Throughout history, society has heavily influenced how people see themselves. The definition of “to look pretty” has been repeatedly altered by society and has pressured people to look and act in a way that is seen to be acceptable, particularly for women in this case. In the beliefs of many women, one is only considered “pretty” if society tells them that they are, and they must change their appearance in order to receive that approval. This very idea was the inspiration for the invention of cosmetics and makeup, and the pressure that others have put on women and that women have put on themselves to change their appearance has led to a constant dependence on makeup. Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” exemplifies this issue of society’s effect on self-confidence and self-image. This work focuses on the idea that women are and have been, figuratively speaking, placed under a microscope and told what is wrong with how they look, and it has a permanent effect on how they view themselves and their self-esteem. The impact that society has on women and their appearance is detrimental to their health in that they are constantly down-trodden for their appearance and pressured to change in order to fit into the specifications of a person that is “pretty.”

Millions of girls and women do not see themselves as pretty. They have negative view of their appearance, and lower their self-esteem and confidence. The predominant cause of this problem is not that it just occurred naturally, but that society has tried to define what it means to look attractive and that other people could have told them that they did not find them attractive. Because of this, they will try almost anything to be accepted by others rather than to be identified by their flaws. In “Barbie Doll,” Piercy basically describes a girl who goes through this type of situation because her flaws are exposed by others, saying that her legs were fat and her nose was big. Her self-image had become damaged to the point where she was dehumanized and identified by her flaws. By the time she had died, she had gotten plastic surgery done and was wearing cosmetics in her casket. At the very end of the work was when people were saying that the girl looked pretty, and this was as she laid in her casket. She had spent her whole life trying to be accepted by society and was not accepted until after it was over. The fact that she was seen as a collection of flaws rather than a human being who was not entirely made up of flaws was what caused her self-confidence to deteriorate and was what drove her to change herself. 

The pressure that women like her are under to become what society believes is beautiful is harmful and leaves them restless. This idea is brought under the limelight in Anne Anlin Cheng’s “Wounded Beauty: An Exploratory Essay on Race, Feminism, and the Aesthetic Question.” This article explains how beauty has been characterized, idolized and sometimes even antagonized by society throughout recent history. In the first paragraph of the excerpt, Cheng introduces a topic that correlates fairly well with one of the main ideas in “Barbie Doll,” and asks the question, “Yet has the contemplation of this dichotomy – both the attack on and the defense of beauty – prevented us from looking at beauty?” (191) This question can be connected to Piercy’s idea in that many people, like those in “Barbie Doll,” spend too much time trying to expose the flaws others may have and give them grief for possessing those flaws and in doing so, they are unable to look beyond the imperfections and realize that they are not meant to be defined solely by the flaws. Both Cheng’s question and Piercy’s main idea are trying to explain that if one can see past the flaws, they will be able to realize that they do have good qualities and often have more perfections that imperfections. Many people will overlook the good things about a person if they find even one flaw, and that one flaw will stand out in their minds among the several positive things. For example, there may be a woman that is very pretty and has many good qualities about her, but if a man sees that she has very thick eyebrows, the only part about her that will stick in his mind will be the eyebrows, regardless of how attractive she is. In “Barbie Doll,” this same type of situation is what eventually causes the main character to completely alter her appearance. The defining moment for her is when she is told that she had a large nose and legs. This moment shows how the person who said it ignored how pretty she may have been and only pointed out what they found to be imperfect. 

Part of the reason why Piercy’s message in her work is so important is that it shows how when a person degrades someone and characterizes them only by their imperfections, it can sometimes lead to danger and a negative outcome. It can have different effects on different people, but it depends on the position that they are in in these situations. In Cheng’s essay, she states that, “The fetishization of the beauty of otherness can operate as problem and as solution” (193). This statement can relate to Piercy’s work in that the main character sees her flaws as an issue and how she spends her life trying to turn them into perfections is seen to her as the solution to her problem. Just one destructive comment about her caused her to become obsessed with her exposed qualities and the process she endures in order to change them so that she could be accepted by others. In her society as well as today’s society, people become fantasized with beauty and to be noticed and seen as beautiful by others. People sometimes strive to be seen as pretty or attractive and will do anything to make that happen, in which case it would become more of a problem for them whether they recognize it or not. To them, to change their appearance is the solution so that they can see themselves as attractive and be able to have it recognized others see it as well, but the things they put themselves through can be an issue. For example, plastic surgery can lead to health issues and infections in some cases. 

In both “Barbie Doll” and “Wounded Beauty: An Exploratory Essay on Race, Feminism, and the Aesthetic Question,” a common theme that is brought up is the idea that throughout time, society has tried to constantly alter the definition of beauty. People envy those who fit the standards of beauty that are set, so naturally they try to conform to these standards in order to feel accepted. When they feel accepted and that they have fit the standards, they look down on those who they believe have yet to do so and do not view them as someone who is “pretty.” According to Piercy’s work, to be “pretty” does not entirely mean that they are attractive, but more along the lines of what society says is acceptable and/or attractive.
