




The poem “Barbie Doll” was written in 1973 during the time period of second wave feminism. Second wave feminism involved issues on political rights, equal rights and a value of opportunities 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 that helps us understand the intensity and importance of this work to help and promote feminism during this time instead of just another random poem that readers skim past.

Stephanie Gilmore review of three books: No Turning Back, Tidal Wave, and Feminism in the Heartland help us understand the history and the importance of feminism. These books describe the feminist agenda and the issues they faced while fighting for their goals. No Turning Back talks about the background and all the “cultural forces” that gave rise to feminism (Gilmore 1). The cultural forces that gave rise to feminism is the timeframe, the area in the world, and the way people react to the changes. Turning Back states, the broadest view on feminism; the broadest view is one that is the most general out of the three books and is about feminism as a whole. 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). This belief of women and men being equal surged feminism and created a path towards equality that we are still building up today. Freedman’s work then discusses the point of how the place and time are important for when feminism started. The history of different feminists didn’t react the same on issues and there were problems between radical and liberal groups, which is still 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) Even though different types of feminists are having problems seeing the same point of views, they are also working together towards common goals. 

Gilmore converses about how Evan’s piece, Tidal Waves, 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. This relates to “Barbie Doll” and how Piercy’s form of feminism and others like her help shape the way feminists and the world look upon women in a better way than they did in the past.

 The review of Feminism in the Heartland by Judith Ezekiel is similar to Evan’s piece, but it talks more about the 1970’s feminism, which just happens to be when “Barbie Doll” was created. Gilmore describes that Ezekiel’s view on feminism is that 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). They changed America by pushing for women equality and now in 2016 we are continuing to get through this process of equality. We haven’t yet completed the process of full equality, but the way women are respected in in this decade than in the past has been an improvement and is still improving. 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. This is relevant to “Barbie Doll” because the issues brought up in the poem are still being debated today. It’s not only Feminism in the Heartland that does this, all 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”, which means the issue feminists faced are still relevant today (1).

The issues that feminists face aren’t just external, but it’s also internal. Not all feminists are the same, there are different groups that are described in Lucas Richert review on Radical Sisters. 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 feminists and liberal feminists is illustrated through the article, but as Valk states “the line separating liberals and radicals are often blurred” and helps us see that even though Piercy is a radical feminist it is tough to read and understand that she actually is a radical feminist without close reading the text or knowing the difference between the two groups. 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). Once you close read the poem after knowing these differences it becomes clear reading that the text states that death is when women are the prettiest according to society and that women are never good enough in life. This poem is not trying to have legal forms, but it is trying to change the perception of women and to free women from societies views of them. 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. This helps readers see that different feminists didn’t have the same goals and that there were different sections of feminism that didn’t completely connect. The articles help us see the differences between these feminists and help readers distinguish between the different groups.

 It becomes clear, through learning about the history and different feminists, that the poem is a deep message for all women and men. “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. 

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.  
