Barbie Doll - not me...

Love this poem! At the end of the day this poem tells women it's ok to be who you are. Bury the stuff that society says you must be. From the beginning of our lives, women are "genderized". That is, we are taught to grow from little girls to grown up ladies (not necessarily women). We are stereotyped. We are taught from a young age to wear lipstick, play house, play with life-like baby dolls that even pee (2-4). Normal women – we are even above average in some aspects (7-9) but it's not ok, we are not society's definition of beautiful. We are not perfect Barbie Dolls. We do NOT have Barbie Doll figures. We are only recognized for what we do NOT have. We all may not have the perceived demure attributes of a Barbie Doll (12-14). The woman Piercy talks about in this poem finally gets tired of trying to play out her life the way others expect it should be. In the last stanza, she becomes ok with herself as she is – she gets rid of the idea that being ok means using cosmetics, having perfect features, et al. This is her happy ending. I hope it didn't take her too many years into her life to come to this rationalization.