Barbie doll

Marge Piecy's poem "Barbie doll" examines how females derive their self-esteem from what others think of them, especially during the years of puberty. The importance of image to girls is well known and many authors have written about this subject, but it is considered somewhat taboo to suggest that young men have it as bad as young women. Young men wish for perfect physical appearance just as women do. If I were to rewrite this poem so that the subject was a man I would name it "Hero Action Figure". Action figures modeled after heroes from TV and movies posses all the physical characteristics a "perfect" man would. They are also a toy that many boys play with and hope to emulate, just like Barbie for girls. Instead of using the images of "a big nose and fat legs"(Piercy 1048), I would use scrawny. Just as every young girl hopes the word fat won't be used to describe her, young men must feel the same way about scrawny.