The main point of this paper is to represent the society of the 1970s analyzing the poem “Barbie Doll” which was written by American poet and novelist Marge Piercy in 1973. This poem is important because it represents the unequal structural system that was occurring for women in the United States in 1973. By knowing the historical context that relates to the poem, the reader can better understand the passion that the author felt while she was writing the poem. One of the most important movements that happened during the 1970s was the second-wave of feminism. The first-wave of feminism had pushed for women’s suffrage, culminating with the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote in 1920 (Tavaana). Now, a new generation would take up the call for equality beyond the law and into women’s lives. The author of this poem tries to represent the typical treatments of women in the society but one can also understand her want for change by knowing about the feminism movement. The Sexual Harassment in America and the “Battle of the Sexes” between the tennis players Billie Lean King and Bobby Riggs are by far the most important events that happened in the second-wave of feminism. This historical context helps the reader to understand the emotion behind the poem “Barbie Doll”.

Throughout history women have been treated unequally compared to men. The typical woman in 1973 was destined to get married at twenty, take care of their husband, watch over the kids, and clean the house. On average women were spending fifty five hours per week on domestic chores (Tavaana). On the other hand, men in the 1970s fit the role of being the sole breadwinner and provide their families with financial support. This type of role provided men to have privilege over women. Our society at that time was shaped in such a way that men were going to succeed and women were to be oppressed.

 The economy in the seventies benefited men since the economic activities were based on activities like agriculture or the cattle industry and it required a greater physical effort. This situation made the marriage completely under the control of the husband since he was the person who gave financial support to the family and furthermore, gave the women proper support. In addition, these marriages began to have children very soon to ensure the inheritance of the wealth they had. This led to the reinforcement of women taking care of her husband and their children without the possibility to work. Most of the women were fine with the treatment they had. That is, they knew that their only choice in life would be to form a family that they could take care of, and a house to clean while her husband worked and brought the money home. They did not consider another option since they knew that they could not do anything by themselves. If they tried to look for a job they could not get it because men considered that they did not have the same capacity as them. On the other hand, because the role of women at that time was to raise their kids, any company would not hire them because of their constant absence due to pregnancy.

Even if most of the women were fine with the treatment they were receiving, some of them wanted to do something about it. Before 1973 some women wanted to take action to change the gender roles that were built by our society, but they did not have the role model that they could look up to. Once they had that role model they could feel more powerful to change the situation. This role model came when Billie Jean King was challenged in a tennis match called the “Battle of the Sexes”. Everything started when Robert Larrimore “Bobby” Riggs, who always was making disrespectful comments about women like “they should come back to the kitchen”, challenged Billie Jean King to a tennis match. She was number one at that time and could not reject the challenged since she knew that a lot of her ideals, like the fight for women’s rights and equality between men and women, were at stake. The duel was agreed to be on September 20th of 1973, in the Astrodome Arena Houston, transforming it as the first confrontation between a man and a woman inside of a tennis court (HISTORY). During the game’s promotion, both of them were judging each other, making the match more hard-fought. In the audience there were so many people, some of them famous, there were also companies showing their products, and government official. After a sweeping victory, Billie Jean King won the tennis match. She demonstrated to the world that women are not less than men and that, in her case, tennis does not have to be played by white, rich and men. Instead, she showed other women that women can also play this sport just as well. Long after the match was over, Billie and Bobby had a conversation regarding the match. This conversation was held fifteen days before Bobby died and a man that had misogynistic ideals in the 1970s was now telling Billie the major developments that the match had for women. During the conversation he considered that women should have fought more for their rights in 1973 and hope that more men realize the importance of women rights. 

Now that the reader knows more about this historical context, one can better understand the emotion the author was using when writing the poem. Her emotion is clear when she uses sentences like “This girl child was born as usual/ and presented dolls that did pee-pee/ and miniature GE stoves and irons / and wee lipstick the color of cherry candy” (Marge Piercy, 348). What she wanted the reader to gain from this was that if you are born as a girl, you have a role since that moment that last forever. She is trying to let us see that society designates us as the same kind of person, when we are really different from each other and not all of us have to follow that role. With these four sentences at the beginning of the poem she is also trying to provoke something in women that are reading the poem and at the same time is inciting them to do something about it. Her words did ignite something in women who read the poem, making them feel certain emotions about the box society places us into. We are individuals first, just because we are women and men, does not mean that we must to follow the role society gives to us.

Another important event that happened in the 2nd wave-feminism was the movement to end sexual harassment. For most of American history, sexual coercion was a fact of life for female slaves in the South. In the early 20th century, women employed in new manufacturing and clerical positions confronted physical and verbal assaults from male supervisors. Union leadership was successful in enacting protective legislation that shielded women from performing physically demanding labor, but not from the prepositions of dirty old men bosses, since they were told to quit the job if they could not handle the inevitable sexual advances (Time). Women began to realize that the sexually seducing behavior that occurred on their jobs were dismissed as harmless. Even though they kept fighting against that, the big change came in the mid-1970s, where they created a big campaign against sexual harassment in which women shared personal stories and realized they were not alone in their experiences. When they realized that they were not alone, they started doing things to change the situation. A clear example about this is when a group of activists at a university’s Human Affairs Office formed a group called Working Women United where they shared their stories and revealed that they were victims of masturbatory displays, threats and pressure to trade sexual favors for promotions. After this, eighteen million American females revealed that they were harassed sexually while at work. 

We can now better understand the poem when she starts talking about the transformation of the physical appearance of the girl. It seems like looking pretty and sexual harassment do not have anything in common, but if we think about it, most women that have been sexually assaulted is based on their looks. The author is making the reader see that all what men want in life is to have pretty women that they can have sex with. Since they still think that we do not deserve anything else than the ability to cook, clean and take care of the family. Society has shaped men to think that if a women wants to have success in life, she has to look pretty, we know that this is not true. I deeply think that she, Marge Piercy, achieved what she wanted, which was to have the reader feel anger and an attitude to demonstrate that women can be successful as they are. They also have the capacity to conquer the world without changing their physical appearance. 

After knowing these two important events we can now better understand the emotion of the author writing the poem. She really wanted to change the image of the women in our society. The historical context behind the poem can show the reader that this author, Marge Piercy, is using her poetic talent to be a role model for women to make a change. If the reader did not understand the historical context of the poem, the might not understand this message. Once the reader understand this message, the hope is that a fire has been started with in them to make a change. It is true that our situation has changed a lot compared to the 1970s. Yet, on the other hand, we can still notice that equality between both genders has not been achieved.
