"Barbie Doll"

Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll," explores the theme of perfection and always wanting more than what you have. The poem starts out soft and then takes a turn, " Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: / You have a great big nose and fat legs" (Piercy l. 5-6). This line reflects the harsh reality of a female developing into a woman. However, this harsh reality of striving for perfection doesn't just happen to females. Males also face a inward struggle; a conflict between beauty of the inside versus beauty on the outside.
This poem, reformed into language for a male audience, could be titled "Male Model." Ironically, that title could mean more than just one thing. The word 'model' can be thought of literally as what one should strive for, or the example one should follow. Also, it can be thought of as what one does for a career; setting a standard of what masculine beauty should be. The denotation of this word changes the effect it could have on the reader, depending on if they took it literally or not. When this poem is written in the intent for a male viewer the beginning lines of "and presented dolls that did pee pee / and miniature GE stoves and irons / and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy" (Piercy l. 2-4) that were intended for a female could be changed to a topic about cars, hardware and dinosaurs. Instead of looking a big nose and fat legs, the poem directed at males may talk about height and size of muscles. Regardless of being male or female, human beings are far from kind. Perhaps that's why perfection is so important and plastic surgery so abundant.
What ever happened to 'it's whats on the inside that counts?'