Barbie Doll

The toys and dolls in “Barbie Doll” serve a few different symbolic purposes. Piercy uses them in part to symbolize the objectification women undergo from infancy, in part to symbolize the body, and in part to symbolize the societal expectations placed on and taught to women. Take the doll of the title, the “Barbie Doll” describing the main character of the poem, and how the poet cements this association in the final stanza, where she is “finally” made to look like a Barbie Doll with “the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on” (Line 20) and a “turned-up putty nose” (Line 21). The main character has lost her life in this pursuit, becoming a “doll” in that sense—a lifeless object manipulated and dressed up by someone else.

We see dolls which mimic people and show aspects of personhood as well, with the “dolls that did pee-pee” in Line 2. Used here, the doll symbolizes the expectation taught to young girls that they will be caretakers and mothers. The girls are babies themselves when they are first taught to care for other babies. The doll being capable of doing “pee-pee” serves as further symbolism of the body, with commentary on the way even objects are permitted more humanity than women. A doll that does “pee-pee” is cute and sold publicly in stores, while real living women having bodily functions is not to be discussed.

Piercy uses other toys in “Barbie Doll,” like the “miniature GE stoves and irons” in Line 3 and “wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy” in Line 4. Here they function more as symbols of expectations: the stove a symbol of motherhood, housekeeping, and cooking for the husband and family she is expected to have, and the tiny toy lipsticks as symbols of the expectations for her appearance.