At the beginning of the poem the girl is portrayed as a typical little girl without a care in the world. Her parents and family members presented her with gifts and toys like any other child would be. She receives gifts like Barbie dolls, play ovens and pretend make up. Piercy uses an anaphora in the first stanza as she repeats the word “and” three times (2,3,4). This is an effective strategy because it stresses the amount of gifts the girl is given to play with.
Young girls tried with all of their might to be just like Barbie, to be perfect. In 1973 when Marge Piercy wrote this poem, she was conveying a message to her readers that no matter how hard we try, perfection is not something we achieve in our lifetimes, only in death. At the time this poem was written, Barbie had already been out for nearly twenty years. “Millions of children throughout the world, mostly girls, owned and played with one or more Barbie dolls, while some older people collected them (and some still do)” (Sherrow 1). Many of these women and young girls were trying to emulate her look at the time, which considering her measurements of 39-18-33, was virtually impossible.
Artificially Perfect When invented in the late 1950s by Mattel, the Barbie doll was considered the model woman. For many generations little girls have played with this doll and some even thought that’s how they were supposed to look and act. The Barbie doll was everthing. She was the perfect housewive, she had a career for herself, and she was even the party girl all while mainting her perfect hair, makeup, and tiny wasitline. Within the past few years the idea of the Barbie doll has been questioned by society: is Barbie what every woman is to suppose to look and act like?
Of course, Barbie is always there to start these trends. So when these young girls are playing with their brand new Barbie doll, their brain is registering everything about that doll. How popular and perfect she is, and so naturally these girls are beginning to want to be just like Barbie, happy and perfect all the time, which starts many of them on their way to eating disorders. It’s estimated that 8 million people in
How popular she is and perfect she is, and so naturally these girls are beginning to want to be just like Barbie, happy and perfect all of the time. There is always so much to look, act and dress. And young girls worldwide feel the need to fit in and the only way to do that is to look and act a certain way. Barbie has always been there to set the trends. Feminist say that Barbie is the cause of worldwide eating disorders, low self-esteem and false perception of beauty.
Barbie dolls are just a source of entertainment for kids and meanwhile it cherishes their dreams. In young girls’ imagination Barbie is not just a beautiful doll it is the reflection of their adulthood in future. Barbie has experienced over 150 careers including teacher, veterinarian, surgeon, doctor, and astronaut which only men were allowed to do until around the 1920’s (Lee Stone, 2010). The fact of Barbie having over 150 careers and working independently sets a marvelous environment for younger girls to improve their imagination while playing with their favorite doll. Barbie dolls take young girls one step closer to pursue their dreams and in
In retrospect, Barbie was created as an image icon for all to love and admire. Growing up, I was a self-entitled ‘girly-girl.’ I absolutely loved getting dressed up in frilly dresses and twirling around to see how beautiful it looked. Just like any other girl in America, I owned many Barbie dolls. However, it did not stop with just the dolls; I owned Barbie’s dream house, convertible, and various outfits. I loved playing with Barbie and often took her with me wherever I went.
As a child, Walker believes that she can get whatever she wants or make people like her only by being a beautiful little girl. She shows that she is confident about this idea at the age of two and a half when she wants to go to the fair with her father and tells him "Take me daddy, I'm the prettiest” (Alice Walker, 150) while she parades around wearing a beautiful dress. As children, people often imitate the things they see, but they are not taken seriously, and many adults see these behaviors as being “child’s play”. Walker is imitating behaviors she has viewed from older women in her community and actresses in movies that she watched. The behavior that Walker showcases during the first stage of innocence is similar to the behaviors the character
I am afraid to mingle with other children and to be around with people. This is Erikson’s second stage of developmental framework, which is Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt: To realize that one is an independent person who can make decisions. When I was 4 years old, I loved playing paper dolls. I do remember I used to buy a paper doll and then get a plain colorful paper to draw clothes for the paper doll. I designed weird clothes and my mom told me that I will be either a designer or a
“She says they fit perfectly, but wobbles on their high heels, they’re hard to balance” shows that Lochhead’s sister wants the shoes to fit but isn’t steady in them, meaning that although she wishes to be an adult she isn’t ready yet. Her success in childhood, and how comfortable she is in her own skin is suggested by: “I like to watch my little sister playing hopscotch, admire the neat hops-and-skips of her their quick peck, never-missing their mark, not over-stepping the line. She is competent at peever.” This shows how good Lochhead’s sister is at being a child, and, contrasted with the image of her stumbling and wobbling in high heeled shoes, how unstable she would be if she took on the characteristics of an adult at this time. Lochhead seems fearful that if her sister grows up too soon then she will make mistakes, as Lochhead herself did. “I try to warn my little sister about unsuitable shoes, point out my own distorted feet, the callouses, odd patches of hard skin.