Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll as an Accurate Response to Gender Roles - Research Paper Example

?Your F. 21 April Barbie Doll When considering the poem, “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, there is a short contemporary explanation of a woman's strife of wanting to look perfect. Just like any other person, a girl is born and plays with dolls just like any most other girls, one that just so happens to have qualities that are considered beautiful such as the perfect body and cherry red lips. However, when the character started to grow up and mature in adolescence, she was confronted by a classmate that told her that she had a huge nose and fat legs. While she was smart, strong, healthy, coordinated and sexual, all good qualities that a female would want to possess, she still found being criticized for her appearance. Again, people could not look past her large nose and fat legs to see all of these wonderful qualities (Piercy). While the article's character was encouraged to work on herself, she began to wear down mentally, feeling ugly. She was adequate in all other ways except for her looks. In the end, she killed herself, cutting off the parts of her that made her ugly. The funeral home put her back together for her open casket ceremony with a little nose and she was dressed up. The people at last at the nerve to compliment that she looked pretty. Everything that she had so longed for in life was now how others saw her in death. It was something she had always wanted and it ended in vanity (Piercy). By this little model that symbolizes beauty, Piercy's character experienced a decrease in self worth and a belief that beauty tops all other attributes that are positive such as intelligence and health. When considering this poem initially, the first thoughts that pop up are the fact that all girls have dreams. While many are successful in many aspects, beauty and glamour in a woman are inevitably what a little girl wants. A woman is influenced by everything around her as people are constantly influenced by the media of what a real woman should look like. Any person over a certain size or a woman that is muscular is considered too thick. Being thin and perfect in appearance is what women are looking for. If women were looking for something else, they would not spend so much money on clothes, shoes, false eyelashes, hair dye and other things that make them prettier. Barbies have typical features that a little girl would expect to possess if she were considered to be pretty. While Piercy's character has other attributes, the ones that are focused on are the physical ones. This provides an example of the pressures put on a woman that magnifies society's perception of what feminine beauty and attractiveness is. While the doll's description of having a “pee-pee,” Robert Perrin, whom also discussed this poem thinks that this terminology was used almost symbolically because it is a more feminine and less vulgar way of describing the Barbie's genitalia (Perrin 83). Another part of the poem in question is the way that the character handled herself by eliminating the parts of her body she disliked the most. Before her own ceremony of a funeral, “she cut off her nose and legs and offered them up,” (Piercy) which is rather a graphic display of how the character changed her appearance. It was described in a violent and shocking manner so as to imply that plastic surgery was never an option. Maybe she was doing this ceremonially as Perrin implies so that she does not have to live up to the standards that are pressured upon her such as the ones that the doll possess (Perrin 83). While the undertaker fixed up the corpse for mourners to see, she had been given a nose that was presentable. In addition, she wore a pink nightie as described by Piercy. It is almost as though ironically that in death, she was more so dressed up as Barbie in a way that she always had wanted to be. She was dolled up in a perfect little dress with a reconstructed nose so that she would be more appealing to those looking at her in the casket (Perrin 84). For visitors to her funeral to compliment her beauty is insensitive now that she is dead and instead they should have paid her compliments like this when she was alive so that she would maybe have never destroyed herself. When looking at the title of this poem and comparing it to an actual Barbie, some girls do hope that they would some day look like Barbie. She is the original glamour girl. Barbie has been manufactured and sold in stores for years and she always has the coolest clothes and friends. This goes without saying that she is completely perfect and flawless. She has perky breasts and the right feet for high heels. No one has ever seen Barbie in a pair of flats. Barbie has perfect legs and thighs and a flat stomach. Just like the Bible story of creation, Eve was made for Adam, in this case, Ken was made for Barbie. In actuality, if a person really resembled Barbie physically, she would more than likely topple over from being top heavy. The ironic part that people do not even think about is the fact that little girls have Barbies. One thing about being a little girl is the ability to pop Barbie's head off. The other thing to do was to cut her hair to make her look different. While there may not be any psychological purpose behind these ghoulish modifications done to a Barbie doll, could it be that little girls are just trying to alter Barbie and make her look different? Perhaps internally, little girls really do not want all of their Barbie dolls to all look the same. Maybe culture should mirror that concept. If culture was really idealistic, there would not be an issue and comparison of gender studies. Every person would instead be treated equally. There would not be problems. Everyone would think alike, look alike and everyone would be just like robots. However, people are not robots and the beauty of reality is that every is different and does look different. Women have been assuming the role of sexy for quite some time: beautiful creatures with long hair, beautiful big eyes, lush red lips, the highest of heels and the whitest of teeth. It is believed that men and women are fundamentally different. Therefore, each gender assumes a complex series of characteristics and attributes that society has created a set of stereotypical guidelines for. Assessing contemporary views is typically difficult to do. Most people use gender roles for the assumption of certain responsibilities of a man versus the the responsibilities of women. Men are often thought to be the breadwinners and the brains while a woman is thought to be the domestic and sweet housewife. Some people or researchers may argue that there is more equality among the genders more now than ever but these roles are still ingrained in people's minds, social norms, culture and language. Some sociologists and researchers even believe that perhaps the elimination of the two categories, male and female, should be erased completely (Baber and Tucker 460). To erase concepts of gender and people being either male or female, that seems almost impossible as that is a way that people identify with each other. If it is too deeply ingrained into society, there comes the question of how would it ever change? Gender roles are not just a part of western civilization but it is something that is worldwide. Though gender roles vary significantly in different cultures, some where women are even considered the head leaders, it seems as though men and women always have their separate roles in society. While Piercy's poem suggests a contemporary look at a woman's belief of her own body, even researchers recognize that there are changing roles of gender in society and that a new structure of identifying attitudes and beliefs needed to be created in order to make up for those changes. This then resulted in the development of a new questionnaire to use to evaluate people's thoughts on gender roles. This was to use as a guideline in place of previously developed belief scaling systems (Baber and Tucker 459-460). Identifying as either man or woman is so evident in the role of gender that those that are effected by gender identity issues find it difficult to fit into society, often feeling trapped in the wrong body. To eliminate gender as a factor in society would give all people the right to use the same restroom at the same time as well as other dividing habits or rituals. Even transgender females usually aim to seek their place in society, trying to rid themselves of masculinity and becoming beautiful. They do not like their Adam's apple or their deep set jawline. Instead, they often feel more comfortable dressing like a woman and sporting either implants or otherwise fake breasts. This observation is not one that has to be completed in a laboratory. It is evident. For example, most recently in 2012, a transgender woman wished to be included as a contestant in the Miss Universe pageant. It had never been allowed before but this was a man who was now a woman and wanted to be crowned as a beauty queen based on their beauty and intelligence. Since the uproar this spring, it was decided that Miss Universe could allow all transgender contestants from here on and the regulations of having to be born a woman were eliminated entirely. Even transgender women assume the role of wanting to be a Barbie doll type. When looking at how children identify themselves in terms of appearance, they are first introduced to traditional roles in gender. They first are introduced to their own gender and the gender of others. They are able to determine at a young age the main physical differences of males and females. This is not exclusive to only their genitalia. While they are aware of their own genitalia and may somehow be exposed to that of the opposite sex, even if the way is as innocent as accidentally seeing a parent or guardian naked, they also are able to detect that other features and physical attributes are different on men and women. Over time, they realize that gender is something that does not change and they either will accept their gender identity or reject it, as is the case with someone that is transsexual or transgendered. They will eventually, when exposed to it enough, will be able to determine the importance of gender roles and will even begin to fall into the tracks of gender role norms (Trautner, Gervai, Nemeth 276). Piercy's character at any time could have shown signs of wanting to change her appearance. She may have wanted to appear more feminine, much more like Barbie. As a young girl, the Barbie is a common toy to play with and since youngsters are introduced to toys such as Barbie at such a young age, they can begin to identify that Barbie is a female. She has the long hair and also has breasts. This is something that children are aware of at a young age. Piercy's character may have always wanted to encompass all aspects of gender identity roles that Barbie dolls do. Children learn at a young age what it is to mean to be a boy or a girl. They learn to adopt roles that are not really fair or equal across the gender scale. Attitudes are learned in the homes as a child and later reinforced by the rest of society, including peers (Witt). It is not until late adolescence that children become more aware of their identity and face several pressures of society. They experience a pressure to fit in among other social situational changes. All the while, they are also undergoing physical changes and entering puberty as well. It can be a trying and emotional time for young females and males as they begin to develop, some at earlier rates than those of their peers. They also begin to think more like individuals in this period of time and rely less on the care taking of their parental units. At this point, there is also an increase in depression among both males and females as well as other psychological changes. Females typically rely on emotional support and avoid situations that make them uncomfortable. Young males, on the other hand, are more likely to internalize their issues and turn to substances such as drugs or alcohol (Lengua and Stormshak 788-789). Piercy's character was first teased of her big nose and fat legs when she was school aged. This would have been a time when children were morphing into pre-adulthood. A young classmate making fun of her for the first time was the first seed planted into her brain. From there, others continued to build on her, demeaning her physical appearance. This was a time when she was undergoing already present social struggles and was wanting to fit in. This could have caused an increased awareness and insecurity about her physical appearance at a very early age. While she grew up, she looked for others to validate her and emotionally help her to cope but instead, she was faced with more ridicule to the point where she could no longer cope because her features bothered her too much. Sometimes men and women have the tendency to want to change their attractiveness. It is sometimes important to an individual and sometimes not and varies per gender. This is not just a look at overall attractiveness but also of their face and their overall physique. Women have the tendency to want to change their appearance in all aspects according to research. Men are less likely than women to want to change their attractiveness with the exception of wanting to change their height. It seems as though these changes seem more important to some people, male or female, than personality traits (Jackson, Sullivan and Hymes 51). Masculine men and feminine women are considered to be sex-typed which means they follow the traditional social roles and responsibilities that is implemented socially. Masculine men and feminine women may have differing concepts than masculine women and feminine men. Research also indicated that women that were less feminine often considered themselves physically bigger than they would like their bodies to be, they were usually more satisfied with their facial appearance than women who were more feminine. The individuals that were sex typed were more drawn to physical attractiveness of the opposite sex. Based on this previous research, it is also thought that sex typed people would also respond differently when rating their own attractiveness than the masculine women and feminine men (Jackson, Sullivan and Humes 52). These authors assumed that “gender related personality traits would exist in self perceptions as well,” (Jackson, Sullivan and Humes 52). When considering Piercy's character, one would assume that the Barbie doll person that the poem is about is a feminine woman who though was intelligent, felt that much of her own personal worth was based a lot on her appearance. She had been told her whole life that she was not pretty enough and it was not until after her life that she finally was acclaimed to be looking pretty. Could it have been because she had a new nose? Or could it have been that now she was gone, people saw her in a whole new light? This character places a lot of value on her own vanity which is much like most feminine women in this piece by Jackson, Sullivan and Humes. The authors also reflect on self confidence and self esteem which could also influence their perceptions of self (Jackson, Sullivan and Humes 52). Over time, what had eventually happened to Piercy's character was that she had been beaten down and broken, continuously told that her nose was too large and her legs were too fat. After hearing this over and over again, she started to assume that what others said about her were true. If others must see that she is imperfect and physically unattractive, then she was not able to look past her own physical beauty and see herself for who she was instead. Her self confidence and self esteem had broken down and so depressed that the only solution was to eliminate her problems. This “Barbie Doll” character and her reaction to the stress and the amount of pressure that society put on appearance is critical to self esteem. However, it could be that people put so much pressure on their own appearance that they then put more pressure on the physical attributes of another person. It could also be the other way around. A person could be overly critical of other people's appearance and in turn think to themselves, “I wish I looked like that,” or “I am glad I do not look like that,” which then makes them evaluate their own appearance. According to this research using an inventory self assessment using 120 subjects, equally divided male and female, masculine women more so desired to change their physical appearance. However, it was found that this category of individuals using a questionnaire were more interested in changing the appearance of their legs and even their hips and butt rather than their facial features or other features that could be considered attractive. However, results indicated that women overall were more concerned with the appearance of their weight and how it situated on their hips, waist and butt. Sex typed women were also more concerned with their facial appearance which included their mouth, teeth and lips (Jackson, Sullivan and Hymes 53-55). This does not focus on the same attributes that Piercy's “Barbie Doll” did. While she did focus a lot on the size of her legs, she was less consumed with her mouth area and more concerned on the area of her face that she felt was most flawed: her nose. In this experiment, the women were predictable in the fact that they were more interested than males to change the appearance of their face including their eyes, teeth and smile (Jackson, Sullivan and Hames 55). As discussed, the media plays a huge part on the context of gender and sex roles in society. It has been proven that the media gives people information for which to process and from that it influences a person's way of thought. “Portrayals of men’s and women’s roles, relationships, conflict-resolution strategies, ages, races, languages, goals and aspirations, sizes and weights, and many other characteristics have all been examined through content analysis,” (Rudy, Popova and Linz 707). Content is only part of the influence. Historically, roles of females in the media and in pop culture have been exploited and a surge of feminist movements has increased the awareness of this issue. It is acknowledged that there is an overlap in media and reality but the images portrayed are distorted and television is where the largest among of people are exposed to sexual roles in society (Rudy, Popova and Linz 707-708). While Piercy's character was most consumed with her overall appearance, part of her self esteem issues could have been brought on also by the environment of which she lived in and the people that she interacted with. While it seems as her emotions had been tampered with that made her feel a certain way about her physical appearance, other socioeconomic factors could have weighed in. Many of these factors were left out in the poem but could be accountable for what the character was subjected to by society and the influence of established gender and sexual roles. Piercy leaves out information that could further analyze the “Barbie Doll” character's thoughts. Studies show that people from a single parent household do not adapt as well or function as well as those children from a two parent household (Mokrue, Yung and Elias). If the character had been raised only by a mother or only by a father, her perception of herself could be reflective of her parents' views and thoughts on appearance. If a person's parents place more emphasis on the importance of beauty than they do intelligence, it can become instilled important to the person and they carry that thought with them as they continue to grow, mature and age. A parent's influence is the earliest that a child has to gender identity and roles. Children internalize the messages that their parents send out (Witt). Immediately after birth, parents usually dress their child in either blue or pink and one of the first questions asked if the parents do not know the sex of the child is if it is a boy or a girl. The parents are the first people to shape a child's way of thinking, letting them play with toys that further reinforce a child's self concept. Part of having a girl is for her to play dress up or learn how to use make up while learning to cook or sew. A male child on the other hand is more apt to be encouraged to play with toy trucks and participate ins ports (Witt). If the parents of “Barbie Doll” reassured her of her physical appearance or took notice that it bothered her that children were teasing her at school, they might have somehow intervened before it was too late and eventually became scarring to her integrity. Piercy does not discuss the role of the parents in this scenario other than one might assume that she was treated like any other girl of her age and it may have been her parents that let her play with her first Barbie doll. On top of the parenting issue that reinforces societal views of gender, Piercy does not tell of the character's ethnicity or race. A young black woman could feel significantly different in an environment of blond hair, blue eyed white girls. Genetics play a huge role in this and is often characteristic in people's varying races. If Piercy's character was concerned about having a big nose, this could imply that she was an African American girl. However, if Piercy's character would have been more concerned with the shape of her eyes, it might have been implying that she was a minority where she was Asian or she was white and everyone else was Asian. It is simply the ethnic features that are common. Work and family roles could play a huge importance on Piercy's character and how she views herself and the world. Environmental impact is one major part of society that can strongly influence a person. Family roles are one of the most influential as a child is growing up. Parents and guardians build and reinforce a child's belief system. People who have a high importance to a work role may have a lower importance on a family role (Gali-Cinamon and Yisrael). The importance of how the character's parents perceived work or home life may have impacted her childhood and later her adolescence which in turn affects her adult life (Gali-Cinamon and Yisrael). Though receiving a Barbie early on as a girl may have seemed harmless at the time, it may have largely contributed to her struggle with the character's perception of self. She struggled despite her inner beauty and intelligence to be something else, someone beautiful and attractive and instead was met with insult, many times vocalized. Others were destroying her as she finally could not live up to expectations of how a woman should appear. It is difficult for a person to be who they are when they are constantly reminded of who they are not. Because of this final thought, the pressures influenced the demise of a female we only know as “Barbie Doll” whose life and self worth were stripped by the pressures of culture and society to be beautiful, perfect and to fit the mold, such as the plastic Barbie fits hers. Works Cited Baber, Kristine M. and Tucker, Corinna J. “The Social Roles Questionnaire: A New Approach to Measuring Attitudes Toward Gender.” Sex Roles. 54.8: 459-67. ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library; ProQuest Social Science Journals, 2006 Web. 8 Apr. 2012. Gali-Cinamon, R. and Yisrael, Rich. “Gender Differences in the Importance of Work and Family Roles: Implications for Work-Family Conflict.” Sex Roles 47.11 (2002): 531.ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library; ProQuest Social Science Journals, 2002. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. Jackson, Linda A., Sullivan, Linda A. and Hymes, Janet S. “Gender, Gender Role, And Physical Appearance.” Journal Of Psychology 121.1: 51. Sociological Collection, 1987. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. Lengua, Liliana J. and Stormshak, Elizabeth A. “Gender, Gender Roles, and Personality: Gender Differences in the Prediction of Coping and Psychological Symptoms.” Sex Roles 43.11: 787-820. ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library; ProQuest Social Science Journals, 2000. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. Mokrue, Kathariya, Chen, Yung Y. and Elias, Maurice. “The Interaction Between Family Structure And Child Gender On Behavior Problems In Urban Ethnic Minority Children.” International Journal Of Behavioral Development 36.2: 130-136. Sociological Collection, March, 2012. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. Perrin, Robert. “'Barbie Doll' and 'G.I. Joe': Exploring Issues of Gender.” English Journal 88.3: 83-5. ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library, 1995. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. Piercy, Marge. “Barbie-Doll.” Off Our Backs, 7-. ProQuest Research Library.  Mar 25 1971: Web. 8 Apr. 2012 . Rudy, Rena, Popova, Lucy and Linz, Daniel. “The Context Of Current Content Analysis Of Gender Roles: An Introduction To A Special Issue.” Sex Roles. 62.11/12: 705-720. SocINDEX with Full Text, 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. Trautner, Hanns Martin, Gervai, Judit and Nemeth, Rita. “Appearance-Reality Distinction And Development Of Gender Constancy Understanding In Children.” International Journal Of Behavioral Development 27.3: 275. Sociological Collection, 2003. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. Witt, Susan D. “Parental Influence on Childrens Socialization to Gender Roles.” Adolescence 32.126: 253-9. ProQuest Criminal Justice; ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source; ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source; ProQuest Research Library; ProQuest Social Science Journals, 1997. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. Annotated Bibliography Baber, Kristine M. and Tucker, Corinna J. “The Social Roles Questionnaire: A New Approach to Measuring Attitudes Toward Gender.” Sex Roles. 54.8: 459-67. ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library; ProQuest Social Science Journals, 2006 Web. 8 Apr. 2012. The authors of this article discuss using a questionnaire of just over 400 undergraduate students in order to determine their thoughts of social attitudes according to gender. Since people believe that there are tremendous differences in men and women, this would mean that each gender would then have to assume a particular role in society. These roles are often stereotypical thoughts of the types of attributes, including physical qualities, that each gender should assume depending on belief. This is a complex theory to test as each person has different thoughts on each gender's role in society as a whole. The authors believe that each individual's belief system about a person's role in society according to gender is one that would then help determine the general consensus about gender roles. The roles are ever-changing in society and contemporary views are slightly different than ones that may have been present fifty years ago and even more different than one hundred years ago. Existing tools that ` look at the assumptions of gender roles are extremely dated up until this study was completed most recently prior to the writing of the authors' findings in 2006. Two scales of measure to look at a gender roles were evaluated. The first is the Attitude Toward Women Scale from 1978 and the Attitudes Toward Marital and Child-rearing Roles Scale from 1995. These scales look at the traditional roles of gender. Through the development of this questionnaire, the authors found that many of the other instruments used for determining roles in gender were dominated by stereotypical gender roles. The authors then set on a journey to create an instrument to use that was up to date, was unrestricted considering thoughts that were targeted only toward males or only toward females, and did not discuss generalized gender stereotypes. They were also using a “social constructivist perspective” that evaluated subjects' attitudes based on the predisposition that gender roles are assigned through previous context. This could then could cause people that use the questionnaire to re-evaluate and re-think gender roles. The goal of the authors of this is to also increase interest in changing the rethinking of gender. While this is article is a helpful way of looking at gender studies as a general whole, there are some areas that it lacks in being a quality resource of information in regards to supporting or contradicting Piercy's poem. While this looks at gender roles, it more or less looks at a way to determine people's attitudes and beliefs by developing a scale for which to measure them on. They completed an experiment and determined its validity based on thoughts of stereotypes and the different roles of society. Most of the concepts that were evaluated were responsibilities and did not focus on looks or appearance at all. This is an important theme of Piercy's poem and to further discuss gender roles as Piercy describes a woman's struggle with beauty. Jackson, Linda A., Sullivan, Linda A. and Hymes, Janet S. “Gender, Gender Role, And Physical Appearance.” Journal Of Psychology 121.1: 51. Sociological Collection, 1987. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. The authors of this text discussed physical attractiveness and how it appealed to sex typed individuals. Sex typed individuals are masculine men and feminine women rather than feminine men and masculine women. Through the authors' research they hypothesized that sex typed individuals, whom seemed to respond to the opposite sex's physical attractiveness, would also be more likely to have a more opinionated concept of their own physical attractiveness. The authors also thought that gender related personality traits would exist in a person's perception of themselves. Self esteem and self confidence could also be impacted by a person's physical appearance or it could also be that their physical appearance increased their own self perception and overall pleased feelings on their own face, body and physical attributes. The method that these authors used to evaluate these attitudes were through a questionnaire that was performed on an equal subject group of sixty men and sixty women that were undergraduates. A Physical Attributes Inventory was used for the people to measure their own self perception and their desire to change their own appearance. The authors found little support to their hypothesis but did find that it was significant that masculine women were usually more concerned about their overall size. This could have to do with stature, muscular physique or even being overweight. According to this text, the authors found that feminine women were more likely to want to change their overall appearance. While masculine women were less pleased about their size, they were mostly more so satisfied with their facial appearance and physical attributes. The factor that men wanted to change the most was height. All of this information is based on study in which subjects were to self rate themselves. This text is a great example of appearance and how it pertains to social gender roles. It directly correlates with the themes behind Piercy's poem that a woman is striving to change her appearance. While most women may not go to such extremes, it is women that are less likely to be okay with how they look. Piercy's character was the same way, feeling that intelligence was not enough and that to be truly desirable was to be attractive. Piercy's character was not as concerned with her overall size such as the authors determined that masculine women were. Her biggest concern was her legs and nose. Though the poem did not indicate that the character wanted to change her appearance, it is clear that these attributes were the most troubling to her self perception such as this text would indicate. This text evaluated most of the underlying issues that Piercy's Barbie character faced. It deals with social typing, physical appearance, attractiveness to the opposite sex, self perception, the desire to change appearance and self confidence. These are all critical focuses in the author's poem and can provide insight into why the character may have felt how she did, assuming that she was a feminine female. Mokrue, Kathariya, Chen, Yung Y. and Elias, Maurice. “The Interaction Between Family Structure And Child Gender On Behavior Problems In Urban Ethnic Minority Children.” International Journal Of Behavioral Development 36.2: 130-136. Sociological Collection, March, 2012. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. This article focused a mostly on child rearing in families that were either single parent units or two parent units. Young people have the tendency to not perform or function as well if they are living in a family with one parent. The gender difference between a parent and their child could also play a role in how a person behaves. A young girl who was raised by her mother or a maternal guardian might have a different concept of herself than a young girl who was raised by her father. Children also behave differently if they have a more stable background in which they have two parents instead of just one in the same household. This article also evaluated a person's ethnicity and how they reacted as minorities. Young children that are typically different than the other people in their environment may be acting out or feel less confident in themselves. They may already be critical of themselves of not fitting in without bringing into the spotlight their physical appearance. Physical appearance in this case could have everything to do with skin color rather than other physical attributes. This article is not a very good article to support any of the theories behind Piercy's poem. It evaluates young people's behavior more on the way they were brought up and whether or not they were a minority. Though there is some talk of gender differences, it does not necessarily pertain to the issues at hand in regards to Piercy's character's internalized feelings and thoughts of herself. In one way that it does help to further evaluate Piercy's poem, though, is the ability to provide more questions that could have been asked of Piercy's character as to why she was feeling the way she was. It could have been due to other socioeconomic factors or environmental issues that determined her self perception. She may not have ever fit in with the rest of the children her age when her classmate said her legs and nose were too big. She may have been of a different race or ethnic background and therefore had different physical traits. From Piercy's description, this is not retrievable information. It only arises issues that could contribute to self perception and attractiveness. Perrin, Robert. “'Barbie Doll' and 'G.I. Joe': Exploring Issues of Gender.” English Journal 88.3: 83-5. ProQuest Education Journals; ProQuest Research Library, 1995. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. The author completely uses the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy to determine the power of gender roles and how they affect a young girl. He examines the poems language and coincides each phrase of Piercy's poem to his own analysis of the poem. He critically analyzes all of the meanings and his own interpretations of the poem. He also discusses an alternate form of writing that has similar meanings but for young boys in which there is an exploration of the G.I. Joe toy where young boys would be portrayed as army heroes or muscle men. It is another way that toys that children play with are subjected to roles that society pressures them to fill. Though these thoughts are not reality, they are implied that this is what a little girl is supposed to look like when she grows up, all petite, curvaceous with the right lips and the right measurements. For little boys, they are supposed to have a muscular physique, be tough and masochistic. Regardless of the play toy that a child receives, they learn early on what it is like to portray a stereotypical male or female. It does not necessarily create gender roles but reinforces them. It not only influences the physical attributes but other pressures. Boys are given G.I. Joe toys to play with while girls are given Barbies. If the rolls are reversed and boys play with Barbies and girls are given G.I. Joes, then this already labels them as awkward early on. They have not yet stepped into the gender roles in which they have already become predestined. Perrin's article is a perfect resource to use to support and analyze Piercy's poem. He discusses the poem from a literary and English standpoint, being very critical of Piercy's every single word. He finds irony and meaning in almost every word, seeming as though he has taken a lot of time to determine the meaning of the poem. Perrin is spot on with some of the ideas that the average person would come with when it comes to gender pressures. He is much more detailed in his descriptions but regardless, while using English to break down all of the meaning, he ties this in to society. Perrin's article is an interesting one to compare my own thoughts to and provides insight in some areas that I may have otherwise left out or had not been so analytical of myself. It is an elaborate description and analysis of what Piercy was trying to do. Just like any other publication though, his thoughts and theories are based on his own opinions and how he sees it. His implications can alter the way a person might otherwise view the poem. Rudy, Rena, Popova, Lucy and Linz, Daniel. “The Context Of Current Content Analysis Of Gender Roles: An Introduction To A Special Issue.” Sex Roles. 62.11/12: 705-720. 2010. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. This article takes a look at parts of society that reinforce gender roles. Symbols in society are also embraced and can assume many functions which may include gender and sex roles. It is recognized by this article that in other issues in society, the media can play a huge role in people's concept. This is proven in wars and other catastrophic type events where people are given information to process through various mediums which then creates content analysis of the subject. All forms of media can represent others' views. Journals are packed full of gender role information and discussion. There is also a historical background in feminist movements that claims that the media exploits females. Different forms of media portray females in certain ways and can reinforce a reality that is askew from how things really are. Television is the most popular media for reinforcing roles of women and pop culture is also a tremendous influence. This article gives excellent insight on how people are influenced by media and popular culture. Issues of gender related content is difficult to overestimate as is its influence. This helps readers to analyze how the “Barbie Doll” character may have further been subjected to roles that are reinforced by the media. It is not a recent concept and distinct male and female roles in society have been projected for numerous years. The character in Piercy's character was likely to be subjected to these expectations of society for which to live up to. In addition, her peers, the people that made fun of her and criticized her, were also influenced by the impression that media and pop culture has. While the character has an existing perception of herself, the media puts additional pressures on. Most people in the media are beautiful people, many of whom are celebrities and are posted in every magazine and on every website and are splashed in film and television shows everywhere. Ugliness is rarely portrayed and if it is, then it is pitied upon. People who are not perfect in the media are scorned and appeared to be minute beings, treated lesser than human. This in correlation to gender related issues continues to reinforce the pressure of society on a woman to be a beautiful person or otherwise, they too are shunned or pitied. Read More