"Barbie Doll": a poem review

A review of the poem "Barbie Doll"

In the mid-1950s, a certain Ruth Handler bought a German Lilli doll in Switzerland. The Lilli doll, made of hard plastic, with long hair tied into a ponytail, and has a wide collection of clothes, would be the inspiration for Mattel’s 11 ½ inch-tall chief product. Since then, the Barbie doll was known by the young and adults alike for its three-dimensional form and unsurpassed quality of wardrobes. In addition to being the name of the most famous and successful doll ever created, “Barbie Doll” is the title of one of Marge Piercy’s didactic poems.

The 25-line poem starts with the birth of a girlchild. She was presented with “dolls that did pee-pee”, “miniature GE stoves and irons”, and “wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.” In real life, newly-born children receive scores of baby gifts like those mentioned. However, there is an implication in the poet’s choice of words. Dolls are common for small girls, but “dolls that did pee-pee” are atypical. Girls are often given doll houses with minute pieces of things that can be found in a home. The mention by the bard of “dolls that did pee-pee” may be an indication of how women, though young, are trained to bring up children (including how to manage them when they do “pee-pee”) and how they have to learn how to use GE stoves (e.g. cook) and irons (e.g. press clothes) for their future family.

A young girl receiving “wee lipsticks” is frequent, too. Young girls are commonly dressed by their mothers who comb and tie their hair, dress them to look like princesses as much as possible, and assure they look their best. This points out how women, between the two genders, are more expected by the universal society to look good. Boys at their juvenile age go out in the fields, brawl in mud, and go home sweaty. On the other hand, girls are expected to behave more properly (they can also play, but games that involve less dirt and less sweat are favored) and are expected to look “beautiful”. (The lipstick stands as an example of a cosmetic, a beautifying substance intended to improve somebody’s physical appearance.)

Everything seems all right with the persona, until “in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs.” Although the persona was “healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity,” she “went to and fro apologizing.” The girl has no reason to apologize because of things she was born with. This also shows how girls are burdened to be accepted by the society. This is based on the Hegemonic Ideological Productivity Normativity in terms of physical beauty, which says that society views normalcy as “being beautiful”. For women to be accepted in the patriarchal setting of the world today, she has to be beautiful and “perfect”, similar to a Barbie doll.

“Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.” This shows the reality that people most often judge others physically, putting personality and character behind. Their predisposition carries on until the girl’s “good nature wore out” and she “cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up.” That is the instant that she loses her entire self-worth and gives in to the pressure of pleasing other people. She cuts off the parts of her that was undesirable for others, in hopes of gaining acceptance by the society.

“In the casket… she lay… with the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on… Doesn’t she look pretty?” In the end, it sounds that the girl has become emotionally and mentally dead because she has lost not only her body parts but her real self, which was part of her original body. She had a new “turned-up putty nose…” and though she should be happy because everyone said she was pretty, that wasn’t said. She also seemed physically dead now (the casket purports this). “Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending.” This is an irony, because how can a woman be happy in painstakingly trying to please others, especially when she might end up in a casket?

Margie Piercy has used the “Barbie Doll” as a radical feminist would: she pointed out how patriarchal societies stereotype women and how women are kept at home to care for the family. Piercy likewise pointed out a universal truth: men and women alike are pressured by the society to look good so that they’ll be accepted. The ending of the poem also gave a reminder that no one’s opinion should matter more than one’s own, and that true happiness comes from love of oneself and self-acceptance.