       In the poem “Barbie Doll,” Marge Piercy tells a sad and tragic story of a young girl who seems to have ordinary childhood, but then struggles with her self image as an adolescent from which she is ultimately never able to recover.   The language and phrases of Piercy’s poem at first reading may occasionally seem random and even contradictory.  For example, at the end of the poem, as the girl lies dead in a casket with people in attendance of the funeral commenting on how pretty she looks, Piercy ends with the quote “[t]o every woman a happy ending.”    However, when one realizes that “Barbie Doll” was written in the early 1970’s at a time when women were rebelling against American society’s practice of strong gender stereotypes and expectations, it becomes clear that Piercy was not just writing the story of one girl’s random experience in isolation, but rather the “girl” becomes the face of many girls whose identity and self worth were molded and shaped by a society’s opinion of what they should be, what they should look like and even how they should feel and behave.     

 Even before reading the poem, the title “Barbie Doll” contains historical meaning that the reader must have outside knowledge of to fully understand. The Barbie Doll is an iconic toy that is played with by millions of girls around the world from a young age. The generic Barbie Doll is tall, slim and shapely and often has blonde hair, blue eyes and light skin. As a girl grows up playing with the doll, it’s appearance can instill unrealistic ideas about what a woman should look like. Piercy names her poem after the Barbie Doll knowing that people will make this connection. The idea that the doll creates unrealistic expectation for women also connects directly to Piercy’s message in this poem. There are also references to other toys that the reader must have outside knowledge of to fully understand the poem. For example, in the second line of the poem, Piercy writes “dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.” Piercy includes the references to these toys from the mid-1900s to further her point about society putting pressures on women to act a certain way, starting from the time they are very young children and in a manner that may not may not even realize.  All of these toys have some connection to women being seen as the person in the family who takes care of the home opposed to having her own career, which was the social norm and even taught in the schools until recent decades.   By including these specific toys, Piercy draws the connection between gender related childhood toys and their direct connection in how pervasive and entrenched society’s gender stereotypes were at the time.    

Her sarcastic tone and underlying anger become understandable when it becomes evident that through this poem Piercy is really criticizing all parts of the American society for imposing and promoting, intentionally or not, these false ideas that the ideal woman should keep themselves pretty, act demure and strive to be a homemaker, without giving the young girl, adolescent or woman the and environment to discover, embrace and grow into her own individual person.    In an in-depth research paper published in 2012 by Vanessa Martins Lamb, she states, “[a]fter the Second World War, marriage was the main goal for girls; family life was their major aspiration, and the manifestation of a “perfect” existence” (Lamb, 1).  “Have dinner ready, prepare yourself, prepare the children, minimize all noise, be happy to see him, listen to him, make the evening his”, here is what young women learned at school in the 1950’s in America. Thanks to “Home Economics High School Text Book” of 1954 (1), it was possible to discover how to be an ideal housewife, the woman for whom the maintenance of the house and the well-being of the family were fundamental priorities (Lamb p. 1).

       Even though the message of the poem argues against gender stereotypes, the poem itself relies on the reader having some sort of stereotypical gender associations, or at least have knowledge of what these associations are. The aforementioned toys that young girls are given follow the stereotype that a woman should take care of the children, cook and clean. Also, at her funeral the woman is dressed in pink, which at the time of the poems creation was generally a color almost exclusively worn by women. In the casket, the woman is dressed in a nightie or lingerie. This seems like very odd attire for someone to be wearing on their deathbed but Piercy wants to draw attention to the way society sexualizes women and that the girl can’t escape the judgement of others, even on her deathbed.

In the second stanza of the poem, Piercy concentrates on the girl’s appearance by first acknowledging the girl’s many positive traits by stating, “[s]he was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.”  However, she then states these qualities don’t seem to matter because the girl continues to apologize for her appearance and “[e]veryone saw a fat nose on thick legs.” The reader may wonder why the girl must continually apologizes for the way she is if she contains so many positive qualities. An understanding of the societal views on beauty and worth helps the reader clarify this. While the girl may possess numerous positive qualities, these can be overshadowed by the appearance of the girl. Although this may seem strange, the society of the mid-1900s, and even up today, seems to value superficial qualities of a person over those that are truly important.

Piercy continues in the third stanza by focusing more on the personality traits of the girl. Piercy writes “[s]he was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise diet, smile and wheedle.” The fact that the girl was advised to act this way insinuates that perhaps this is not what she would naturally do.  The advice to act this way likely came from society as this behavior was considered normal for a woman during this time period. The girl does not seem to act this way for herself but instead to please others.  Piercy continues the stanza by writing “[h]er good nature wore out like a fan belt.” The girl tries desperately to be what society wants her to but in the end, succumbs to the pressure of being someone that she is not. Piercy draws attention to what can happen to a person when society tries to mold and shape them into what it thinks is “normal.” At this point in the poem, Piercy is not just referring to the situation that the girl is in, but to that of many girls who feel the same way. 

The last stanza of the poem details the funeral of the girl. Piercy writes “with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on, a turned-up putty nose, dressed in a pink and white nightie. Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said.” Even though a Barbie Doll isn’t mentioned in the poem, the girl appears to have become the Barbie Doll of which the poem is named after. Piercy draws a disturbing connection between the Barbie Doll and the girl. The girl ends up in a box, wearing makeup and everyone is admiring her beauty.  With this connection, Piercy insinuates that women of this time period were sometimes treated more like objects than actual people. However, the understanding of the historical context of the time period is critical for this deeper understanding of the text.  

“In reality American social culture at the time was entirely based on the family. In that respect, the social organization relied on the traditional notions of the male and female role in the family: it was a model of community based on stereotypes” (Lamb 10). The historical gender stereotypical roles, especially as they relate to women, in the mid 1900’s bring great insight and perspective to Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll.”   The poem’s sometimes random and contradictory passages begin to make sense when read in context of a young girl’s coming of age at a time when society had such defined expectations and views of women’s roles.   What at first glance appears to be an isolated story about one girl’s individual 

life experience, takes on a much larger stage and illustrates the profound and tragic effect that the pressures of society can have on an entire group of people.
