Although Marge
Piercy does not mention the symbol of a Barbie doll in her poem from the title,
she shows that the symbol of a doll is a Barbie doll. In Piercy's
"Barbie Doll" she uses symbolism throughout her poem.. As a symbol,
the Barbie doll is used mainly in the beginning but the idea is used heavily in
the beginning and the end. Marge Piercy's use of the Barbie doll is very
effective because it takes a child hood toy that we all know of, and relates,
and compares it to many issues girls struggle with in today's world.
In
Piercy's poem the symbol of a Barbie doll is used to show ideal beauty in today’s
world. In the beginning of the story Piercy writes, “This girlchild was born as
usual / and presented dolls that did pee-pee.”(Piercy 1-2). Even as a
toddler most girls including the girlchild are “presented dolls” that will
shape the way they think the ideal beauty is .
At the end
of the poem Piercy writes “In the casket displayed on satin she lay / with the
undertaker’s cosmetics painted on.”(19-20)
Even in death the thing that people were most concerned about was the way the girlchild
looked, using “cosmetics painted on” to make sure she looked presentable. Since
the girlchild was
presented a doll at such a young age she never looked at herself in a positive
way.
Although the
Barbie doll is a symbol of what we think beauty is, Piercy also shows how the
symbol has a negative effect. After the girl hits puberty, one of her
classmates said, “You have a great big nose and fat legs.”(6)
Because the idea of what
beauty is ,
is so
strong in today’s world, it allows girls to tear each other apart just by making
fun of the way they look.
Later in the poem Piercy writes, “She went to and fro apologizing.”(10) Because
everyone had told her that she was not this perfect Barbie doll pretty, she
became so self-conscious that she felt bad to be in people’s presence. At first
glance the Barbie doll might seem like a harmless childes toy, but really it
has come to have more serious effects than just making girls self-conscious
about their bodies.
By the end of the
poem, Piercy gets to the point where she shows the consequences of what the symbol of the Barbie doll has. After a while of a life of apologizing and playing coy the girlchild “cut of her arms and legs /
and offered them up.”(17-18) People told her that she was ugly so often and she
believed it so much that she saw the only way was to cut off her arms and legs.
At the
very end when the girlchild was in her casket with the cosmetics on and
everyone was saying how pretty she looked Piercy writes, “Consummation at last.
/ To every women a happy ending.”(24-25) What Piercy is saying is no matter what the only thing that women want is to
be seen as pretty, even
if the sacrifice is death. The girlchild was pushed to a point that she found suicide the
only way to deal with her situation.
Since
1959 10 million Barbie dolls have been sold, 300,000 were sold in the first
year. The use of the Barbie doll as a symbol in this poem is very
effective because it deals with the issues girls have in today’s world using a child’s
toy. Piercy
shows us how a simple toy has come to represent what we think beauty is.
Since this idea
of beauty is so strong, we have become blinded
from what true beauty used to be. Because of this, many girls like the girlchild commit suicide every year just because they see it as the only solution to
stop the ridicule.
When the
Barbie doll was first made, the intensions might have been good but throughout
it’s time the Barbie has become a symbol of what beauty, which is impossible to
live up to.
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