Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” is a literary work that provides a creative view on feminist roles in 1970’s America. The poem tells the chronological life story of a girl who although is born healthy, smart and strong, is critiqued for the physical attributes of herself that she cannot control. This strongly feministic piece portrays an argument to the standards for beauty and the homemaking qualifications that women were expected to uphold in the early 1970’s. The scholarly analysis article “Trends in United States Men’s and Women’s Sex-Role Attitudes: 1972 to 1978” by Andrew Cherlin and Pamela Walters provides a historical view on the change of women and men’s attitudes involving gender roles in the late 70’s. While the book “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan is a discussion on the expectations that women had to live up to and the barriers that they had to overcome as feminists. Both the article and passages from the book provide a historical context that brings more factual information to the poem by Piercy, which in turn makes it more of a reputable source for an insight to feminism in the 1970’s.

In the scholarly analysis article “Trends in United States Men’s and Women’s Sex-Role Attitudes: 1972 to 1978”, co-authors Andrew Cherlin and Pamela Walters analyze the change in the attitudes of women and men regarding gender roles. This article provides a detailed analysis of the general feelings of the American public between the years of 1972 to 1978, all of which is backed by research, surveys and statistics. The authors discuss how during the 1960’s there is an increase in a less traditional view of sex-roles from both men and women, showing a more diversified view on feminism. It is suspected that this change in view was a result of protests accompanied by the Vietnam war and an all around emotional shift in the views and feelings of people in the United States. After war ended, the United States was not in a good economic position, which was accompanied by a decrease in efforts to promote feminism and desegregation because of the conservative push on the US. Authors Cherlin and Walters analyzed the results of surveys, which asked questions such as “Do you approve or disapprove of a married woman earning money in business if she has a husband capable of supporting her?” (Cherlin, 454) and “Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Women should take care of running their homes and leave running the country up to men”. (Cherlin, 454) The results of these surveys were separated into four categories: white men, black men, white women and black women. The white women and black women had the highest and ever increasing support of the questions, the numbers rising year by year. The percentage of white men supporting the questions started lower than the white women, but as the years went up they also increased, just never as high as the women’s percentage. Most of the change from traditional to nontraditional views occurred from 1972 to 1975, and at some points the white men were more supportive of women's rights than even the white women were. For example, regarding the question of whether someone would be willing to vote for a woman president over a male, the white men had a higher percent of support than the white women. Cherlin and Walters analysis of the information that they collected and analyzed resulted in an increasing trend of the support for feminism from 1972 to 1978.

 Andrew Cherlin and Pamela Walters analysis on gender roles in their article “Trends in the United States Men’s and Women’s Sex-Role Attitudes: 1972 to 1978” supports the views depicted in Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll”, which provided a creative outlet for her opinion on second wave feminism in the 1970’s. Piercy’s poem was written in 1973, a time when there was an increased focus on women's rights and feminism in the United States. The poem tells a chronological story of a girl who is born healthy and normal, but as she grows up there is an increased focus on how big her nose and legs are. At the beginning of each stanza, Piercy talks about how the girl is maturing, bringing up her qualities of intelligence, sex drive and good nature, but at the end of the stanza the physical aspects of the girls big nose and big legs are brought up. This portrayal of a woman, focusing on the physical attributes that are uncontrollable instead of the accomplishments and personality of her is a very clear depiction of sexism in the 1970’s. Once a reader is aware of the time period in which the poem was written, it becomes very apparent that “Barbie Doll” was written to be part of the pro feminism movement. Piercy was influenced by her life as a women in the 1970’s and the fight that she saw around her. As analyzed in Cherlin and Walters article, the view on women's rights from women compared to men from 1972 to 1978 varies completely. The men at the beginning of this period were less inclined than the women to be in support of women's rights. The women, on the other hand, started out strong and as the years went on they became even more unified and passionate on their belief in feminism. This article supports Piercy’s poem in that it provides evidence that there was a struggle in women’s ability to put behind the time when the focus was only on image and learning on how to focus on creating a family, and move to an era where women were praised for their intelligence, health and strength. 

    The book “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan brings a different voice to the discussion of feminism, predominantly in the 1970’s. Friedan’s writings in this book are her thoughts and the opinions of others post the brand new empowerment of women in the late 1900’s. Friedan herself was a suburban housewife who was also a wrote for a newspaper, which she was fired from after becoming pregnant. Another issue Friedan had in her personal life in addition to that event of discrimination in the workplace was her male bosses control over her writing, saying that “American women won’t identify” with articles on things that American women would clearly identify with. (Friedan 19) The author discusses how at one point women in the United States had such a passive voice in terms of their own rights and beliefs, but as the feminist movement came into being, most women shifted from feeling like their lives were set in stone and planned out for them by men, to a feeling of self empowerment. Women in the mid 1900’s were defined as “only in sexual relation to men-man’s wife, sex object, mother, housewife-and never as persons defining themselves by their own actions in society.” (Friedan 18) During this time in the United States women were seen as sex objects, and a means to have children, in regards to this Friedan said “media, ads and movies may still try to define women as only or mainly sex objects” Appearance was worth more than intelligence, and the ability to clean and cook was held to a higher regard than many other things in a woman's life. Before the mid 1900’s a woman without a man was next to useless, but once women realized that she could contribute more than what she was portrayed as, feminism was on the rise. 

    Betty Friedan’s book “The Feminine Mistique” contributes views on feminism and women's roles that are able to be used to support the feelings and thoughts on women depicted in Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll”. Piercy’s poem contains lines such as “...miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” describing how at a young age the girls would be surrounded by the things that they would spend their whole lives working with; stoves, irons and lipstick. These items are so connected to the 1960-70’s era, in that Piercy bringing them up in her poem is a clear pointer to the struggle of feminism in this era. Friedan even discusses how women were there to cook, clean and look pretty for their husbands, nothing about their intelligence or what other things they were able to contribute to society. This book when compared to Cherlin and Walters article takes more in depth view on how women were solely portrayed as homemakers in society, not just focusing on the lack of women's rights in the 20th century. Friedan’s work adds support to Piercy’s in that it brings more information to the feeling that the poem gives that women have a key role in society that they are born to play. The poem says this in lines like “She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” which describe that even though there was some things physically wrong with the girl, there were precautions she could take to fix them. Friedan’s book takes a different approach on analyzing feminism in the late 1900’s, which contributes to looking into what could have influenced Piercy’s work.  

    The information on feminine roles and feminism in the 1970’s given by the articles by co-authors Cherlin and Walters, and author Becky Thompson provide a historical context that shapes Piercy's poem “Barbie Doll”. Insight from the article by Cherlin and Walters titled “Trends in United States Men’s and Women’s Sex-Role Attitudes: 1972 to 1978” gives an analysis of statistical information on the feelings of men and women on gender roles, which provides a opinionated historical context to the feelings portrayed in the poem “Barbie Doll”. In the book “The Feminist Mystique” by Betty Friedan, information is given on the expectations of women in the late 60’s and early 70’s, combined with the thoughts and feelings of women during these times. These two works help give historical context to the emotions and thoughts portrayed in Becky Thompson's “Barbie Doll” by giving insight to what women in the 1970’s were feeling and going through.
