
Historically, women have faced numerous challenges and have overcome huge barriers. Women have often been placed in limited categories where their sex has labeled them unfit for certain positions, like running a business and well suited for others, like raising children and cleaning a home. What has contributed to this cultural view of women as being only fit for some jobs and not others is the social construction of gender. From the moment a person is born, he or she is socialized into a specific gendered category. Girls are wrapped in pink blankets, boys in blue. Boys are hyped up to be masculine and strong, whereas girls are seen as pretty, dainty and soft. These social constructions follow people all their lives and have been particularly damaging to women because women have often been judged on their looks and what they cannot do, rather than what they are given opportunities to do. 

One ongoing historical event that has contributed to this change in thinking is the Women’s Movement. When it began in the mid -19th century, the goal was equality for women and since that time woman continue to fight for that equality today. Despite the many gains that women have made, such as acquiring the right to vote, working in jobs that were once closed off to women such as running a bank or becoming or becoming a Supreme Court Justice, there have still been some areas that women have not overcome. These areas include equal pay or equal work and becoming President of the United States. While women fight to make these achievements happen, one area that has been a constant challenge is how women negatively portray themselves. One author that writes about the impact that being judged by looks can do to women is Marge Piercy. As a writer and feminist, Piercy uses poetry to capture the negative impacts that being judged on looks has on women, especially those that were common in the 1970s when she wrote this poem. Her Poem “Barbie Doll” reveals how historically women have been socialized in into being “proper” women and how this socialization processes not only does damage to women mentally and physically, but also limits women to thinking that if they are not beautiful they can never achieve and will never be an accepted part of society.  

Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” begins with the process of socialization. When she writes, “This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” (line(s) 1-4) that means the way that boys and girls are taught to be men and women. Based on how society values each role is by given each group that socializes them into certain behaviors. The toys that are given to this little girl emphasize being feminine with lipsticks and coaching with EZ Bake Ovens. These items are intended to create behaviors that are associated with a certain gender. Piercy shows that girls are not given science hits and model airplanes, but are instead given toys that recreate future behaviors that are intended to make young girls into women who will cook, clean and take care of children. This socialization of young girls was a major contributing factor to the reason why women were seen as unfit to take on jobs outside of child care or the home. Women who tried to break those barriers and go into other areas like politics or medicine were constantly met with resistance as women were seen as incapable of performing such jobs because society saw them as socially incapable.  

According to researchers Donna Fisher-Thompson and Angela D. Sausa who wrote “Toy Selection for Children: Personality and Toy Request Influences” according to the authors, parents who gave their children toys like EZ Bake Ovens and Cabbage Patch Kids for example, influence them by encouraging behaviors that imitate being a mother and a caretaker. This is in contrast to boys who are often given different toys like models, building blocks and science kits. These toys create very different behaviors in boys compared to girls as they reinforce creativity, critical thinking and structure. These behaviors are different and therefore create different outcomes for boys compared to girls according to researchers Fisher-Thompson and Sausa. The cultural significance of the process of socializing girls and boys is that it impacts what society believes men and women can and cannot do. The early behaviors that are taught to children when they play certain toys, this lead to behaviors that historically are considered to be necessary for being a man or a woman. The problem is that these behaviors are limiting and do not give women especially, the chance to be something other than what society wants them to be. 

Women historically have not only trained at an early age to act a certain way when it comes to behavior that happens when playing with toys; they are also expected to look a certain way too. Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” points out how looks later become an issue as a girl grows up. According to the poem, “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity. She went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (7-11). The author points out that there is nothing physically wrong with the young girl; she is healthy and strong. However, society historically did not and does not see this, but only “her fat nose and thick legs.” What Piercy is pointing out is that women at a very early age are introduced to which types of looks are accepted as good and which are not. According to Whitley, who wrote the article “Beauty Made Plastic: Constructions of a Western Feminine Ideal” the Barbie doll with its, “white feminine embodiment in which the subject possesses smooth, hairless, pore-less, and tanned skin; slender, elongated, toned limbs; pneumatic breasts; a whittled waist; and shiny, long blonde hair” (121), creates unrealistic ideal of women, one that most women are not and few women could ever achieve. Although women do not and will ever look like the Barbie doll, it has become a popular image and a standard that many young girls and women compare themselves to when growing up. 

The expectations that are taught to girls at a young age have a major impact on young girls and women, affecting both how they think as well as their behavior. Marge Piercy shows that some women take the advice of others and “play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” (12-14). All of the expectations eventually became too much and women give up, just like the young woman in the poem that “cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up” (17-18) because looks have historically been the maker by which a woman is judged.  The media, the society and the entire culture pressures women to act and look a certain way. According to Sanchez, author of the article titled “Buying and selling breasts: cosmetic surgery, beauty treatments and risk” cosmetic surgery, “performed on ‘normal’ bodies for aesthetic reasons” (636) shows that women are reacting to the expectations of society and are trying to look like that Barbie Doll ideal. However, Sanchez points out that cosmetic surgery is a medical procedure and does come with risks. However, women are still willing to take these risks to try and look the way society wants them to. 

Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” shows how from a very young age women are taught to be women. Historically, women have often been confined to certain roles that have limited opportunities in the future. Toys that are girly and feminine teach young girls to practice behaviors like women, such as cooking and cleaning, which also reinforces the belief by men that women are limited in their abilities as well. These limitations in terms of opportunities are made worse when women are judged by their looks, which leads some women to go as for as getting plastic surgery to be accepted by others. This poem and the articles included show how women have been and are pushed and limited by certain historical expectations and in some cases, these expectations can lead to loss of opportunities in jobs because of a perception of an inability to perform or even extreme choices like plastic surgery just to fit in.  
