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Women in literature
Women's voices in literature
Women in literature
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In “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “homage to my hips” by Lucile, there are many differences in response toward society’s body expectations for women. In both poems their tone, meaning, and approach are different.
In “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, the girl in the poem thinks largely on what others think about her body. For instance, after the girl was compared to a fan belt, the poem states, “So she cut off her nose and legs / and offered them up” (17-18). She rather cut her body parts and risk the chance of death in order to look pretty in the eyes of her peers. She has little to no body image, just how others respond to her physical appearance. In another case, when it is revealed to the reader that the girl is dead, the poem declares, “Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said / Consummation at Last / To every woman a happy ending” (23-25). Women care too much about their look that they would rather die of a complement on their beauty. When females have others thinking that they are pretty, females feel complete. Marge
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For example, when she states that her hips do what they want to do, she says, “these hips are mighty hips / these hips are magic” (11-12). The speaker is not ashamed of her hip’s appearance, but rather showing it off. The girl is filled with confidence about her look. In addition, after describing her hips as mighty, she declares, “i have known them / to put a spell on a man and / spin him like a top!” (13-15). Her big hips are capable of attracting men. Many men are interested in her big hips and are craving for her. Lucille Clifton thinks that today’s society cares too much about the difference in each individual from another and not being humble for how someone look. Lucille Clifton also thinks that each women are pretty in their own way; stereotypical people think women are weak in body
“Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “ David Talamentez on the Last Day of Second Grade” by Rosemary Catacalos are two poems that show a unique view into society and the roles society expects people to fill. Sometimes those expectations can lead people to take drastic measures or even cause defiance in some people. The irony of this is that it seems the more we push people to be what society wants the more it drives them to be what they don’t want.
In The Barbie Doll, the author writes about a girl' s life. The author starts off by describing her childhood. She was given dolls and toys like any other girl and she also wore hints of lipstick. This girl was healthy and rather intelligent. Even though she had possessed many good traits she was still looked at by others as "the girl with a big nose and fat legs". She exercised, dieted and smiled as much as possible to please those around her. She became tired of pleasing everyone else and decided to commit suicide. During her funeral those who she had tried to please in the past were the ones to comment about how beautiful she looked. Finally she had received the praise she was longing for.
In the beginning of “Barbie Doll”, pleasurable and unpleasurable imagery is given so that the reader can see the extremes girls go through to be considered perfect.
The treatment of females from the 18th century through the 21st century have only gotten worse due to society’s ignorant judgment of the gender. Of which, is the change from the previous housewife like actions to the modern day body figure. This repulsive transaction is perceived throughout literature. From the 19th century’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin in 1894 and the 20th century’s poem, “Barbie Doll” composed by Marge Piercy in 1971.
In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll,” we see the effect that society has on the expectations of women. A woman, like the girl described in ‘Barbie Doll’, should be perfect. She should know how to cook and clean, but most importantly be attractive according to the impossible stereotypes of womanly beauty. Many women in today’s society are compared to the unrealistic life and form of the doll. The doll, throughout many years, has transformed itself from a popular toy to a role model for actual women. The extremes to which women take this role model are implicated in this short, yet truthful poem.
The speaker is trying to address all Americans that know deeper into Barbie doll life. By using the word “hippie” she gives a sense of rejection, opposition and liberalism towards things. Hippie Barbie reveals the ugly truth about the society based on the appearances that we live in. Using personification as her strongest tool, she uses Barbie to establish a somewhat comic parallel world with real women. The author introduces her poem with; “Barbie couldn’t grasp the concept of free love.
In the beginning, the “girlchild” being discussed is described as “healthy, tested intelligent,/ possessed strong arms and back,/ abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.” (lines 7-9) Yet throughout the poem, all that is pointed out is her fat nose and thick legs. As the poem progresses, she is told how to improve her flaws, through diet, exercise and acting dumb. By the end the girl commits suicide after exhausting her efforts to conform to society. The final lines show the people attending her funeral discussing how pretty she looks, emphasizing the idea that she finally achieved her “happy ending”. The poem as a whole demonstrates a type of satire called Juvenalian satire, which is a formal version in which the speaker (or writer) attacks the vices and error of society with contempt and indignation. Through Ms. Piercy’s use of description and words choice that implies contempt and sarcasm, the reader is able to identify how society’s standards for women’s looks greatly overshadow other talents and abilities they may have. It is demonstrated that if one is not skinny, and petite with perfect hair and a “turned up...nose” (line 21) then other traits such as intelligence, kindness, and strength are not worth
One of the chief reasons that these poems are perceived as being dissimilar is the difference in the time periods in which they were written. During this time, which was shortly after Barbie dolls became popular, a plethora of attention was being directed towards the appearance of women, both old and young. Society now has a perception of what it believes should be considered beautiful or attractive in a woman. This could have easily caused many women, no matter the age, to feel self-conscious, much like the young girl in the poem.
In the poem “Barbie Doll” the speaker take more drastic measures to make herself acceptable to society. In line12 the speaker takes drastic measures to fix herself, “So she cut off her nose and legs.” This action will lead to her death in the end of the poem which would not have happened if her peers did not mock her about the way her nose and legs looked. People are aware of their own imperfections, but when people mock them and do not accept them because of it, that is when the drastic measures of starvation, excessive exercising, and depression can begin. It can happen without the pressures of society, but if society mocks them, it pushes the person further in to a state of
In the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, a young girl is bullied for not achieving physical perfection. The title itself is an icon of perfection, it gives the reader an idea of the standard the girl is held to. Barbie dolls are modeled to be tall, thin, colored eyes, with a symmetrically beautiful faces the icon of perfection. The speaker states, “Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs,” (Piercy 7). Here the young girl is objectified into body parts. She becomes her flaws and is no longer seen as a person. Even though the speaker states “She was healthy, tested intelligent, / possessed strong arms and back,” (Piercy 7-8), everyone focuses on her flaws and ignore all the good aspects to her. The speaker goes on to state, “She was advised to
these hips are magic hips. I have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top.” (lines 11-15) One can easily understand that the speaker is using a bit of humor when talking about putting a spell on men with her magical hips. She acknowledges that despite how big they may be that they can still turn heads. By the end of this poem you can conclude that after all the speaker had mentioned about her hips, that her tone had gone from firm and confident to semi humorous. Sometimes it is best to soak and laugh at ourselves. After all, laughing makes us healthier. With the speaker stating that she has magical hips, you can tell she owns her self-worth and can joke about it without feeling any type of hurt or resentment about her
In “Barbie Doll,” by Marge Piercy, the speaker’s tone is remorsefully cautionary because she aims to protect females from the societal standards that caused the female subject of the poem to commit suicide. Early in the poem, the speaker illustrates the teen prior to her death: “She was healthy, tested intelligent, / possessed strong arms and back, / abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” (7-9). Clearly, the girl had the potential to be very successful, as a result of her many natural gifts. However, she was constantly harassed and nagged because she had a “great big nose and fat legs” (6). Even though she had all the attributes of a very successful woman, she was still abused by her fellow classmates because she did not uphold the societal
Chapter nine is titled “Gender and Sexuality”. This chapter discusses terms such as “gender”, “sexuality”, and “sexual scripts”. These terms are closely related to the importance that the Lammily doll and the possible impact it could have on girl’s understanding of these topics which largely affect who they are and how they are perceived to be. Chapter thirteen, is titled “The Body, Medicine, Health, and Health Care”. My interest in this chapter as related to the article is because it discusses The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. I find this chapter to be especially important to this article. Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth, “argues that the media confront the vast majority of people with unattainable standard of beauty” (Ritzer 383). Wolf’s argument is completely valid and provides an explanation to the debate of Barbie versus Lammily. The Barbie doll enforces this concept of the “male gaze” by constantly forcing the unreachable image promoted by the men who run the media and companies such as this. While the Lammily doll promotes the idea of the promotion and enforcement of an achievable standard beauty. The Lammily doll’s beauty is achievable because it is “average”, in the sense that this doll was created to closely resemble the average body shape of healthy nineteen year old
Societies standard change every year. Women are constantly overwhelmed to attain a standard of beauty that is equivalent to perfection. Women are judged by their looks more than any other aspect. In the poems “Cinderella”, “Barbie Doll” and “The Applicant”, the authors illustrate that many people falsify their bodies in order to conform to society. In these poems the authors suggest that the standards of society are more constraining to women than men.
Lucille Clifton’s poem, “homage to my hips” deals with a situation related to gender consciousness, while also briefly touching on the topic of slavery and the oppression of women. The poem focuses on the narrator’s hips, which she describes as “big” and “magic”. Part of what separates her from men is her big, magical, and powerful hips. The narrator also describes her hips as being free; her hips “have never been enslaved / they go where they want to go / they do what they want to do” (Clifton). She is a free woman; she is