“Barbie Doll” Analysis

Directions

Read the background on the writer. Then, read and annotate “Barbie
Doll” and answer the questions under “Exploring the Text.” Provide
evidence from the text to support each answer.

Writer Marge Piercy

American poet, novelist, and activist Marge Piercy (b. 1936) grew up in
Michigan in a working-class family during the Depression. She graduated
from Northwestern University with an MA and went on to write more than
thirty books, including novels and volumes of poetry. She is known for her
highly personal free verse and her themes of feminism and social
protest. "Barbie Doll," from her 1973 collection To Be of Use, comments on
the popular icon - and children's toy - of the same name. It was published
during the second-wave of feminism.

Exploring the Text

1. Identify several stereotypes that Marge Piercy draws on in this poem. Why is girlchild
- one word - an appropriate term?

Its a simplification of “she was a young girl” it’s interesting that they had to add the
gender. You dont define someone by age, you define them by gender

2. What images and colors does Piercy use to depict the girlchild?

She was dressed in pink and white, used cherry (red) lipstick. The “girl” side of the
spectrum

When you’re young the bright colors are normal. She’d have bright lipstick because
that’s normal for a child

3. Who is the speaker in the poem?

Some narrator, in third person

4. How does the way the girl is encouraged to behave run counter to her natural
inclinations?

“She was told to play coy” but that only hid the problem instead of fix it.

5. How does the speaker entwine other commentaries into the poem? Why? Are these
voices in the mind of the girlchild real or imagined?
It almost seems as if she was narrating herself. She names really good things about
herself but nobody else sees this part of her.

6. What is the speaker's tone in this poem? What specific lines and images lead you to
your understanding of tone?

I read it very nonchalantly. Like it doesn’t matter (anymore)

7. So what? What is the purpose of this poem and what can readers learn from it?

I think it is supposed to be something like suicide propeganda. “Stop telling people

they’re ugly because they’ll kill themself” or just a vain attempt to make people not judge
someone by looks by making the consequences seem more intense

Barbie Doll

This girlchild was born as usual

and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,

possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,

exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she lay

with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.