Barbie doll--Parents or the Media/society?

Question

I read the poem "Barbie doll" by Marge Piercy. I was wondering who you think the poem is directed to. At first I thought it was blaming the parents for buying their daughters a doll but Now I'm starting to thing she is blaming society/media for creating such a doll. What do you guys think. I have to write an essay based on who's to blame.

Answer 1

If it is YOUR essay, you might want to come up with your own ideas.

Society did NOT invent this doll, a woman did. Media can interest girls in dolls and even many feminists have these dolls on their homes.....not cuz they like em, but cuz no matter how many intellectual discussions go on with the kids, the kids still want em.....either the media is too strong or the doll is just a doll

Barbie was invented by a WOMAN (but she was a tool of the patriarchy?)....I heard the story of the history of the development of the doll (and I remember how much my mom hated the doll when I was a kid).

Barbie's foray into feminism through 108 careers, presidential aspirations, and other adjustments (Barbie once said, "Math class is hard!" but now says "Math is hard, but not impossible," according to Mattel) was short-lived.

The career barbie was short lived cuz misogynists hoping to ruin girls' lives just stop making them even if it meant losing lots of money or stop making them cuz they were NOT selling?

Sounds like your homework is for your man hating studies class. Since I was raised in a communist/feminist home, I recognize the dilemma you are put in. You are likely not as radicalized as your teacher or the more rabid among your classmates (or if you are as radicalized, you will likely hate m response).

The poem is directed at feminist, men and women and anyone with feminist leanings.

"Barbie has been a NASCAR driver, an astronaut and an inspiration to Andy Warhol, among many other things." I wonder if Danica Patrick owned a Nascar barbie ? I wonder if astronaut barbie teaches women they can be astronauts or just mocks their desires.

Source(s):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story…

NOTE that the liberal leaning National Public Radio does not describe Barbie in the context of patriarchal domination.

In tallying up the various grievances against Barbie, this one comes up over and over again: that the plastic, bosomy doll with the skinny waist encourages unrealistic body images, too much attention to appearance, and other superficial matters.

Two British studies found that "Barbie dolls could promote girls' insecurity about their image, which in turn may contribute indirectly to insecurity and eating disorders later in life."

Mattel tried to fix this in recent years, letting Barbie's belt buckle out a few notches, but that did not stop a West Virginia lawmaker this month from trying to ban Barbie and other dolls that, he said, emphasize beauty over deeper pursuits.



If lawmaker are trying to outlaw the doll, that kinda messes up the patriarchal conspiracy idea a bit, huh? Not that much logic was ever called for in such hate speech.




Robin Gerber, the author of Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman who Created Her, said Barbie's origins are indeed somewhat salacious. But she notes that Ruth Handler's story is often overlooked: a woman who cofounded and created a company that would grow to be the world's biggest toy company.

She said Handler - who loved clothes and possessed an ample bust herself and so saw nothing wrong with either of those things - wanted to give girls an alternative to the baby doll and its proscribed role of mother.

"She came up with the idea that girls want to imagine themselves being big girls and they need a way to do it," she said. "Is it also true that culture devalues us and is sexist and values us for how we look? I would argue that Barbie has been adopted into that culture rather than creating that culture. I don't think you can lay it all on the doll."



So the dool was created by a woman who made lots of money......a stooge for the patriarchy???!?!?!?!?! or an early women entrepreneur of which feminists claim there are too few????!??!?!

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Answer 2

Go with the media. Parents wouldn't have been seduced into or begged by kids to buy certain toys if they weren't marketed so well. Parents also buy a lot of cabbage patch dolls which the author would not be offended by. So go with media for creating these unacceptable and unrealistic ideals of woman. (Because that is what the poem is about).

Source(s):

I'm a librarian and our students come in all the time to get research on this poem.

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