It seems crazy to think that there was a time when women did not have the ability to vote. Being born in a time where you cannot be denied the right to vote based on sex is hard to imagine that women used to not have this right. It might even seem odd to picture women just staying at home and watching the children. Imagine having no women doctors, politicians, or really women in any profession. The second wave of feminism was about addressing these issues. Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” is written during the second wave of feminism and was done so to shed light on the movement and the issues women were fighting for. This poem is used to show the issues that women were facing and how they needed to be addressed and changed. “Barbie Doll” has a central theme of the societal oppression of women and Marge Piercy was hoping to convey this theme in order for a transformation to occur in society.

 Unrealistic body appearances have been around for an incredibly long time, but during this time period woman were really working to make body image more attainable. “You have a great big nose and fat legs” the girl in this poem has been told that she has unappealing parts of her body and she needs to find a way to change them (Line 6). It is also noted that the girl did not determine that she had this large nose and big legs but she was told that she had them. It is as if society was telling her that she looked different than how she was supposed to look. The girl did not get to decide how she felt about her body. In this poem she was having someone else tell her, one could even infer that the girl telling her is actually a symbol for society, and that made her decide she did not like her own body. The girl does everything she is told to do and she tries to look like everyone wants her to. She wants her body to look like how everyone else is telling her rather than determining for herself how she feels about her body.  During this time period there were many reasons this girl could have felt that she did not have the right body type. In “Timeless Ideals: Images Of Women In Magazine Advertising” there are multiple pictures of women in magazines that were written during the same time period as “Barbie Doll.” These pictures show very petite women with slim figures. They all appear flawless with small noses and have slim legs and skinny arms. With society giving girls this body image they could only hope to look like the women in the magazines. It was like seeing the celebrities and thinking that one’s body needs to be the same as that celebrity. From the magazines telling girls this is what they needed to look like, the girl in the poem hoped so badly to look like this she “cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up” (Line 17-18). Piercy chose to include the unrealistic and unachievable body image because she wanted people to see that women were fighting a body image battle they could not win. She wanted to show women were being damaged by society and change needed to come about.

Another issue that women were dealing with during this time was the predetermined roles that women had. “Presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons” in the story as a child the girl is giving dolls, kitchen appliances, and laundering items. From an extremely young age she is learning how to take care of children, cook, and clean. She is just a young girl playing with toys, but she is actually gaining knowledge on being a stay-at-home housewife. The doll even goes to the bathroom so she can gain experience in changing diapers. She does not realize that while she is just playing she is actually training for her later years in life. The girl is getting a role that she has no choice in the matter. She does not get to choose a career for herself because she has a full time job as a mother and doing all the cleaning and cooking for her family. Also seen in “Timeless Ideals: Images Of Women In Magazine Advertising” there are images of women in advertising and they are always associated with kitchen appliances, laundry detergent, and other advertisements that people believed women should be associated with. There is not a man advertising about a new, better brand of laundry detergent because like the girl in the poem she is responsible for cleaning. Piercy wanted to show in “Barbie Doll” that during this time the girl had predetermined roles for their lives. While giving a child a doll to play with is not something she was trying to dissuade parents to do she was trying to make it known that these girls were getting their jobs prepared for them. It was decided by society that they had a lifestyle planned for them when they became older. She wanted to make it clear that women did not want to be forced into the housewife lifestyle and that they are allowed to want more for themselves. She wanted to move away from the belief that women need to watch the children and stay at home. She wanted to put emphasis on the fact that women needed to break free from these roles so they could go on to have their own careers or determine their own future.

Marge Piercy wrote “Barbie Doll” during the time period of the second wave of feminism which is described as the largest social movement in U.S. history by the article “Socialist Feminism: The Legacy Of The “Second Wave.”” This wave was different from the one before it because this wave was not about getting any legislation changed, like suffrage during the first wave, it was about changing women in society. “She was advised to play coy… exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle” the girl in the poem is being constantly told what to do and how to act (Line 12-14). She does not decide if she wants to smile and diet, rather she is told that she should. She is being told by those around her the ways she should act so that she is acting the way women should be acting. This ties into the previous paragraph about body image because during this time woman were deciding very little things for themselves. They were rather hearing things about how they needed to look act or be. She is being told that she needs to fit this mold instead of getting to determine how she wants to act or what she wants to do. The girl is being told to do these things because society during this time made people believe there was a specific way women should act. That is why the second wave was all about eradicating this type of thinking and behavior. They did not want girls to think they always had to smile and be polite while they got walked over. “She went to and fro apologizing” the girl felt like since she was not what she was supposed to be she needed to go about apologizing for herself. She did not have the nose or legs she felt she was supposed to have. She did not act the way she was supposed to. She finally died under the pressure of the roles she could not meet. “Doesn’t she look pretty? Everyone said” it was seen that she and everyone was happy because she had cut off her legs and nose to offer them up and since she was now pretty it was a happy death (Line 23). Marge Piercy chose to show that she eventually committed suicide because she was so unhappy with herself. This was added because the second Piercy wanted to show the grave consequences that society was having on girls and if things were not changed for women there would be no improvement to society.

“Barbie Doll” has a central theme of the societal oppression of women and Marge Piercy was hoping to convey this theme in order for a transformation to occur in society. This poem was written in hope to convey the issues that women were dealing with and how the second wave of feminism was extremely crucial. Marge Piercy chose to include these themes so people could see that these issues were happening all around. The girl in the story eventually ends up committing suicide and Piercy wanted to show the immense amounts of pressure girls face and how if it does not change more may follow the girl in the poems path.
