The poem, “Barbie Doll”, by Marge Piercy, created an a awareness of the patriarchy that controlled the United States and guided the way its citizens valued women and equality. In the 1970s, women did not feel as though they had the freedom and rights that they deserved. The second wave of Feminism Movement was happening during this time period. Women felt they deserved to be looked at for more than just their physical appearance and what they could do in house. Society put them into the stereotype of wife and mother. In the poem “Barbie Doll”, author Marge Piercy creates a voice against society’s way of valuing women only for their appearance and ability to do housework. 

During the 1970s, it was a turbulent time for women in America. Women have been put into a role almost as soon as they are born. Women were being trained at an early age to be housewives by toys they are given. Piercy states, “…and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons” (2-3).  Marge Piercy chose stoves, irons, and dolls because this is how she was raised when she was little in the time period. This is a way of how society wanted women to be; their roles were to be housewives and to look like pretty dolls. It was common to teach these things through childhood toys. In the 1970s, society was not open to women working outside the home. This was one of the main reasons that the second wave of the Feminist Movement was created. Author Amelia Richard’s viewpoint of the 1970s could be captured as saying, “Women struggled to be taken seriously, to be more than just pretty faces and pin-up girls. They wanted to be defined by their minds rather than their bodies” (196). The author is saying that women no longer were satisfied with the roles that were forced on them. They wanted more than looking like a doll or being able to do good housework. This was the very fight that feminists set out to overcome, striving for progress to be made for women intellectually, instead of just physically. 

While body image and sexuality was a large focus of third wave feminism, women seemed to become more aware and outspoken on the issue in the second wave. As Marge shows a developmental progression of “Barbie Doll”, the focus from growing up as a child shifts to puberty and society’s expectations of how females should look as teenagers. The fact that Barbie was physically looking different than the societal expectations of a girl her age set her life up for a different course of events. Suddenly, the poem shifted from stereotypical things that a young girl should desire, like lipstick and playing house with stoves, onto an element of sexuality and physical demeanor. She felt the pressure to fit in, even to the point where she felt like she had to apologize for her “thick legs and fat nose”, creating a mental barrier for her to struggle because she did not fit in with others or what society told her she should look like (6). In the times of today, thick legs would have been desirable, but in those times during the 1970s she was looked down upon and pushed to try and change how she looked. 

Society drew attention to her flaws instead of celebrating her uniqueness. Her everyday actions were impacted to the point where she had to intentionally hide who she was because of how society described her physical appearance, relentlessly pursuing the skinny girl that society made to seem as the ‘it girl.’ For example, Piercy states, “exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” meaning those were the things society directed women to do; they were the things that she usually focused her life around, when she should have normally been free to do as she pleased as she grew up (15). Society makes women think that exercising and dieting are things that women should focus on and nothing more than that; this gives women an unrealistic goal to try and achieve, setting their sights on the look that society portrays as beautiful.

The pressure to physically meet the society’s standards pushed her to a point to make her think she could not live any longer with the pressure. The line in the poem that states, “So she cut off her nose and her legs”, means that she went through a lot of pain during this time period because men were describing her flaws and it gave her that idea to physically kill herself so she would not have to go through the life she was living (18). A woman should not have to go through life like that because everyone, including men, have flaws too, yet during this time period, men were over everything and it did not matter because society thought that men deserve to do anything that they wanted. The unfortunate truth is that visuals of a person matter, as author Amelia Richards states, “We use our appearance – bodies, clothing, style – to express our inner convictions, our pride, our affiliations, our identities, our insecurities and our weaknesses. In a generation focused on identity issues – and unafraid to show them to the public – our bodies, and how we adorn them, can express who we are” (198-199). When a female’s body does not line up with societal expectations and stereotypes, even though she is expressing who she is, she often times experiences harsh judgment, forcing her to feel badly about the difference in how she looks compared to stereotypes. Some stronger women use this as fuel to find progress, while others cannot overcome the pressure, as we see Barbie in the article struggle. 

The cycle of the stereotypes of the physical attributes continued even after her death as she had makeup and nice clothes on when being buried in her casket. In the book, Piercy talks about how people thought she finally looked pretty in the coffin (23). Even after her death, the goal of beauty and physical attributes haunted her, eventually having her achieve this status after she killed herself for the very thing she was striving to obtain. In addition, this book describes how a woman has to physically get rid of the parts that society judged her on and actually drive her mind to make her mentally and physically kill herself, finally finding escape. Though this seems extreme, some women experience this level of pressure when they are unable to meet society’s stereotypical expectations for a woman. 

Some women, will essentially ‘kill themselves’ to fit the standards of society. This can be physical such as the woman in the poem, or it can be metaphorical. Women will go to great lengths to look the way they want no matter the financial or emotional cost. Authors Susan Shaw and Janet Lee make this point by stating, “Self objectification, seeing ourselves through others’ eyes, impairs women’s body image. At the same time that young girls are sexualized and objectified by contemporary media, they also learn that their body is a project that must be altered before they can attract others” (193). Beyond having low levels of self-esteem, this poem brings out issues far beyond self-image, but can be connected to relationship issues due to females having low levels of self-esteem and settling for any partner that may show attention. As we saw with Barbie, these issues do not necessarily start at an older age, but even when the schemes of females are oriented at birth, sometimes those run deeper. A 2011 study found that by age 6, girls start to express issues about their weight or shape; about half of all elementary school girls (ages 6 to 12) are worried about their weight and getting fat (Shaw & Lee 200). It’s not surprising that girls have such self-esteem issues at a young age given that they are told almost from birth how they are to present themselves based on the look of a doll.

All in all, “Barbie Doll” speaks a lot about the body issues that haunt females from a very young age. The impact of society not only tells females what they should stereotypically look like, but then society pushes them to try and achieve this status, even though it is not likely for most people to look like the societal model that is in the media. Because this pursuit of perfection is not achievable for most, this mentally causes pressure and stress on some females, leaving them always basing their life around how they could look better; some cannot stand it to the point where they feel the pressure is too great and have to end their lives to escape it. Feminism has made some progress over the years, but altogether, women need to find a status that is equal to men, where they are judged on their capabilities instead of just physical attributes.  
