Scouring the entire poem, the reader will not find a name for the girl. If not for the common pressure on females to present themselves to the public with attractive features, the girl may have remained herself, healthy and intelligent, and had not let the search for acceptance drive her to her unfortunate end. Finally, the girl is accepted, although it is not quite a happy ending. It is only after these changes that people ask, вЂњDoesnвЂ™t she look pretty?вЂќ taking in the standards that she has finally met, standards that they constantly pressed her with, standards that she could not meet in life. Before being displayed in her casket, the mortician paints her face, changes her nose, and dresses her in a nightie, fit to please the public. Even in death she cannot please until she is changed. Fed up with her inability to please others because of her unattractive qualities, вЂњshe cut off her nose and her legs / and offered them up.вЂќ Overwhelmed with goals, advice, and tasks to better herself for her society, the girl became obsessed with her appearance and no longer took time to truly better her actions, her nature, and herself. The author begins to end the poem with an extreme solution to the girlвЂ™s predicament and describes her suicide with euphemism. The child began to learn that her culture was more occupied with her appearance than what she accomplished or how she acted and that to become accepted she must conform to peopleвЂ™s expectations.

вЂњShe was advised to play coy, / exhorted to come hearty, / exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.вЂќ Advised to watch what she eats and to exercise to reduce her size and sculpt her body to become more visually appealing, вЂњher good nature wore outвЂќ as her focus was diverted. Although she was healthy, intelligent, and even strong, вЂњshe went to and fro apologizingвЂќ for everyone else looked past her true talents and could only see вЂњa fat nose on thick legs.вЂќ Her beauty and appearance became the main focus, masking her inner personality and confusing her motives and actions.ДЄs her society presses on her, the girl is given confusing instructions. Growing up with tools to help prepare her for whatвЂ™s to come, the girl is overcome with this new standard. This first stanza ends with the girlвЂ™s puberty years and the realization of her societyвЂ™s standards of beauty as she is told of the presence of her вЂњgreat big nose and fat legs.вЂќ These toys were meant to prepare her for the expectations she would later meet in life, expectations that a woman should raise children, take care of babies, feed her family, do the laundry, complete household chores, and look beautiful at the same time. As a young child, the girl was вЂњpresented dolls that did pee-pee / and miniature GE stoves and irons / and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy,вЂќ culture encroaching on her life and molding her to become a socially well-accepted woman. Opening with the girlвЂ™s uneventful and normal birth, the poem begins delivering feminist views. The poem progresses and tells how the pressures of being a woman affect the girlвЂ™s life and influence her actions. With a depressing tone, the poem describes a young girlвЂ™s life beginning with her birth and ending with her ironic death. The studentsВ had a lot of fun writing the poem, but then the mood shifted pretty sharply when weВ read through seven ofВ them in a row and everyone started to get depressed.В My strategy was to try to mobilize that depression intoВ outrage at oppressive genderВ roles.вЂњBarbie Doll,вЂќ a poem written by Marge Piercy in 1936, clearly delivers strong feminist views about the pressures and standards women are forced to live with. I taught this by first talking through the content and themes with them, then asking them, in small groups, to write a вЂњHawkeye KenвЂќ version of the poem.В This way, they have a template for criticallyВ understanding masculine gender roles, which can then be brought back into conversation with the feminine gender roles that Piercy outlines. The poem is a very clear and accessible treatment of feminist protests against restrictive and harmfulВ norms of femininity.

As she is lying dead in her coffin, the mourners, seeing the fake nose and legs that the undertaker has provided, comment on how pretty she finally is. The poem outlines the life and death of a young womenВ struggling toВ liveВ in aВ society whereВ all anyone notices are herВ вЂњfat nose and thick legs.вЂќ Worn down by trying to be вЂњfeminineвЂќ according to normative gender roles, she commits suicide by cutting off the offending nose and legs.

Margie piercy barbie doll