Poetry Analysis: Barbie Doll Poem

Society often saddles women with limiting and unreal expectations concerning beauty. This results in a sense of physiologic inadequacy and a crushed self-image for those women who do not uphold those features identified as aesthetically attractive. As the poem authorize Barbie annulus, by Marge Piercy shows through its enunciate choice and tone, the results can often be devastating. There is a pointed and troubling line of descent in the 2nd stanza, which describes a feminine proceeds of markedly admirable qualities.Indeed, it is approximately implied that these qualities argon somehow male in their nature. Her health, intelligence and strength are praised, as are her sex drive and somatic abilities. We might therefore deduce that the subject being describes is an inherently attractive come in with qualities suitable for affection and mating. And yet, the resolution of this stanza is the apposition which tells of a woman who is apologetic for those features diverging fr om female idealization.And were it simply a low self-esteem at the root of this apologetic nature, it might be deduced that the subject is withal Piercys object of criticism. However, the third stanza makes quite an clear that the woman is at the pity of that which is pass judgment of her by others. Societys pressures, implied by the sarcastic tone in the startle stanza concerning female targeted toys which influence azoic the ideal role and identity of the woman, are reinforced in a much damning fashion by the 3rd stanza, which notes that she was advised to craft herself according to how others expected her to be.Those unique and admirable qualities amounted to nothing as she was impressed upon to be thinner and more concurrent with the ideal of beauty. As Piercy tells, first she surrenders those qualities of her persona which made her appreciable and, consequently, she surrenders her life. She becomes the Barbie Doll which invokes the standard image of beauty in our cultur e, as attractive, plastic and inanimate as a childs take to the woods thing.