“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is a very short story about the second wave of feminism that swept through the united states in the late 20th century. From the very first line of the story the female gender is already frowned upon by the word “girlchild”. The word is demeaning and has such a lack of respect for women that Marge was trying to portray through her story. “Barbie Doll” brings up conflicts between gender roles that even started as soon as a child was born and also the emotional burden that women had to carry with them growing up and the toll it took on the women who changed to fit the status of that time period. 

The first issue brought up in the short story is the mention of the “GE stoves, irons and lipstick” (Piercy 348). This is a representation of how from the birth of a daughter her expectations where to cook and clean and wear makeup. The girl in the story grew up with only the image of that in her head. Her own opinions and thoughts will always be considered wrong if they stray from the thoughts and opinions of the public. This presents the first issue within the second wave of feminism that was spreading throughout the country during the late 1900’s. One of the articles I found relating to this topic is called Experiencing second-wave feminism in the USA. This article really emphasizes the importance of the second wave of feminism and goes into deep detail about the way it effected the women of that time period.  It has a paragraph relating to the expectations women have growing up. It says women had to choose early between racial and gendered identities. From the very start women had to choose to follow the path of feminism and be judged and put in the shadows of men or to stick up for the rights they wanted even if it meant putting a lot at risk. 

The next part of the short story goes on to tell how a man was degrading the way she looks. Marge says “a classmate said: you have a great big nose and fat legs” this quote is showing that at a young age men think it’s acceptable to tear down the feelings and opinions of women (Piercy 348). The younger generation is only learning and seeing the older generation and repeating their actions so it’s like a never ending cycle until the second wave of feminism comes and women get to voice their opinions and protest. “Qualitative approaches revealed more about the ways women struggle to gain access, comfort, and credibility in the male-normed career of educational administration” I think this quote is showing an example of different ways women struggled with their bodies and emotions and how they had no way of fighting it. The second wave of feminism is considered one of the biggest movements in the history of the United States. This just goes to show how big of a deal it was and how unacceptable it was to treat women with that kind of disrespect. 

The second article I found is called Socialist Feminism: The Legacy of the “Second Wave I think this ties into the story in the facts of the importance of the movement and how it led to a huge change in the way women think of themselves and how the standards got set higher for the expectations of women. As the story continues it describes how the girl changed the way she looked to look better for the guy and fit in better with the expected status of women. She dieted and exercised to become the image that was created for women. Marge does a good job of showing how much women were expected to change and just be who they told them to be instead of who the women wanted to be. This young girl never had a chance to experience who she really was because she was always changing to become who society wanted her to be. From the article learned that the movement didn’t only include white women. It started with the young, white, middle class educated women but eventually all the other women realized the damage of the issue at stake. Black, Latina and Asian women also arose to the movement because they all shared the basic ideas of the feminism opinions. This article kind of branches off of the short story showing that it was more than one race of women. Although the race of the girl in the story is never mentioned we can assume it was a middle class white female. I think this really broadens the horizon for the different type of people who participated in the feminism movement. 

The last part of the story is showing how society changed her so much to a point where she died. The wording that Marge uses in the last stanza of the paper really emphasizes the point of the long lasting effect feminism had on women. The girl in the story with “cosmetics painted on” died trying to conform to the expectations of that time period for women. She changed her body and the way she lived, only for people to call her pretty in her casket. I also believe the last phrase of “To every woman a happy ending.” can have two different meanings. One of them being to serve as a warning. I think Marge can be using her text as a warning of how cruel society can be if we allow it to tell us how we should act or dress or conform based on what they think is right. If these women in this time period didn’t stick up for what they believed in and continued to live with unequal work places and unequal pay and unfair treatment because of our gender we might still be living that way today, and trying to conform a country in this time and day would be a lot harder then back then for women to do. I think a second meaning that this line can have is also a literal farewell and good luck. She is hoping that you take a lesson from this story and go and run with it and learn the dangers of the past to prevent them in the future. She is wishing women good luck in the current time this was written as well. A good luck with the way men were treating women, a good luck with the standards women were hold and finally I think a good luck to the future with the never ending problems with this reoccurring issue. 

This ties into my article regarding the way that feminism was spread and talked about in the mid 1900’s. Marge wrote this in 1971 the article I found stated that many of the feminists were journalists or writers and I think there’s no better women to start off a movement like that. They have all the power in their job to begin to spread the problem and the ways to solve it. I think the article really opened my eyes as to what kind of women were being brought into this movement and who was really starting it. 

“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is a short story with a long message. This lesson can date back for centuries but can also be carried with us today. The way Marge talks about women conforming to the standards and expectations men had for us really shows the kind of work women did back then to help out future generations regarding the way we are treated. The second wave of feminism played a huge role in the persuading the way Marge wrote about the effects it had on women. 
