Barbie Doll

Why trade natural skin for plastic? Marge Piercy addresses this issue, though indirectly, in her poem "Barbie Doll". Piercy presents an innocent young girl, but conveys that she has fat legs and a big nose. Piercy explains that the child was a normal kid, not bad looking, not in bad shape, but simply does not meet the expectation of not having fat legs and a big nose. She is encouraged strongly to do this, and encouraged strongly to do that, but she can not fix herself up; The pressure is too great, the demand too high- she kills herself. Ironically, she looks pretty in her casket, and in this way Piercy is ironically saying that it was not worth it. Piercy shows that the destructive impact of social influence to meet the ideal look can be devastating to women.

Piercy uses a tone and imagery to say two things at the same time- the kid is normal and is going to get punished for no reason. The poem starts with a strong ironic overtone that suggests a normal kid has a bad life coming her way. The first four lines have a certain attitude about them that must be taken into pieces. Piercy writes, "Was born as usual / And presented dolls that did pee-pee / GE stoves and irons / And wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy" (1-4). There are certain expressions in there that imply a negative overtone- such as 'born as usual', 'dolls that did pee-pee', 'wee lipsticks'. Piercy is pointing out a cute kid in a way that's overly normal and too ironic. At the same time, the girl is getting dolls, toy stoves and irons, and cute lipsticks- all these things make it clear that this kid is normal and growing up just like any other kid. Then the negative overtone is developed further as this girl becomes a teenager and enters society as a young adult. Piercy makes the negative tone clearer by use of figurative language. Piercy writes "In the magic of puberty, a classmate said: / you have a great big nose and fat legs" (5-6). The magic of puberty is a statement a reader expects to be positive, but instead, Piercy uses the words to show us in this girl's youth she discovers she does not have the accepted look of a woman. Piercy's negative attitude about the magic of puberty reflects the negative side of growing up: Society puts pressure on girls to look a certain way.

Piercy then shows her idea of what makes a person "acceptable" - the standards of what makes a person human instead of a fighting member of society. Piercy uses characterization in its raw form, writing "She was healthy, tested intelligent / possessed strong arms and back / abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity" (7-9). The characterization shows that the girl makes a strong human that should feel good about herself. These traits do not prove to be enough- without declaring anything, Piercy makes the point that social pressure overcomes even the strong kids. The girl, instead of feeling good about herself, "went to and fro apologizing" (10). Piercy makes use of diction with the word "apologizing"; in the poem, it seems like the girl is actually saying "sorry". But, the word apologizing shows regret, in this case, regret of not fitting in better. By saying she apologized, Piercy is really telling us she went through years of humiliation and displacement.

How does society have such an impact? Piercy uses diction to explain her options as a child with a big nose and fat legs. Piercy writes that "She was advised to play coy / exhorted to come on hearty / exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle" (12-14). Piercy uses diction to pick words that specifically show that she was strongly influenced, like exhorted, and picked words that describe traits of weaker, meek people. By playing coy, the girl could avoid societies influence by not being seen.