Barbie Doll

"What Are Big Girls Made Of?" by Marge Piercy (1996)

“What Are Big Girls Made Of?” visits many of the same themes and motifs of the body, of sexuality, and of second-wave feminism:

She

sits at the table closing her eyes to food

hungry, always hungry:

a woman made of pain (Lines 52-55).

This pain and tortured obsession with dieting, smallness, and societal expectations for women’s appearances mirrors that of “Barbie Doll.”

"The friend" by Marge Piercy (1968)

A useful accompaniment to “Barbie Doll,” “The friend” addresses the ties between love, sex, and the things others ask of one’s body. “he said, burn your body. / it is not clean and it smells like sex” (Lines 7-8). The image of removing limbs is seen as well: “he said, cut off your hands. / they are always poking at things” (Lines 2-3). These lines mirror the way the main character cuts off her nose and legs in “Barbie Doll.”

"Always Unsuitable" by Marge Piercy (1999)

“I look a stuffed turkey in a suit” (Line 4). Piercy follows through on themes of the body and sexuality in “Always Unsuitable,” using the graphic, stark imagery typical to her poetry and seen in “Barbie Doll.” Expectations for what women ought to look like, this time set forth by the mothers of the speaker’s lovers, are discussed as well: “Ah, what you wanted for your sons /

were little ladies hatched from the eggs / of pearls like pink and silver lizards” (Lines 22-24).

"The Woman in the Ordinary" by Marge Piercy (1971)

Another poem which visits ideas of the body and what is beautiful, “The Woman in the Ordinary” is on the more optimistic end of Piercy’s work. “The woman in the block of ivory soap / has massive thighs that neigh, / great breasts that blare and strong arms that trumpet” (Lines 5-7). The strong female body mirrors the character’s strong body in “Barbie Doll,” but along a more joyful premise.

"A work of artifice" by Marge Piercy (1970)

“A work of artifice” speaks to expectations of women’s bodies and behaviors much in the way that “Barbie Doll” does, saying: “It is your nature / to be small and cozy, / domestic and weak” (Lines 12-14). It expands beyond the damage this “pruning” does, exploring how women are taught that they are intrinsically small, feeble, and to be controlled.

"Doors opening, closing on us" by Marge Piercy (2015)

“Doors opening, closing on us” is another Piercy poem which addresses social constructs of life, meaning, change, and purpose as well as themes of death. Piercy’s doors lead us from “room to room perhaps / dragging our toys along” (Lines 21-22), much like we are led through the stages of life and toys in “Barbie Doll.” Instead of cutting off parts of oneself, it is our lives that are “sliced into segments.”

"Diving into the Wreck" by Adrienne Rich (1973)

Feminist, poet, and essayist, much of Adrienne Rich’s work explores the same themes as Marge Piercy’s. “Diving into the Wreck” surveys the troubles of the second-wave feminist movement and details the difficulties of treading through it through a metaphor of diving: “and there is no one / to tell me when the ocean / will begin” (Lines 30-33).