Barbie Doll Fantasy Exposed in Marge Piercy’s Barbie Doll...

Is Barbie the model woman? For generations girls have played with this doll and many have aspired to be just like her: the party girl, career women and the beauty queen all wrapped into one. In Marge Piercy’s poem entitled â€Å"Barbie Doll† the title foreshadows the theme of the poem which is that girls are ultimately and fatally entrapped by society’s narrow definitions of feminine behavior and beauty. When Piercy compares the young lady in the poem to a Barbie doll she is revealing the irony of the title. In â€Å"Barbie Doll† the speaker is aware of the events taking place in the young girls’ life; however, the speaker does not know how the young girl feels about the events that are taking place. I believe Piercy did this so†¦show more content†¦These toys are not only items that a young girl might like to have but they are toys that are considered feminine in nature. The toys symbolize the gender roles that girls are taught even at a young age. Much like Barbie, girls are expected to act a certain way and to enjoy certain activities just because they are considered feminine. The doll, miniature stove and miniature iron are all items that represent being a mother and a housewife. The girl is being told at a young age, a â€Å"perfect woman† knows how to raise children and take care of a house, even Barbie comes with a baby, a line of pink pots and pans to scrub and an iron for her to iron Ken’s clothes with. This girl, at a young age, was being told the social norms that she would be expected to follow as she got older. The cherry flavored red lipstick the young girl is given to play with seems innocent at first glance; however, red lipstick is viewed as a sensual shade for any woman to have in her makeup collection. The young girl applying a sensual shade of lipstick at a young age shows how women are expected to be sexual appealing, just like Barbie, and this sexuality is being introduced too early in life. In keeping with the fairy-tale like tone of the first stanza, Piercy makes puberty sound like something wonderful by referring to puberty as â€Å"magic†(5). Even though the young girl has gone through a magical phase in her life, the young