The societal views of women’s rights have changed a lot throughout the course of nearly 100 years. Two texts that contain women’s rights from two different views are Bitch Planet and “Barbie Doll”. “Barbie Doll” is how a typical woman would be understood to act if treated a bad way where Bitch Planet is more of a stand for women’s rights. These two readings seem very different, but they both involve how women are treated by poorly others and the time periods affect the reactions that each main character has.

The 1970s, when “Barbie Doll” was published, were a time of exploration of mind and body for women and men alike. Not many women were pushing for their rights and the ones that were participated in a movement now referred to as “second-wave feminism”. Second-wave feminism is used a lot in “Barbie Doll” because this movement is characterized by opening the feminism ‘debate’ to activism and sexuality issues. The 2000s, when Bitch Planet was published, has been the opposite for women, many more women have spoken up and established a key role in societies. Many achievements have occurred for women in the past ten to fifteen years. This time period is referred to as the “post-third-wave feminism”. Post-third-wave feminism is coated throughout Bitch Planet and it is characterized by women holding higher positions and self-empowerment.

“Barbie Doll” is about a girl who is as normal as any other girl. She grows up and as most girls do and hits puberty. Anthony J. Scimone, a writer for the English Journal, says that insecurity is brought upon kids at an early age (34). She is subsequently called out by her peers as to having a big nose and fat legs. That’s all her peers see in her now, a big nose and fat legs, her imperfections. Scimone points out again that adolescents expect all girls to reach “that perennial icon of unattainable and artificial female glamour” (33). This young girl does not realize yet that what people call you does not matter. This girl only sees a big nose and fat legs in herself. She then responds, quite dramatically, by cutting off her nose and her legs, which inevitably kills her. At her funeral, all of her peers say how beautiful she is which is pure irony. This is ironic because it took a death for these people to see her true beauty. Bitch Planet has a similar story line with a different ending. This story is a comic but that shouldn’t take away from the pure message it presents. This is about a woman who is being judged greatly by men and these men want to ‘fix’ her. This woman’s story is told by flashbacks into the past. She hates the typical woman image and enjoys who she is. Despite all of the men wanting to change her, her preferred image of herself is exactly who she is now. 

“Barbie Doll” and Bitch Planet have two very different main character bases. The character from “Barbie Doll” has a very complacent attitude. She listens to what the people around her say and lets it consume her. As she lets the words that are used to describe her get to her, the insults begin to break her down. The character from Bitch Planet is the exact opposite. She does not care about what others think of her. The author, Kelly Sue DeConnick, is interviewed by NPR and says that the men in this story run the world and if someone is not ‘normal’ or with the status quo then they are labeled as non-compliant (1). Most of her flashbacks consist of people judging her. These people are disgusted with her and call her terribly mean names, worse than the names the girl is called in “Barbie Doll”. DeConnick titles the work the way she did because of irony, Kelly says that the ‘b word’ is a terrible word and that women are afraid to be called this word because women want to be very liked (1). The Bitch Planet character does not seem amused though. She actually likes the way she is, this is news to a lot of the men in the room around her. The men assume that a woman with this past of crime would want to change. They are all in dismay when the prefect image of herself is unscathed. The main character then alludes to something her grandmother says earlier in her life that goes something like, if it isn’t broken then it shouldn’t be fixed, she mentions that she isn’t broken and that she will never be broken by these men. 

These two stories have a lot in common as well. Their commonalities are more obvious than their differences. Both stories have a woman that is being oppressed by others, these oppressors are understood to be men. Both women react to the oppression in some sort of way, because it is human to react to that type of behavior. Both characters actually end up satisfied in the end. The character from “Barbie Doll” has sort of an eternal happiness because she died knowing that others around her accept her for who she is. The character from Bitch Planet ends up happy too because she proves to these men judging her that the ideal image of yourself can be ugly to other people. Her main point is to not care what other people think of you. Why does all of this matter? Well, it matters because two very different writings end up being very similar in the end. Both works touch on feminism, one acknowledging the presence of feminism in society and the other noting the lack of feminism in society. “Barbie Doll” has a simple message and it is to not care what others think about you because it could lead to your death. It’s an extreme message but it gets the idea across. Bitch Planet delivers the same message but in a much better and more relatable way. Both of these stories acknowledge women’s oppression and take two different stances on how these women should react.

The results from the woman revolting in Bitch Planet is that she can be her own person and be who she desires to be. She doesn’t have to live like she is being controlled by anyone else. She lives the majority of her life being looked down on and she hates it, this leads her to commit crimes. This woman hates what stereotypical women have become and she strives to be nothing like them and in the end, she succeeds. The results from the woman acting how she does in “Barbie Doll” led to her death. She cannot take the constant ridicule and being made fun of. The poem ends in a very different way. After all of these bad events, Piercy says “to every woman a happy ending” (CR 349). What does she mean when she says that? The reader could take many things away from that. When an author mentions a happy ending, people usually associate marriage, children, and longevity. Piercy could be simply saying that the main character of “Barbie Doll” did die happily. She died knowing that everyone around her was now content with the way she looked because she cut off her ugly ‘parts’. Her funeral could have been the happiest part of her life. Her funeral was where she received the most amount of praise for how she looked. This is why the young girl in “Barbie Doll” ended up cutting off her ‘bad’ parts, she couldn’t handle the other children not realizing that all girls do not reach this conceived standard of looks all at the same time.

The characters in both of these works revolve around the fact that they are mistreated. The recurring theme throughout the stories, and this paper is how they react to the mistreatment they are given. Both stories also take an opposite view on how to react to the mistreatment. Both stories are sort of the two options women have when they are judged by others around them. Women’s rights have made huge leaps over the past twenty years and so have the rights of many mistreated individuals. These stories both acknowledge feminism, one shows the need for it and the other shows the results from it. 
