The poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy and “Suicide Note” by Janice Mirikitani are both about how two young women could no long take the pressures society placed upon them. Although the two poems have a very different tone, language, and structure the same underlying theme exists. In both poems the girls struggle to be perfect and to conform to the desires of others. Both women in the poems ultimately commit suicide because they can no longer live with the criticism and lack of acceptance that they face. These two young women represent a whole world of young females and males who are weighed down by society’s pressure to be flawless. As members of society, which especially includes parents with young children we need to assure the …show more content…

I found an interesting article about the effect the media has girls from an early age. Barbie dolls have been partially blamed for body-image problems because “Not only do these dolls have fictionally proportioned, small body sizes, but they lean towards escalating the belief that materialistic possessions, beauty and thinness equate happiness” (Eating, 1). Adults need to be especially cautious of the messages that they send to their children as well use caution when exposing them to the media. Barbie dolls are surely not solely responsible for self-image problems, but since these dolls are targeted at an age group which is very impressionable it is necessary to emphasize the fact that the dolls are pretend (Eating, 1). Television is one of the main sources of poison for the minds of young children. It is hard for kids to obtain any confidence when much of television tells them to buy products to make themselves, skinnier, and prettier which will supposedly make people like you more (Eating, 1). The article goes on to say that supermodel’s faces being plastered all over magazines is another reason that adolescents grow up with self-image issues. These models get thinner and thinner and statistics show that super models on average weight 25 percent less than the average woman and typically hold weights that are 15 to 20 percent below what is healthy for their weight and age (Eating, 1). This is the sick message