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Barbie Doll (1969) Marge Piercy. This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy. Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs. She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back ...
Barbie Doll This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy. Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs. She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back,
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- Summary
- Themes
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Analysis of Barbie Doll
- About Marge Piercy
‘Barbie Doll‘ by Marge Piercy tells of the exorbitant and absurdexpectations placed on young girls. The poem begins with the birth of a “girlchild” who is immediately given all the toys she will need to learn how to be a good mother and wife. She has a “GE stove” and a baby doll, which requires diaper changes. The girl is immediately being trained ...
In ‘Barbie Doll,’ Piercy confronts important themes of women’s rights and perception. These two themes are covered throughout the poem as Piercy delves into society’s image of who a woman should be. The poet takes the reader from the “girlchild’s” birth and her first gift, a barbie doll, to her time at school and her death. The young woman is immed...
‘Barbie Doll‘ by Marge Piercy is a four-stanza narrative poem that is separated into four stanzas of varying lengths. They are relatively close in line number and line length, allowing some cohesion to the piece without needing a cohesive rhyme scheme. The poem is written in free verse, meaning that the lines do not make use of a specific rhymesche...
Piercy makes use of several literary devices in ‘Barbie Doll.’ These include but are not limited to enjambment, imagery, and alliteration. The first of these, enjambment, is a common formal device in poetry that’s concerned with the way that lines end. If a line ends before the conclusion of a phrase or sentence, it is likely enjambed. For example,...
Stanza One
Barbie Doll begins with the beginning of a girl’s life. This child, referred to as a “girlchild,” was born, the speaker states, “as usual.” It is important to note the use of the word “girlchild” in this contextas the phrase has often been used throughout history as a derogatory term, as if one kid, a boy, is worth more than another, a girl. This child’s life began in a way that will be quite familiar and relatable to many readers. She was given the toys that are traditionally given to girls...
Stanza Two
In the second stanza, the speaker, narrating from an outsider’s perspective, as someone who is not drawn in by the ideologies of human society, states that the child, who is now becoming a woman, has a good number of positive attributes. She is both “healthy” and “intelligent.” Her body is strong, and she has, These shortlists of attributes are all things that are completely natural for a woman to have but are often, and sometimes usually, frowned upon. Women have not been, and in many places...
Stanza Three
The second half of Barbie Dollbegins where the first left off, in describing the ways in which she was “advised” to act. She should, at all times, be “coy,” as well as “hearty.” Her life should be filled with “exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle.” This last word, “wheedle,” means to use flattery to get what one wants. She should be endearing in all ways and still maintain her good nature. Unfortunately, but not unusually, as she has aged, her “good nature” has become “wor[n] out.” She is no lo...
Marge Piercywas born in March of 1936 in Detroit, Michigan, to a working-class family. As a young woman, Piercy studied at the University of Michigan, where she was the first member of her close family to attend college. She earned an MA from Northwestern University and throughout the 60’s worked as an organizer of political movements. She was incl...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
May 2, 2015 · Read the full text of Barbie Doll, a feminist poem by Marge Piercy that explores the pressures and expectations of girlhood and womanhood. The poem is not available in PDF format on this web page.
Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy. This girlchild was born as usual. and presented dolls that did pee-pee. and miniature GE stoves and irons. and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy. Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs. She was healthy, tested intelligent,
Dec 28, 2022 · Barbie Doll Poem Background. The second-wave feminism took place throughout the Western World during the early 1960s and lasted for around two decades. It aimed to increase equality for women. The poem ‘Barbie Doll’ reflects this ideology. Women at that time were exploited not only for their gender but also for their race.
Read and analyze the poem \"Barbie Doll\" by American poet and novelist Marge Piercy. The poem explores the themes of feminism, social protest, and self-image through the metaphor of a girlchild who cuts off her nose and legs to fit the stereotype of beauty.
