Barbie Doll (Style)

Style

A narrative poem written in free verse [verse having irregular meter, or rhythm that is not metrical], “Barbie Doll” can be read as a parable of what often happens to women in a patriarchal society. Parables are short narratives with a moral. Well-known parables are found in religious texts such as the Bible. The moral of Piercy’s poem also functions as a warning: it urges readers to be aware of the ways in which society shapes our (gendered) identities and urges women not to compare themselves to idealized notions of feminine beauty or behavior.

Piercy’s diction is occasionally archaic. That is, she uses words and grammatical constructions which we would not use today, for example “girl-child,” “that did pee-pee”, etc. By weaving these archaisms into a story told in contemporary language, the speaker achieves an effect of timelessness, suggesting that the instance of modern women modeling themselves after Barbie dolls is only the latest in the history of women’s oppression.

Piercy employs irony to drive her point home. Irony, which comes from the Greek word “eiron,” refers to the way in which a speaker “hides” or in some way understates what she really means. The end of Piercy’s poem is ironic because the only thing that is consummated is the “girlchild’s” death. When the speaker wishes “every woman a happy ending,” she is actually expressing disgust at what has happened to the girlchild and what regularly happens to women who have been socialized to make men’s desires their own.