Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” is a poem about the life of a girl. It is not the story of some extraordinary person, rather just the story of a typical girl. It describes the hardships that a girl goes through throughout everyday life. These are hardships all women face, but these are hardships that are forced onto them by the expectations society sets on them. Not all of the hardships, however, apply to women today. This poem was written in the 1970s and is about what women were going through at the time. This does not mean that the points made in this poem are not relevant today. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy brings up societal gender issues in the 1970s such as how women should look and act, but these problems are still relevant in today’s society.

“Barbie Doll” suggests that society is to blame for gender issues in the 1970s. The poem points out that society places unfair expectations on women. Society expects girls to play with dolls and wear skirts and society shuns them if they are not what most people would consider to be attractive. The poem talks about this through the life of the girl by saying, “She was healthy, tested intelligent… Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (Piercy 348). This shows how despite the talents this girl had people still only focused on her flaws. She could be the smartest person on the planet, but no one would care because she is unattractive. It is almost as if society does not want women to be unique and just wants them to sit still and look pretty. People in the 1970s wanted and expected women to do the same type of things including cleaning, cooking, and watching over children. Women were encouraged to follow the social norm rather than pursue their own interests that might be contrary to this. The end of the poem attempts to make the reader feel empathy for the girl. The last lines of the poem say, “To every woman a happy ending” (Piercy 349). This happy ending that the narrator is referring to is death. It is pretty sad to think that the narrator believes being buried in a pretty dress is the way society would remember a girl. It is sad knowing that everyone at the funeral said how pretty she looked rather than talking about her intelligence which was talked about earlier. 

In terms of context, “Barbie Doll” had a lot to do with what was going on in the time it was written. “Barbie Doll” was written in 1973 and at this time second-wave feminism was becoming more prevalent as women fought to be seen as equals to men in the eyes of society. It was as if women were not even seen in the 1970s. A quote from an article about 1970s feminism says, “By the mid-1970s, the work of ‘making the invisible woman visible’—the invisible white woman that is—had reached a high point in academe…” (Floyd 833). Women are referred to as “invisible” in regards to their aspirations. This quote is referring to women becoming more active in society in terms of widening their career opportunities. When “Barbie Doll” was written it was 1973, so a decent amount of time into second-wave feminism. This poem was meant to show people how women were expected to act, look, and behave. This poem was not saying women should not do this and it was not berating anyone for allowing this to happen. This poem was simply trying to make the reader see the point of view that a women had during the 1970s.

When Marge Piercy wrote “Barbie Doll”, I doubt that she believed the same problems she talked about in her poem would still be relevant today. Unfortunately, some of the problems still do exist, even over 40 years after she wrote her poem. For example, the poem says, “… and presented dolls that did pee-pee / and miniature GE stoves and irons” (Piercy 348). This is referring to the toys that most young girls would play with. Even in today’s society, little girls are still expected to play with dolls and fake kitchen sets. Some may find it strange if a little girl decides to play with an action figure instead of a doll or video games instead of with the kitchen set. The world, and America in particular, has made progress though. Nowadays women who try to be unique and different are supported by a lot more people than those who would have been supportive 40 years ago (Kinser 124). America has come a long way as the nation almost had its first woman president in 2016 and women who are homosexual are not discriminated against nearly as harshly as they were in the past. In an article about this poem Robert Perrin says, “By examining the language throughout the poem, students may discover the insensitivity - and ultimately cruelty – of a society that encourages patterned behaviors…” (Perrin 84). He also goes on to say that this text may cause students to question social norms. Perrin is talking about the society people live in today and how by making people live certain way because that is what society deems to be “normal” is an abysmal idea. Not only does making people live like this make them miserable, but it takes away part of their free will by prohibiting them to live the way they want. Feminism is trying to prevent this from happening to women all over the world, although this problem does not apply solely to women. 

There are many similarities between feminism in the 1970s and feminism today. Feminism in the 1970s was not about anything extremely substantial, like the right to vote, but issues that were minor but meant a big deal to women. These things include the things spoken of in “Barbie Doll” and things such as equal pay and even receiving the same amount of respect as men. Today, most of the battles from the 1970s in terms of feminism have been won, but there are still minor things feminists want to feel more equal to men. Feminists are slowly trying to get women and men to be seen as equals. In an article about second-wave feminism the author of it says, “Unlike first-wave feminism, which focused narrowly on voting rights, the movement concerned itself with a wide array of subjects, from bread-and-butter issues such as workplace and credit equality…” (Zeitz 677). Feminists in the 1970s and today both fought for similar types of things. This quote talks about things that even feminists today are still fighting for. 

Throughout the 43 years that this poem has been available for people to read, interpretations of it have changed. The main basic theme has stayed the same, but other smaller parts to the theme have changed. The theme is that women are expected to act, look, and behave certain ways while men do not have to worry about these problems. People, however, think about this differently now than they did 40 years ago. In the 1970s, this poem was about how women were expected to be proper, pretty, and respectful. It was about how they are abused because of their flaws and are forced to hide their talents. In 2016, the meaning is a little different. People may agree that women should be respectful and ladylike. In today’s world, however, most people encourage people, including women, to express themselves and be who they want to be. Today’s society is all about letting people follow their dreams and pursue their passions. In the 1970s women were pretty much restricted from doing so and were not seen as equals to men. Today women are, by most people, seen as equals to men and are encouraged to follow their hearts. 

“Barbie Doll” has a lot of meaning. It could mean something personal to the reader. This paper provided proof on how the interpretation of literature can change when taking historical and cultural evidence into account. People reading this 40 years ago may have a different interpretation than people reading it today and both will most likely have different interpretations than people reading it 40 years from now. Taking into account the background information of a piece of literature or an author is a great way to find the true meaning behind it. “Barbie Doll” is a poem that, while focused on the time period in which it was written, is still meaningful when read out of context of the time period. 
