Gender Blog Post #3

Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

1. In what ways is the girl described in this poem different from a Barbie doll? Discuss the poem's contrast of the living girl, a human being with intelligence and healthy appetites, and the doll, an inanimate object.

 This poem sort of depressed me because it is a very real situation. The stuff that girls our age and younger go through is horrible. We are pressured to start wearing makeup and try to have the best body. In reality though, this isn't possible for some girls, and some girls are even prettier when they are just their natural self. The bullying is also very real too. The girl in the poem is obviously not perfect, but what is the definition of the perfect girl? Certainly, some would say a Barbie doll, but others would disagree. There is no real perfect girl that every other little girl should try and live up to being like. The girl in the poem had "strong arms and back" (Piercy 835). This is the first difference from Barbie. Barbie has no muscle tone whatsoever. Barbie also doesn't have "a great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy 835). This girl is a real girl. She isn't some inanimate plastic doll that everyone sees as perfect. She has a real body and real feelings. She is healthy and was happy, that should be all that mattered. The girl killed herself, though. The final line of the poem speaks volumes, I think. When it says "Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending" (Piercy 836). I believe that everyone woman wants to be remembered as being beautiful in someone's eyes. Their happy ending would be to have someone to think they are pretty and remember them as pretty. Any girl who says she doesn't want someone to find them beautiful is lying to you. Every girl wants that, what they don't want is to be constantly told they are imperfect and need to "fix" themselves.