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. For starters the title, “Barbie Doll” holds a meaning. It symbolizes the ideal figure of a female body. Society creates this ideal that is embed into every century. It is never ending. It is intended that she must have the twig like arms and legs, the minuscule waist and nose, …show more content…
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl …show more content…
Throughout her transformation, she does not only lose her unwanted body parts but also herself. She was “born as usual.” She was “healthy.” She was “intelligent.” Yet, she “offered” her body and became an object for others to point and critique at. Upon the judgments that are harshly thrown at the poor child, “her good nature [was] worn out/like a fan belt.” The poet creates this simile and the tone of insecurity to show that over a long period of time she is no longer able to take in any more criticism. She cannot be “apologizing” any more for how she is. Thus, she conforms to the ways of society by having pieces of her cut off. She becomes a doll, an object that does not live life and that is easily wielded and manipulated by others. This child takes her own freedom away, a freedom that Louise from Chopin’s work strives
In both poem “ Barbie Doll” by Merge Piercy and “ homage to my hips” by Lucille Clifton, they both expressed the different way on how our society wants us, women to look and act in order to be except into the society. Our society condemned any women who are to act differently from our norms. In this society and in every culture aspect they are always stereotype, women always been taking advantage of no matter what century we are on. In “Barbie Doll” the author tend to provide more effective critique of society expectation about our body image than “homage to my hips”.
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.
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 Barbie is a plastic, man-made female toy, which has perfect facial symmetry, unnatural body dimensions, and perfectly unblemished white skin. In Chris Semansky’s Overview of “Barbie Doll,” he explains that the Barbie “is invented to show women have been socialized into thinking of their bodies and behavior in relation to a male-controlled idea” (Semansky). The title directly alludes to the Barbie toy, which represents a design of a man-made construction of the female image that shows an unnatural human form that could only exist inside the imagination of men. Throughout both “Barbie Doll” and “The Birthmark” you will find the female protagonists seeking an ultimately perfect form, free of the characteristics that those around them see as unworthy. It is as if they are chasing the blueprint of perfection that is present in the Barbie. The original Barbie came with three outfits a bathing suit, a tennis outfit, and a wedding dress (Semansky). Her outfits clearly symbolize restrictions forced on female privilege, identity, and autonomy, where “she embodies the ideals and values of her middle-class American community” who expect her to “spend her days at the country club and her afternoons cooking dinner for her husband” (Semansky). This is directly similar to the “outfits” those around the women in “Barbie Doll” where the girlchild is born
When her husband was still with her, she had no identity, she was branded exclusively as Mrs. Mallard, Brently Mallard’s wife. Now, Louise distinguishes that she can finally be her own person and be identified by who she is, not only as someone else’s wife. As Louise departs from her room, she develops into a new person and as Mark Cunningham (2004) writes in his Literary Criticism, The Autonomous Female and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin’s “Story of an Hour”, “With Brently’s return, with the reconstitution of her marriage and previous social position, Louise once again vanishes among her husband and her relatives” (para. 3). This explicates that when Louise’s husband was with her, and when he returns, she fades into the background. In the short time Louise is deprived of her husband, she grows into her own identity and this gives way to her feminist ideas. As Louise realizes that she now does not have to live for anyone else in the years to come, Chopin (1894) writes that “There would be no powerful will bending hers” (para. 14). This demonstrates that Louise frequently felt that her husband’s opinion conflicted on hers and she rarely received the attention she deserved. Now, Louise has no one to rule above her, no one to be associated with as lesser than
...t, cruel, and even emotionless. However, this is far from true. Louise Mallard may have been relieved to hear about her husband’s death and she may have died of the disappointment at hearing he was actually alive, but she is only human. She desires freedom from oppression and freedom to be her own woman. She cares deeply for her husband, but he tied her down in a way that she did not like. The weight was far too much to bear, despite what feelings she held for Brently Mallard. She has a wide range of emotions, including the grief toward the death of Mr. Mallard. Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and feelings are no different than those belonging to any other person.
At the request of many who say that Barbie gives an overly sexualized image of women to children, Barbie has undergone several breast reductions and waist-widening modifications to make her more acceptable not in the eyes of children, but in the eyes of the children’s parents. Even though her height has remained rather irrelevant through her 55 years of being alive, Barbie has been produced with several different feminine physiques and many different skin colors in an attempt to satisfy outraged people. She started out as a fashion doll that needed unrealistic proportions to help her numerous outfits fit better, but somewhere along the way her harmless journey became stained with the accusations of feminists. Even after takin...
Louise’s fate was tragic. But still I think that it’s better to live an hour of freedom and happiness than to spend an entire lifetime in the shadow of the “gray cloud”. Louise experienced real freedom that meant the absence of her husband’s domination. The irony of life killed her too early, but it seems to me that there is no need to feel pity for her. Even if it was a short hour, it was the time when all her dreams came true. She found the freedom from her husband that her lonely soul was searching for, and just for this we can consider her as a really happy woman.
Barbie’s human body size characteristic may be unrealistic, but the doll isn’t a human shrunk down to play size. For instance, in the movie “Life-Sized” a girl’s doll comes to life. While it may be that in this movie the doll had a hard time adapting to life as a human, she eventually got the gist of having a career and living life the way everyone wanted
That is clear when Chopin made the general tone of this short story is ironical as she made the reader expects something and by the end of the story she changes their expectation. That is because readers expect Mr. Mallard to be dead but at the end of the story it is Mrs. Mallard who died instead and this is situational irony. Moreover, the reader expect that Mrs. Mallard is a fragile woman who suffers from "heart trouble" as Chopin portrayed her. “ She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.” There is a paradox here between the two contradictory words that indicate she is not the character we thought she is but a different one , after being released of this marriage that repressed her she feels as a "goddess of victory." With the development of the story Louise starts to change and show her inner feelings and thoughts that reflect Chopin ideology in the story. Furthermore, there is verbal irony in “the joy that kills" as the writer means that she dies out of disappointment after draining her of her dream , not of "the joy that kills " as the doctor said and that reflects that the southern community will never acknowledge women's innermost feelings, individuality, and selfhood. Now we can say that Chopin was ahead of her time in her subject and her approach. The fact that she tackled a very sensitive issues
Barbie is the figurehead of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls. Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for over fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle.
Barbie, an American icon that was a product of the Mattel Company, revolutionized the lives of young girls and women for many decades. The creation of Barbie, meant for many young girls the opportunity to have choices during a time when women were limited. Although, Barbie has long been criticized for being associated with domesticity and her appearance among many other things, she is nonetheless an iconic figure in American History. As a female who grew up playing with Barbie dolls, for many people like myself, she was more than a toy, she was an influence that many woman have tried to emulate because she was an innovate figure in the 1960s and has continued to be well into today. The intention of this paper is to examine what were the intentions of Barbie doll creator Ruth Handler when the doll debuted in 1959 as well as the magnitude of Barbie’s impact on women and women’s history.
In Kate Chopin’s short story, a woman named Louise Mallard suffered of a heart disease. When her sister Josephine reveals to Louise about her husband’s tragic train accident, causing his death, her reaction was bizarre. After she is notified about her husband’s decease, she goes upstairs and locks herself in her room. She sits on her armchair, looks out her window, and fantasizes about what her life will be like without her husband, Mr. Mallard. Shortly after, Josephine comes for her, thinking Louise will get ill about the news and they both walk down the stairs. To Mrs. Mallard’s dismay, the door flings open: Mr. Mallard was alive! Mrs. Mallard was in shock but mostly disappointed, for the future she dreamed of without her husband was ruined, and dies. According to the doctor she had died of the joy that kills. There is no doubt that Kate Chopin included an abundant of symbolic and ironic references in her short story “The Story of an Hour.”
Starting out as a new toy for children, Barbie has grown to become one of the most iconic figures in popular culture today. Upon initial release, Barbie had been absorbed by the teenage society rapidly, creating social change both in a positive and negative manner. Barbie was created to satisfy the needs of young girls who wanted to act out their aspirations for adult life with a doll – a function that could not be carried out by the ‘baby’ dolls existent at the time. A catalyst for social change with positive outcomes was needed that would result in young girls being encouraged to aspire to be something other a carer for children. This trend has extended to be a global phenomenon, as young girls ..The trend has become a reality in the Western world, as females are now encouraged to take the next step and become an active member of societal institutions such as workplaces.
In connection with this discussion about Barbie creating unrealistic standards for girls and fostering controversial feministic stereotypes, a woman named Blondie Bennett is currently making headlines across the world for famously stating that she would like to be treated like a “plastic sex doll” and will undergo hypnotherapy to become “brainless” like Barbie (Kirkova, 2014). Bennett is an obsessive Barbie fan who has invested thousands of dollars on plastic surgeries to create a more plastic-like image for her body so that she can look more like the doll. In her interviews, she actually prides herself on being forgetful and ditsy. She recalls Barbie as her first play toy as a young girl. Dressed in pink from head-to-toe, Bennett says: “when I was a teenager… I wanted to mirror my life like Barbie… she just lived an exciting life” (Kirkova, 2014). She also went on to say: “Barbie has the best life – all she does is shop and make her self look pretty – she doesn’t worry about anything” (Kirkova, 2014). Bennett has male friends who pay for her rent and surgeries in exchange for sexual favors. Clearly, Bennett uses her sexuality to gain advantages and is completely reliant on men financially. She even changes her tone of voice to sound like that of a young girl. Of course this is one of the more rarer cases, but it truly shows how impactful a simple toy can be on a child’s development. Further, it exemplifies why the design of toys and the underlying themes they possess, should be carefully studied and understood.