
Along with the continuation of time and evolution of the female figure and sexuality, an unspoken standard has always hovered the mind of young adult females. Combining clothing trends and the broadening of the media and broadcasting industries, the ideal figure for a woman has been drilled into the minds of many, including aging female young adults. The latest generation has popularized the now famous Barbie doll, widespread in homes all over. To grow up playing with this aesthetically perfect doll that has been distributed all across homes in the nation, has resulted in a strong desire to look like and have the figure of the Barbie doll. The attempt for young girls to attain the thin Barbie doll figure creates problems that linger for years. The Barbie doll forms an image in a girl’s mind of what she should look like as she grows up. The poem “Barbie Doll” by Margie Piercy criticizes the way younger girls are pressured to looking and acting a certain way. The articles “The Power of Being Thin” by Beth Younger and “The Girls that Do Not Eat” by Tsai Chun support Piercy’s claim by changing the way the poem is read through giving important details as to how reaching the Barbie standard has often unseen negative effects on children’s health and mental state. 

Many young girls see all the Barbie dolls perfect features and grow up desiring to achieve this look. The drive for this originates from a male perspective. Given the patriarchal rule in each household, women have always felt the need to please their husband or attract a potential one. With men traditionally earning the money for the family, comes the demeaning contest to attract a potential husband to start a family with. This has grown into a sexual attraction for the female figure, resulting in the widely desired and popular female image. Beth Younger writes in an NWSA Journal in the Indiana University Press that seeing many actresses and models all over media, girls want to grow up to look just like the “role models” that appear on television. The role models are also supported by their significant others (Younger 3). After reading the article, one can conclude that the scrutiny of the girl with a fat nose and fat legs is because of media influence and glamorization of Hollywood stars, because of the role model figures that they play in young children’s lives. The idea of a perfect figure and female image starts to form as their unknowing young minds attain more and more information relating to how one girl’s own body should look. Each day making mindful decisions and subconscious notes on how to look like what they see on TV, in magazines, at fashion shows. With that being said the poem can be read with the knowledge that young school girls follow trends and as a result they follow the figure trends that are often fake or unattainable, like those in the movies and magazines. In school, the books they read and pictures they see, create positive and negative feelings towards certain images and different forms of sexuality. Younger describes how rarely is a man’s sexuality and figure described nearly to an extent the way a female is, and how there is a wider range of male figures accepted. In the Barbie poem, Piercy takes a girl with so many good traits going for her, and with the simple judgement of other young girls who don’t understand the effects that highlighting her imperfections has on her, has everything good destroyed in the process of trying to look like she “should” and conform with the Barbie look. This creates anger for the reader towards all those putting certain girls under these social pressures, knowingly or not.In the journal many young adult fiction texts are exemplified to show how even authors tend to write about this standard, as thin girls with symmetrical faces are shown to have higher confidence, intelligence, and sexual control. However heavier set girls tend to be described as promiscuous, low self-esteem, and overall lesser humans. “Her good nature wore out like a fan belt.” (Piercy 15-16) To meet the criteria pointed out by her young classmates, the girl sacrificed the great things about her to get the Barbie doll look. Younger describes how after the initial judgement, even as girls lose weight, they tend to not be satisfied as they have self-check-ups to see if they are meeting the Barbie standard. Any imperfection gets noticed and thought of as a bad thing or a look that a young girl might try to avoid. Sadly, most of the time, a female gets judged based on her looks before any other interaction ensues. While a girl might have a great personality, be smart, or charismatic, some or even many aren’t given a chance because of their external imperfections that don’t conform with the standard. Whether most people admit it or not, they could look at a girl and rattle off the things that don’t follow the norm of what most, young and confident girls look like. This shown in the poem at a young age, a sensitive age, causes self-critique and dissatisfaction.

The desire to be just like the women they see creates many problems in the development and mental states of a young girl, at the point in her life where she is trying to figure out where to go and what to do. Beginning in the classrooms of primary school, the ongoing desire for the perfect female image continues. As described by Piercy, a girl might end up achieving the look of a Barbie doll, but loses everything she has on the inside. The description of her in a casket is a reference to the loss of what really matters, her self-preservation and dignity. The judgement begins at a young age, where one young girl may unknowingly insult another girl, creating this perfectionist culture amongst aging girls.  In The Girls Who Do Not Eat by Tsai Sin Chun, Chun describes how eating disorders result from a power struggle between oneself and society, damaging aspects of self. (Chun 2) Like in the poem the judgement continues to spread, “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs.” (Piercy 5-6) The demeaning nature and non-acceptance of anything other than perfection, creates many issues starting even earlier than many could imagine. Beginning in the classrooms of primary school, the ongoing desire for the perfect female image continues. In the poem the girl cuts off her nose and legs, as this may refer to fat, it has another meaning relating to self-harm. The social pressures have led to self-harm and displeasure, which results in a changing of the reading to a deeper knowledge of what goes down behind the scenes in the girls lives. Chun describes how the self-dissatisfaction beginning at an early age can create this self-harm, such as when a girl doesn’t see progress in her figure or weight loss. Given the article, the lines “Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending.” are now read with much stronger scrutiny The poem also refers to the fact that while this girl is caked up with makeup, and everyone “approves” of her look now, her internal pains are great. Chun shows that there is not a strong correlation between having a quiet personality, and self-problems, or having an outgoing personality and being very confident. The two are mixed and the wide spectrum of personality can all yield self-dissatisfaction. Chun also writes how anorexia and other eating disorders are, “…showing mastery over one’s life.” (Chun 5) The girl is described as fat in the poem, and obviously eating is a human need for energy, and health. Chun describes how eating has twisted into a negative connotation, reflecting one’s self control and sexuality. It has changed from a natural instinct for survival, to a choice of look for many females. In the poem the “overweight” girl is already happy, however when she forces herself to diet and not eat, she has to fake be happy, as one came with the sacrifice for the other trait. The unhappiness of one’s image and figure, can easily be set off balance by other’s words. However happy a girl may be the social pressure to achieve the Barbie doll look can quickly dominate her life, and everything else that is going good for her might be sacrificed, and in the end she becomes sad.

The girl in the Barbie doll poem represents a common social problem, the outside norm and stereotypes for an “attractive” girl can quickly grasp control of a self-conscious girl’s life. The journals support the Barbie poem stating the internal sacrifice that occurs when a girl tries to reach this perfect physique. The accepted standard of a female figure is widespread even through children’s toys, causing girls to not understand the effects on others, and even on themselves. The media and authors only continue the individual self-doubt that girls who don’t reach the Barbie figure have. 
