No matter what gender, race, hair color, or weight you are and have, you will face some type of discrimination. Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy is a poem about a little girl who, throughout her whole life, tried to fit in, but she was judged based on her appearances. By the end of the poem she commits suicide and gets rid of the features that everyone hates; once they are gone others begin to call her pretty again. Barbie Doll was written in 1971 which was during the second wave of feminism in the United States, this influenced the story because Piercy wanted to bring attention to discrimination of females and their appearances. The story, There Was Once by Margaret Atwood, is about a writer beginning a story, yet every sentence they start to say gets criticized based on certain words that may sounds derogatory to others. Atwood was on a faculty full of females that wanted to open other’s minds about the social oppression on women and that is why she wrote this piece along with the many other pieces on feminism.  Both of these works focus on the unrealistic expectations set on women and most of humanity. Both authors believe that everyone needs to come together in order to prevent this discrimination that is happening all around us and in order to do so we must stop judging and start accepting people for who they are. 

Both Piercy and Atwood are authors who believe in equality for all genders and races. Throughout their pieces of work they display the hatred and judgement that others in the world place upon their peers. They do this in order to show the world how horrible the things they are saying about others are. In the first stanza of Barbie Doll Piercy says, “then in the magic of puberty, a class mate said: you have a great big nose and fat legs,” (lines 5-6). This outlines some of the small judgments that could affect someone and how they view themselves.  In There Was Once, Margaret Atwood says “women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can’t you make her, well, more average?” (lines 5-7). Atwood is more clear when she is trying to address her point where it takes Piercy a longer time in the poem to show the readers why judging others is wrong. They both show that women, and others, face stereotypes and are expected to live up to these unrealistic expectations. 

These two different authors, Piercy and Atwood, showed two completely different ways in expressing their opinions. Piercy uses a first-hand account in her poem where in Atwood’s story she shows her issues with unrealistic expectations based on the correcting of a sentence. Yet they both still prove points that are very relatable to other people. They refer to and imply points like bullying and discrimination about women and their looks which can all be relatable to others in the real world. Another difference is in There Was Once, Atwood gives ideas on how to change this world we live in and she wants everyone to be aware of the situation around them. In Barbie Doll, Piercy only gives a story about what happens to a girl who is judged based on her appearances, she does not explain how to fix this issue. Instead, she spreads awareness that it is bad and should be stopped. In both stories, unrealistic expectations are something that all genders and races have to face and it needs to be stopped because these people cannot help how they are born. 

Living in a world full of unrealistic expectations will mainly cause you to be harder on yourself because you want to meet those expectations and please the people that set them. When you do not meet them you may feel bad about yourself or even not good enough. These expectations must end in order for others and yourself to accept you for who you are and not who you should be. These are just a few ideas that authors like Margaret Atwood and Marge Piercy try to relay throughout their work. Both authors wrote these pieces in hopes to open up other people’s eyes to the discrimination placed on women and others. Unrealistic expectations can cause people to obsess over what is wrong with them rather than appreciate what they already have. People cannot control the way they look so, instead of making fun of them, people must accept others for who they are instead of trying to change them.
