
During the 1960s and 1970s, the second wave of feminism was formed with the goal of demanding equality for women and breaking the barrier making women second class citizens compared to men. Women became tired of the fact that they were “supposed” to be housewives their entire lives while the men were working. Since the first wave of feminism was more about equal rights like voting, this wave was a different aspect of feminism. The second wave focused on the cultural barriers against women such as their role in life or how they should look. As a result of this movement, many different people voiced their opinions in different ways such as Marge Piercy who is a writer and social activist. Piercy was a big supporter of second wave feminism and wrote a famous poem called Barbie Doll which tackles the issue of how women are judged based on how pretty they are, rather than how smart or strong they are. In the end of the poem she has a girl moved to the point of death because she wasn’t pretty enough according to the people surrounding her. This was a serious problem when Piercy published her poem in 1971 however, it is still relatable to the cultural barriers against women in society today. Marge Piercy’s poem Barbie Doll relates to today’s social views toward women that are present through advertisements and the media which shame women to have an unrealistic standard of beauty.  

The biggest aspect facing women today is this unrealistic standard of beauty they are held to. Whether it’s models, movie stars or Barbie dolls, the media likes to portray beautiful women only if they have “perfect” features such as being skinny, tall, having long legs or a flawless face and skin. Piercy titles her poem Barbie Doll because from a young age girls play with their dolls that possess all of these “perfect” features and they want to look just like them. In reality as these girls get older their bodies change and as Piercy says, “Then in the magic of puberty…You have a great big nose and fat legs” (348). Piercy goes into this because the since the girl in her poem didn’t look “perfect” like every girl should, she must be ugly and possess a big nose and fat legs. This is the issue because girls are being rejected socially because they don’t fit the impossible standard of beauty that is instilled at a young age in society. Rather than how she looks, Piercy goes into the more important qualities of the girl in her poem saying, “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (348). In the end, these qualities didn’t mean anything to the people only looking at her for if she is pretty or not. This impractical standard of beauty is ruining girls who have such amazing values because they can’t fit in with the “perfect” girls. In order to stop this problem though, it starts with the advertisements and media who reiterate this standard on a daily basis making girls feel like they have to be just like the ones they promote. 

There are advertisements everywhere whether it’s outside on a billboard, inside stores or on TV. They all have one goal which is to make women want to be like the person they model in their advertisements so that they can make money. The common trend in these advertisements is that the person in them fits the “perfect” standard that a woman should look like according to the media. The advertisements trick women into thinking that they have to look like these women to be seen as beautiful and that their product is what will make them look like that. Piercy relates her poem to a Barbie doll, because the advertisements for Barbie dolls are an example on how companies want to make the viewer feel like they need to be like that person, which in this case is a made-up character for little girls. It is not a coincidence that Barbie has the same features I described above such as being skinny, having long legs or a flawless face or skin. A body image expert named Marci Warhaft-Nadler who is the author of The Body Image Survival Guide for Parents explains that, “Barbie sends our girls one message... You can do anything and you can be anything—as long as you look like this: very tall, very thin, very Caucasian, and very beautiful” (Hains). This directly relates to what Marge Piercy is trying to show in her poem Barbie Doll, for example at the end she has the people at the main character’s funeral say “Doesn’t she look pretty?” (349) and then the last line with “To every woman a happy ending” (349). This is to explain that girls are listening to these advertisements that they have to be the “pretty” they depict and that in the end even though the girl in the poem killed herself over trying to become that pretty, ironically the last thing people say is “Doesn’t she look pretty?”. One advertisement that is also relevant to Barbie Doll is an advertisement by MAC Cosmetics which took a different approach to their advertising to go against social barriers against women. About 4 years ago they released a makeup ad with a woman bodybuilder in a dress flexing her upper body muscles, rather than do what most companies would do which is put an unrealistic image of a woman to model their product. Once again Piercy’s poem touches on how the more important qualities of women are ignored when she says, “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (348). MAC and Piercy want to stress that women need to understand that being pretty isn’t everything in life and not to believe in the unattainable image that these advertisements present. Similar to the advertisements is the media, which often acts just like them when it comes to talking about the standard of beauty for women. 

The media likes to talk about all the models and movie stars who they believe represent the “perfect” standard of beauty. Whether it is on TV, in movies, through magazines or models, the women from these are portrayed by the media as picture-perfect. What they fail to realize is that when they do this, they instill this belief in young girls and women’s heads that they need to look like these women in order to be beautiful. Like Piercy says in her poem, they need to “exercise, smile and wheedle” (349) in order to look pretty. The media paints this picture that women need to be like all the models in the world because since they are models they “have” to be pretty. In reality a lot of these models go to unhealthy lengths to look the way they do and this is not right. Just because they are models the media makes these women want to be like them and in turn, go to dangerous lengths to try and look like them. Piercy stresses the message in her poem that when these girls hear what society believes beauty is as they get older, the more and more risk there is of these girls harming themselves. 

After reading Marge Piercy’s poem Barbie Doll and researching the historical and cultural context behind it, I could clearly see a connection between the media, advertisements and the standard of beauty for women. Not only were the social views toward women wrong at the time Piercy wrote Barbie Doll but they are still present in society today. Piercy uses her poem to represent a common situation for how women are seen from the moment they are born. Ultimately she shows the regression of a girl who wasn’t labeled pretty by others but tries to become what they think pretty is. Women are constantly striving to achieve this unrealistic standard of beauty that is prevalent due to the endless advertisements portraying this and the media continually labeling certain women as “perfect”. These advertisements paint the picture that this is the only way to look as a woman and that their product will make them look like that. The media is responsible for grouping the women they feel are pretty on a daily basis, making women want to be like them since they are famous or successful. This is clearly the primary message in Piercy’s Barbie Doll that these labels can lead to the worst outcome which is death. With this unrealistic standard of beauty, the more significant qualities that make up these women are being overshadowed by their looks in order to fit in with society’s views. 
