Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

The poem "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy is less about physical death and more about the death of what the real ideal of women should be.The girlchild represents you and I: Typical, ordinary, and everyday women who have great qualities and normal weaknesses. The girlchild is born with qualities that are ordinarily considered good. However, in the type of setting where this poem develops, it is understood that women are not meant to be strong, skilled, nor intelligent: They are supposed to look good, act cute, and be seen but not heard.

The girlchild in this poem does not understand why she has to give up what she considers to be the qualities that make her unique in favor of changing them for a plastic and superficial society. She cannot fathom what could be wrong with her, but she is consistently told that everything is wrong.Hence, the moment when she "gives up her nose and her legs", does not refer to an actual and literal cut of her body parts. It is symbolic of how she had to relinquish the pride she felt for her uniqueness, and how she allowed herself to believe that her big nose and her thick legs were not good enough. It means that she now believes that there is something wrong with her. Or, perhaps, that she changed her nose and her looks in order to be considered "OK" by everyone else.Her funeral is symbolic of the death of her real self. The real woman is gone and, in her place, society has given her what it feels she lacks. Now she is exactly as they expect but, in her own flesh, she is dead.Once the girlchild gives up trying to be a real, natural woman, she dies. Yet, the undertaker makes her into that ideal-looking fake woman society wants her to be. Once in her casket, she looks like they like. She has to be dead and give up her real aspect of womanhood in order to satisfy a society that lives in oblivion as to what women are really like, what they need, and how they should be treated.Piercy's point in making the images of the doll cut herself and offer them reflects the sacrifices that women make in order to conform to a male dictated standard of beauty. The theme of obedience to this order is a very strong theme in the poem. It is one that compels the girl to sacrifice everything in order to be accepted. The description offered in Piercy's poem is one where women are expected to acquiesce to everything that the male structured vision of social order desires. If this includes sacrificing physical or artistic talents, so be it. If this includes doing whatever to "make" the girl beautiful by a social standard dictated by men, so be it. This includes the cutting of her nose and the sacrifice of her body. The imagery helps to bring out the idea that what happens to women in such a social order is savage. It helps to show that what women might dismiss as just "normal" is actually bizarre and horrific, a practice that demeans the woman, making it easier for them