"Barbie Doll"
by Marge Piercy
The poem focuses on a young girl, healthy, smart, and strong, who faced criticism from her peers. This is something many people relate to, and like many girls, the subject of the poem tried desperately to change her imperfections. "She went to and fro apologizing" (Piercy, 835). "She was advised to..exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle" (836). Now the last stanza is where the girl in the poem takes the teasing farther than a normal person would. It takes the reader by total surprise: "So she cut off her nose and her legs and offered them up" (836). The girl honestly killed herself to be perfect. Not figuratively, literally. And the most ironic part is the last three lines, the ones that stood out to me the most. When the girl was lying in her coffin- "Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said. Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending" (836). Are you kidding me!? A happy ending? Apparently the only thing that makes women happy is being seen as beautiful. This girl thought that beauty was worth death, or at least extreme pain. Consummation means perfect ending. The irony is that she killed herself for the perfect ending. The perfect/happy ending wasn't to live, it was to be beautiful, which is outrageous.
I think this poem is also a little satire of our idealized culture and the kind of teasing that people, especially teens endure. Today, we are all just compared to unrealistic images and some people become obsessed with acceptance or perfection, leading to negative results.
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