"Barbie Doll"

"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy

"Barbie Doll" is a short 4 stanza poem written by Marge Piercy. Marge Piercy was born in 1936 in Detroit, Michigan. She is a poet, novelist, and social activist for women. Many of her novels and poems focus on feminist concerns, just as "Barbie Doll" does. The theme of this poem is the objectification of girls' bodies and the crushing of their self confidence. The tone the author uses to represent this theme is disapproving with a hint of sarcasm. Piercy begins the poem talking about this young girl who is perfectly content with herself. Then all of a sudden puberty comes along and people begin to judge her because of her body. The young girl is portrayed as innocent playing with her dolls, who then becomes a victim of puberty. Piercy uses irony in line five when she writes, "the magic of puberty". This is ironic because usually when something is described with the word magic it is a good thing. Piercy uses a positive word to describe a word that has a negative meaning in this poem. The disapproving tone of this poem is portrayed through the description of how society expects a young, vulnerable girl to act when her body is being objectified. Piercy is making the point that society truly believes that girls should do everything they can to look like the models on covers of magazines. Piercy is criticizing this belief. At the end of the poem when the girl is dead, Piercy portrays her looking like a doll. This is ironic because she used to be happy playing with her dolls and now she is dead because the pressure of society made her believe she had to be one of those dolls. The poem closes with, "To every woman a happy ending". Piercy uses sarcasm here to portray how she disapproves of the way society mistreats and objectifies young girls.