“Barbie Doll”, by Marge Piercy, was written in 1971 during the second wave of feminism, to purposefully display the struggles that women were currently facing. This poem is about a little girl who was born perfectly into the world. She was given stoves, irons and makeup to conform to a patriarchal society without even knowing it. The nameless girl eventually went through puberty, where she encountered a classmate that made negative comments about her appearance and her body. The criticisms included that the girl had “a great big nose and fat legs” and she was constantly badgered about her looks and diet (Piercy 6). At no time did anyone focus on any of the great things about her that should have truly mattered. She was intelligent, strong and healthy, yet no one saw past her looks. The patriarchal society expected her to “play coy, be hearty, exercise, diet, smile and wheedle” (Piercy 12-14). The constant reminders about her imperfections made her feel the need to continually apologize for them. The pressures and expectations that were put on the girl were too much to handle so she ended up killing herself because of these unattainable societal standards. At her funeral, displayed in her casket with a more acceptable nose of putty, molded into the perfect specimen, and dressed in pink and white while resting on satin with an expertly painted face, society had made her what it wanted. She is now considered acceptable (Piercy 348-49). To have a complete understanding of the text, “Barbie Doll”, it is important to know the time period in which the text is situated and how society has changed since that time.

First, we must understand women’s rights over time and the expectations that society puts on them. We have to understand the gender roles that drive the behaviors. If you don’t have some historical perspective with regard to gender roles through history, you might not comprehend the references to specific toys and her poor self-image as well as why she feels so defeated and finally gives in. The first article to provide some perspective is “The Quest for Women’s Equality”. The article gives specific dates and events where women have made progress in their search for equality. It started early in the late 1700s when women’s roles were being debated in private. The U.S. Constitution left matters up to the state and therefore giving women very few rights. In the late 1800s, the women’s suffrage movement had begun. Women previously hadn’t held jobs or gone to college at this time. However, by the time World War I came around, women took over men’s jobs and were finally allowed into classes like math and science in colleges. Finally, after a long period of women fighting for their rights, the 19th amendment, which prohibits any US citizen being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex, was passed. It took a long time for women to get the right to vote and without having the same basic rights as men, it conveys the message that they didn’t matter as much. While they gained the right to vote, women were still not treated equally. They were used to not having the same job opportunities, getting paid as much and not being respected (Davey). Over time, society has given women certain standards and expectations to live up to, such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children and family. The little girl in the poem, “Barbie Doll”, was given toy kitchen appliances, dolls and makeup to play with. She was being taught at a young age that her future value would be based on how pretty she looked and how well she cleaned and took care of children. By only allowing women to fulfill these roles, it caused them to think that they had no other purpose. 

The poem talks about the girl’s characteristics that are not important to other people, such as intelligence and strength. No one notices them because they had previously never been important to her gender role in history. Strength, intelligence and the ability to be productive and hold a job, was apparently the man’s job. Throughout the poem, the girl struggles to be confident and feels the need to conform, but you can’t develop your nose like you can your physical strength or improve your mind with study and application. The girl eventually gets so frustrated with her entire worth being solely judged on her looks, and living up to an unattainable ideal, she gives up. History explains how societal standards have been extremely slow to change over time. It is very important to do historical research before reading an article because you understand the deeper meaning of the article itself. Women came from a place of originally having no rights and having certain expectations of how to look and behave. Over time, women have gained rights and expectations with regard to their gender have changed, albeit slowly on both counts. 

To continue, the second article is about the Barbie’s debut in 1959 and how it has evolved. Although the original Barbie was a big hit, it also conveyed harmful messages about how women should look and these messages were presented to children at a very young age. Barbie had a perfect look with a painted on face, tiny waist, long legs and other things that were unattainable to women. Barbie portrayed something that all women strived to attain but would never be able to. The little girl in the poem struggled with this very issue, the perfect aesthetic that society seemed to demand. Barbie was a negative aspect of the girl’s life. She was supposed to be a role model, yet she only created an unattainable ideal, which resulted in poor self-image and self-worth. When made originally, Barbie only had one look (aside from being blonde or brunette), which was relevant for the time period that the poem was written in. Now in 2016, the doll line includes: four body types, seven skin tones, twenty-two eye colors and twenty-four hairstyles (Clement). Instead of having the one Barbie that everyone wants to look and be like, there are many to make every girl feel like there is more than one way to look and to be beautiful. This article is important when reading “Barbie Doll” because the reader needs to know what the ideal look that was perceived for women was and what girls wanted to look like along with the societal pressures. Now we know that society is working towards not having one specific look that everyone should want to look like and many types of aesthetics are embraced.

“Barbie Doll” is about a little girl that is trained to be aware of what the expectation of society is on her from an early age and her struggle to meet those unattainable standards because she was not blessed by the genetic lottery when it came to her looks. Instead of celebrating her strengths, there is continued pressure on her to change things that she cannot change and she simply gives out. There was a long history of these types of societal pressures on women as demonstrated by the two articles detailing the lack of rights for women, the slow progression of women’s rights and the unrealistic and unattainable ideals placed on women. The details in these articles provide the context behind these stereotypes for women, in addition to giving context for the time period in which the poem was written. Women were expected to look a certain way and act a certain way – the girl did not and could not, and it ended in her giving up. Additionally, while the articles showed us how far that we have come, they also demonstrate how far we still have to go to get to a place where women are accepted as equals and shed the idea that they must look perfect.
