second wave of feminism. Once reading the article that Stephanie Gilmore wrote, I can understand that the author was in the middle of change and wanted to write a radical piece to keep the wave of feminism continuing. The article that Lucas Richert wrote also helps us understand the differences between radical and liberal feminists. We learn that the author of the poem is more of a radical feminist than liberal which helps us understand her perspective. The reader can now see, through the understanding of history and the authors perspective, that the poem is about how women needed to stick up for themselves and that they needed to show both men and women how wrong it is to judge someone by appearance. 

Written text can have a different perspective once the history behind the text is understood. As we can see in the poem “Barbie Doll” the history of second wave feminism helped us understand the perspective of the author and the meaning of the poem. The meaning of the poem was to all women and that there needed to be change. But did this poem have any change during the time and did it affect us in the present? The poem changed both women and men’s perspective of women’s rights and helped continue the goal of equality for all, which is still relevant today. We now know history helps us understand stories, but we also know that stories help us understand history.  

