Merge Piercy her poetry, puts lots of emphasis on making the ill-treatment of women within the larger society that’s heavily patriarchal, more expressed. More specifically, her poem “Barbie Doll’, addresses feminism by presenting a main character who struggles to fit into the behavioral set which society seems to have prescribed for women, even without their consent. On the other hand, the poem, “There is a girl inside” by Lucille Clifton, also narrates the role of woman as stipulated for them within society. The poem indicates how society expects a woman to be well mannered and to patiently wait on suitors to come at her with marriage proposals. The two poems address male chauvinism as their main theme, and are therefore an exact reflection of the systemized discrimination against women in contemporary society. They provide airtime for some of the challenges that the girl child and women have to make do with, courtesy of their profiling as the weaker one of the two sexes. As such, they both make good material for literature review in form of this interpretive paper, which will seek to address the oppression of women in the society as per the narration of the two poems (Piercy, 1992).
Many societies across the globe have in place systems which are intentioned for the control of women, even though they might be disguised as governance mechanisms. Society dictates to women what they should wear; the way in which they should behave so as to gain spectator approval, the foods they should or shouldn’t eat, and even prescribes for them appropriate body sizes. The society expects young girls who are approaching womanhood to have perfect aesthetic features. Much more, society expects that a woman must know how to perform basic house chores. Piercy highlights the roles that women continue to be compelled to shoulder within society in her poem, “Barbie Doll” by the use of a doll, and means this application to be figurative. Girls spend a lot of time playing with dolls to so much such that they long to be perfect like the dolls. The poet uses dolls in the poem to illustrate that society plays with girls in the same manner that girls play with their dolls. As such, the theme of the poem matches with its title. The narrator samples a girl who is representative of most girls across the world. The reader realizes that girls feel as though the society does not accept in their natural form and dedicates a lot of effort to making them uncomfortable with the imperfections inherent to their physique.
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Of the two parties in a heterosexual relationship the female, must not under any neither circumstance initiate nor try to dictate the course of events in the relationship? With respect to the poem, “There is a girl inside” by Clifton, organized society expects the girl child to keep herself pure for her lover, and to not partake any sexual heroics before a certain right time. Essentially, it is only her future lover who should harvest the ‘honey’. On the contrary, society does not restrain boys from ‘exposing their honey for harvesting at an early age’. The young girl must remain green in spite of the prevalence of moral corruption even in her immediate surrounding Society immerses its males in the very activities it bars its females from indulging in. As a result, it is upon the girl to suppress her sexual desires regardless of the circumstances that society presents her with. On the other hand, she is expected to be totally submissive to her lover for her lover who is to fully harvest the ‘honey’ that she has patiently and safely kept for him (Clifton, 1987) .
Symbols of mainstream chauvinism such as dolls and the application of makeup with an example of lip stick, are made available to the girl child at a tender age, so as to ensure that she grows up knowing exactly what society expects of her (Kirszner & Mandell, 2004). The “Barbie Doll” poem, illustrates that girls do not enjoy the same rights as do boys, even though they both should enjoy out rightly inalienable rights, inherent to their humanity. Society prescribes the enhancement of superficial features as the mark of true beauty. This beauty presents the female body as a being physically weaker within the larger society, and thus it can only carry out the less tiring roles like cooking and washing utensils. The main character in the poem realizes that she is not as pretty as she had always thought herself, following criticism by a section of her classmates who consider her legs fat and her nose disproportionate. By this time, she has reached puberty. She tries to please people around her by apologizing about everything that she thinks is not appropriate. Nobody seems to appreciate the qualities that she has like her physical strength, intelligence, and good health. Her critics are especially attracted to the flaws in her physical appearance. The pressure that society puts on her, leads her to committing suicide by cutting her big legs and fat nose which she had intentioned to please everyone. It is as if, the girl child is slated for doom, whether or not she puts effort into amassing public approval for herself. The same aspect applies to the poem, there is a girl inside.
To conclude with, oppression of women within the society is systemized in as much as it is rampant. A woman ought to have a preference for activities that please the society over whatever she thinks is right for her as evidenced in the two poems, which this paper discusses. Gender bias causes women immense pressure to conform to relatively more socially acceptable standards, sometimes to the detriment of their general wellbeing. As such, it is essential for the members of the community to discard some of the practices whose sole aim is the oppression of women .It is high time society started treating everyone equally. Only through that, will society attain its full potential. The two poems teach about the importance of a person realizing her identity and not letting others determine what is best for her life.
References
Clifton, L. (n.d). ( 1987) “ There is a Girl Inside” Brockport, New York : BOA Editions, Ltd., St. Paul, Minnesota : Bookslinger.
Kirszner, L. G., & Mandell, S. R. (2004). Instructor's resource manual to accompany literature: Reading, reacting, writing . Boston: Thomson/Heinle.
Piercy, M. (n.d). (1992)” Barbie Doll” Dubuque, IA : Kendall/Hunt Pub. Co .
