A Woman’s Place in Society Explored in Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll Essay

Society has a way of placing unrealistic expectations on women. By using television, magazines, billboards, and even toys we see a mold of what women are supposed to look care. In other words the perfect charr should look like a Barbie Doll. In Marge Piercys, Barbie Doll, we find a girl child growing up through the adolescence stage characterized by appearances and barbarity. Piercy uses lots of imagery to make the struggles the girl experiences during her teenage years and the effects that can happen. In the first stanza we see the beginning of an ideal image being stained in the girls mind. She was ...presented dolls that did stool and miniature GE ovens and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy (2-4). By being presented these gifts the girls parents have already instilled a visualization of what the perfect woman is like and the girl is already learning her place in society. The poem was written in 1936. In this day and age women were still seen as objects and not really people. Their place was in the kitchen and taking care of the kids. Piercy has painted an image to the reader of a little girl playing with toy stoves and irons and tiring red lipstick to make herself pretty. The tone of the poem takes a turn toward a more bold statement when the author uses ...the magic of puberty (5) to nominate the age where appearance comes into effect. The girl was insulted by a classmate who made humiliating comments about her nose and...