Gender Identity in Marge Piecys Barbie Doll
A detailed Summary of Gender Identity in Marge Piecys Barbie Doll
Gender Identity in Piercy's "Barbie Doll"
Dolls often give children their first lessons in what a society considers valuable and
beautiful. These dolls often reveal the unremitting pressure to be young, slim, and beautiful in a
society which values mainly aesthetics. Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll" exhibits how a girl's
childhood is saturated with gender-defined roles and preconceived norms for how one should
behave. In order to convey her thoughts, the author uses familiar, yet ironic, imagery, as well as
uses fluctuating tone in each stanza to better draw attention to the relevant points of her
The first four lines of "Barbie Doll" are written in a trite, simplistic tone which represent
the normality and basic needs of infancy. It is at this point in one's life that a child has no ability
to deviate from the norm, simply because they have no knowledge of it and are completely
influenced by what their parents present them with. The presentation of a doll and an oven,
along with lipstick (1-3), ensure that the girl will know exactly which gender role she must be.
These lines imitate the rigidity in which sexual and gender roles are defined. The tone of the
introductory stanza changes abruptly

sense of relinquishment as the subject symbolically "...cut off her nose and her legs/ and offered
rather, it was a generated character. Line twenty-five works with the previous line to evoke
in line five when the speaker relates "Then, in the magic of
finally, the man as the "sexual aggressor" while the woman was the "submissive help-mate." In
The author attempts to evoke pathos in the last two lines of the poem in the same manner
With the beginning of the last stanza of "Barbie Doll," the reader can achieve almost a
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1001
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
Category: English
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