Gender Roles in "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy

The title of Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” reflects generalized body standards by the use of a highly popular toy name among girls. With their thin and curvy body as well as symmetrical features, barbie dolls reflect an extreme example of physical appearance. Taken from this perspective, “Barbie Doll” explores how gender roles affect women’s way of living in a patriarchal society.

At the beginning of “Barbie Doll”, “girlchild” is used to emphasize that the doll is just for girls. The speaker is “born as usual” since she is brought up with norms and limitations as a girl. For instance, she mentions that she has grown up with lipsticks associated with femininity. The reader develops empathy about how the persona suffers due to her assigned sex. Thus, she feels limited in the male-dominated society.

Over the years, women are thought to be engaged in such domestic affairs as cooking. To stress this idea, in “Barbie Doll”, the speaker uses the words “stoves” and “irons”. Giving advice to their young girls and boys about how to behave or dress, families are the main reason for gender roles attributed by society. They create a family institution that affects the children’s education and culture more than anything. In Piercy’s poem, the speaker’s family obviously makes gender discrimination as they raise their daughter according to the traditional feminine stereotypes with “miniature GE stoves and irons”. The speaker in “Barbie Doll” is alienated from society.

The persona does not fit the expectation of society. She is made aware that having fat legs and a big nose are not the features of an ideal woman. Therefore, she does not fit the norms of feminine beauty standards. Although she is intelligent, it is not important for a person who gives significance to physical appearance and generalized body image.

In “Barbie Doll”, the use of simile in the line `her good nature wore out, like a fan belt` implicates the young woman’s attempts to become a stereotypical female. Nevertheless, she ends up loathing her real self and probably goes even further, and commits suicide. In this way, the death of the woman is symbolic as the patriarchy demands women`s obedience. In the end, the image of the woman represents the patriarchal desire as the woman looking like a Barbie doll in her nighties is displayed with make-up, and also her putty nose is turned up. Ultimately, she reaches perfection in accordance with the feminine ideal of society. Although it says “to every woman a happy ending”, the poem actually ends with quite an unhappy ending. She simply wears herself out to fit the standards.

In a male-dominated society, women are expected to act feminine and to be well-proportioned since families attribute these gender roles to them from the day they are born. Apart from parents who restrict specifically their daughters while teaching them how not to act boyish, there are many other factors making women feel that they do not belong in any place like a particular culture which has an impact on women’s value in the eyes of men. Thus, some women try to fit society’s gender standards although they know that these norms limit their lives under any circumstances.