"Barbie Doll"

I interpreted Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” similar to the interpretations of the rest of the class. I agree that the overall message was society’s demands of females and that suicide was the result of them. When I read “dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipstick the color of cherry candy” (Piercy 2-4) I thought not only of small girls but also the way that Barbie has evolved. She has gone from bright red lipstick to glittery pink lip gloss. The stoves and irons remind me of Barbie’s dream kitchen and the dolls that did pee-pee seem to represent new dolls that other company’s have manufactured since the success of Barbie. These are all typical toys that normal girls play with, which is the beginning description of the girl in this poem. “You have a great big nose and fat legs” (Piercy 6) was the start of the girl’s self-consciousness. The whole second stanza goes on to describe her flaws: “healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (Piercy 7-9). Such characteristics were not acceptable of a female in those times so she felt that she owed the world an apology for her lack of feminism and physical appearance. The very last stanza begins out explaining what she was told to do, but after following along for so long the girl feels that it must come to an end. The person she knew herself as is being hidden and she is commanded to form herself the way that society fells females should be. “She cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up” (Piercy 17-18) to me represented her weakness and lack of desire to keep them up to par. The fact that she was dressed up in pink and white stood out to me right away because I thought of the box that Barbie is displayed in, which consists of those two colors. Also the fact that it was a nightie implies that she will be resting a long while. After the girl takes her own life everyone finds her so beautiful, thanks to the help of cosmetics. The girl they see isn’t the girl that she really was so those people may be pleased to see that she now looks like they wanted her to, but I don’t believe that her personal happy ending would relate to suicide.