Monday, February 1, 2010

Barbie Doll

This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.

My first class of my first quarter in college was Women's Literature. I drove from my parent's house every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to attend class at Seattle Pacific University. It was so awkward arriving to a school where I knew no one. I remember how awful parking was and how on my second day I all but had a panic attack trying to find a spot to park. Not knowing a single soul at this school gave me one hundred and ten reasons not to show up... but then one day we were given an assignment. Pick a poem out of our book and dissect it. I chose "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy, how fitting I thought. Anything having to do with self image and the pressure of society seemed to be right up my ally. I knocked my paper out of the park, I couldn't say enough about this poem and how it made me feel. From that day on I had a reason to show up to class. I had found something that inspired me. It gave me confidence to reach out to classmates and confidence to walk around campus with the feeling of "THIS IS WHERE I BELONG." To this day, this is a poem that I still remember, still adore, and still relate to.



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