"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy is my favorite poem I've read so far in this class. In this poem Piercy shows us the patriarchal and societal ideals of what women should aspire to by like and look like. And how girls are taught at any early age and are continually pushed into "barbie" molds throughout their lives. Through TV shows, magazines, runway models, peer pressure and teasing young girls are going to extreme lengths to achieve "perfection" or at least what society has deemed as so. Young girls are impressionable and because of many factors like the media, a lot of girls don't grow up loving themselves. Instead they end up with low self-esteem and wanting to change their bodies. More often then not they use dangerous methods to achieve their goals.
"She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs."
"She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs."
Here Piercy is trying to show that woman are only seen and valued for their pyhsical apperance and that other qualities dont matter if your not "pretty". Girls are put under to much pressure by society to achieve "barbie doll perfection" that they'll do anything to get it even if it endangers their lives. It's espically hard for girls to have good self-esteem when there is so much teasing and bullying in schools espically by catty insecure girls who make themselves feel better by putting others down.
