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¶ … Collar and Barbie Doll observed that both George Herbert's poem "The Collar" and Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll" essentially offer critiques regarding certain valued social ideals of modern Western society. Herbert's poem critiques certain aspects of Christianity, the West's predominant religion, and Piercy's poem criticizes Western society's views and expectations regarding its women.
I thought that Herbert's poem was about one individual's struggle towards fulfilling the many duties and expectations required of him as a devout Christian. I felt that the speaker kept voicing his frustration towards fulfilling these seemingly endless demands. This is apparent from the poem's first line when he decries, "I struck the board, and cry'd, No more." It seemed as though he considered himself to be like a slave whose hard work is never acknowledged by his master.
Likewise I thought that Piercy's poem was about one individual's struggle towards living up to society's high ideals, as embodied by Barbie, regarding womanhood. I liked that Piercy symbolically described how young girls are conditioned early on to embody society's ideals by being "presented dolls that did pee-pee" as well as "wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy." The poem used heart wrenching language to describe one young girl's constant attempts at and eventual frustration towards living up to society's ideals. This can be seen when after being "advised to play coy... exercise, diet, smile and wheedle" the girl's "good nature wore out like a fan belt."
Towards the end of Herbert's poem the speaker experiences a revelation, which occurs when the speaker feels that God has spoken to him. Once he realizes that God loves him enough to consider him as His "child" then the speaker no longer feels any resentment towards his Master. He thus becomes more morally conscious of continuing to fulfill his Christian duties. Piercy's poem ends with the girl's eventual suicide and funeral, which leads to the story's sad irony that even though the girl hoped to escape society's ideals regarding womanhood through death, it is only after she died that society came to view her as its ideal woman. Thus no sense of social justice was accomplished through the girl's death because no one realized that society's ideals and expectations towards women were impossible to achieve.
Barbie Doll Effects Mattel's top-selling doll could have started a cultural revolution. Barbie could indeed be responsible for shaping gender identity and norms in American culture in particular. The demand for ethnic Barbies and themed Barbies points to the fact that all little girls, whatever their family or cultural backgrounds, are aspiring to be like Barbie. Pop star icons like Brittany Spears and Jessica Simpson bolster the Barbie image ideal. Whether
Barbie's official website does feature an adult doll collection of "Dolls of the World" which has a slightly more diverse range of images, but even these dolls are fairly uniform in style: the Asian doll is decked out in a midriff-bearing sexy, sari, for example, but looks just like a 'regular' Barbie. In terms of body image, the typical Barbie doll has branched out to slightly more diverse interests than
Nairn sees these Barbies as being tortured to destroy the doll's perfection, but the same children (I have noticed from observing female relatives) may demand a new Barbie, even after treating the old one carelessly. Additionally, not all Barbies are disposed of. In fact, there is a thriving industry of adults who collect Barbies. These Barbies embody characters from famous old films, new films, or characters from around the world.
This is in order to capture new markets like the Middle East which have offered up their own ethnic competition to Barbie's Americanized style. Mattel has incorporated newer Barbies in order to appeal to a variety of markets. In 1968, the first African-American Barbie was introduced into the American market, (143). This aimed at capturing a market previously unavailable to the Barbie image of past generations. Mattel has also
Barbies, Ourselves Emily Prager's "Our Barbies, Ourselves" examines the impact that the Barbie doll has had on American culture, perceptions of gender, and heterosexual relationships. Prager begins by noting that Barbie was designed by a man, a fact that makes sense to Prager given the outrageous physical proportions of the doll. As she states, Barbie "looks like someone who got her start at the Playboy Mansion," (766). Barbie's body is
S. woman." (288). In response to this negative impact of Barbie not being found in the 7 1/2 to 8-1/2-year-old girls, the researchers admit that the finding was unanticipated and assert that, "For these older girls, if they have already internalized the thinness ideal, then the depiction of a full body could represent a possible, but feared, future self." (290) The study is weak in several areas. The research sample is small,