FIMAL DRAFT

December 11, 2012

Dear High School Graduate,

When a human is put on a pedestal and called the epitome of beauty and others are forced to live up to it, what happens if they cant? Both Men and Women are criticized on a daily basis for not having good enough looks. This type of behavior needs to stop, people need to stop focusing on the external factors and pay attention to internal qualities. Take the extremely popular children’s toy the Barbie Doll for instance, she and her boyfriend Ken are considered the best looking and all her friends look skinny and appealing. This sort of depiction in toys is exactly what happens in today’s society. In high school the popular boys and girls that have the coolest clothes are placed on the top of everyone else, and all the other students who aren’t among them are shunned out.

The title “Barbie Doll” is very controversial; a Barbie doll symbolizes being perfect and the epitome of beauty. Most little girls grow up playing with Barbie dolls that come with their fancy car, house, friends, clothes and sometimes even her boyfriend Ken. Society loves the sexy tall, tan, long blonde hair and blue-eyed girls that resemble the plastic sensation: The Barbie Doll. When these girls grow up and they do not resemble the Barbie doll or the model on the cover of Maxim Magazine, then they are harassed and made fun of because they are not able to succumb to societies norms.

In the poem the young girl is harassed in school for not living up to her peers social norms. The renowned poet Marge Piercy states in her poem, “Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said: You have a great big nose and fat legs”(Piercy). In the last stanza, Piercy overwhelms the reader with the message of this poem and todays society.

“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.” (Piercy)

This stanza is very heart wrenching because this girl is now metaphorically dead because of what she has done to herself. She makes the reader imagine this innocent girl with a body, given from god, that she did not ask for. She depicts it as if the devil has taken over her judgment and killed her. Then Piercy says she has “ the undertakers cosmetics painted on” this is a very powerful statement because the undertaker is referring to the devil and bad judgment. Piercy is saying that this girl killed herself so she would have the opportunity to wear the makeup to make her look acceptable to society. The tuned up nose refers to someone who just had surgery to perfect his or her appearance. The tuned up nose, the perfect makeup and the white nighty, prepares her for the world to see her: at her funeral. Dressed in her new nightgown, perfect and angelic looking, “doesn’t she look pretty?” lying down in her casket symbolizing the end of her life, now looking perfect, “consummation at last”. Now she looks perfect- perfectly fake. Marge Piercy has let us know that in today’s society being fake is the new perfect woman.

“To every woman a happy ending.” is the perfect summation to the objectification of both genders in today’s society. Sexy men and women are always going to achieve things solely based on their appearances. Marge Piercy pinpoints how people are so cruel and degrade others if they cannot become something that they are not. The poem is based on a teenage girl in high school who is made fun of because of her appearance. This sort of scrutiny starts in school, but somehow gets drawn out into adulthood and adults play a huge roll in focusing solely on external features.

Our society is flooded with false expectations of people and how they should look. Facebook is a great example to how our society gets to show off how cool we are. People use Facebook to show off the items they just bought or post pictures from a party. Facebook is also used for cyber bullying; people can post embarrassing videos and photos of others for many others to see and maybe even the whole school. According to a bullying statistics organizations website, they say, “Physical bullying is more common among boys, and teenage girls often favor verbal and emotional bullying. Indeed, while boys report that they are more likely to be involved in physical altercations, girls report that they are often the targets of nasty rumors - especially involving sexual gossip”(Bullying Statistics). This is true for humans of all ages, whether it be sexual harassment, physical bullying, or spreading rumors on Facebook. People need to stop harassing others based on their external features and start to focus on internal features like intellectual abilities and compassion.

Men and women are harassed and criticized if they are not able to look like the models on billboards, advertisements and magazines. As I was driving home from Lake Tahoe the other day I got a first hand look at the many hundreds of billboards that clutter the highways. The billboards were advertising casinos, alcohol, hotels and shops. The thing that mostly all of them had on common was that they all use very good-looking models. One billboard in particular was a picture of the actress Jennifer Lopez’s face and was advertising the Benicia outlet stores. In todays society women would see this and think how beautiful she is and possibly head to the stores advertised so they could shop for things to make themselves look better like Jennifer Lopez. It is scientifically proven that prettier people are perceived as happier and more successful. So anyone sees these people that are placed at the top of societies pedestals and think how successful and happy they are and will do whatever it takes to reach that level of beauty.

Analogous to women, men are compelled to look attractive but not just to women but also to other guys so they can show of their masculinity. In high school boys are compelled to be the best at sports have the coolest friends and physically look the best.  Masculinity is very important to guys and if they do not display their masculinity by playing sports or acting tough and instead they like girlish things than they may be considered ‘gay’, ‘wimpy’ or a ‘sissy’. Teenagers are growing into their bodies, some faster than others.

Michael Kimmel is a renowned author who has written many books on masculinity and what guys do and why they do it. In the article titled, “’Bros Before Hos’: The Guy Code”, Kimmel explains the basic rules that guys follow to maintain their masculinity so they will not act like a mammas boy or a wimp. Kimmel says,” Ask any teenager in America what is the most common put-down in middle school or high school? The answer: ‘That’s so gay.’ It’s said about anything and everything- their clothes, their books, the music or the TV shows they like, the sports figure they admire. ‘ That’s so gay’ has become a free floating put-down, meaning bad, dumb, stupid, wrong”(612).  In this sense ‘gay’ is not considered being a homosexual but being, as Kimmel describes it, as “dumb, stupid, wrong”. This term is used often when describing a guy who lacks their masculinity. The guys accused of being or acting gay are usually getting harassed because they are not living up to societies norms which are that men look a certain way and act a certain way- not in a gay manor.

High school is a very hard time for many students because they may not look as good as others. I personally have seen that if someone does not hang out with the cool kids, wear nice cloths and are supposedly weird, then they are dubbed outcasts. In high school, the cool thing to do was to be a surfer or a skater who wore Quicksilver or O’Neil clothes. These sort of materialistic qualities make kids seem cool. It astounds me how external qualities can determine how four-years of high school will go. Criticism is cruel and the worst thing is that this behavior doesn’t stop when people graduate high school, it lingers on forever.

After high school I thought that people would stop criticizing others based on their appearance. People in today’s society are so fixated on external features and not at all interested in what lies beneath the flesh. The plastic sensation the ‘Barbie Doll’ and tall, muscular and masculine man are referred to as the beauty in today’s society; but smart, compassionate and loving are tossed out. This makes no sense and that is why people need to change the way they act. Once a person graduates high school they should systematically grow out of their childish behaviors and not criticize others. Everyone needs to rebel against societies norms and appreciate people for who they are because in America everyone is created equal.

Sincerely

Shawn V

Annotated Bibliography

Kimmel, Michael. ""Bros Before Hos": The Guy Code." Rereading America. 8th ed.

            N.p.: Bedford, 2010. 608-17. Print.

Michael Kimmel is a very renowned author writing many books on masculinity, he wrote this article, which is very important to the argument that I am addressing. He explains how men’s masculinity plays a huge roll in their lives and the rules that society has devised for them to be allowed to keep it. I plan on using this when I talk about how men criticize other men when they are over wait or are acting “gay” or “wimpy”.

Piercy, Marge. “Barbie Doll”. Poem. 1999.

            <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-doll/>

In this poem, Marge Piercy depicts the harsh norms that girls and women are forced to live up to in today’s society. I am using this poem in my essay because I want to talk about how women are forced to supposedly look HOT or else no one will like, date, befriend, or show any attention. In the poem the girl is told that she has fat legs and a big nose. From what her classmates told her, she contemplates her image. She metaphorically cuts her thighs and nose off so she will prove to herself and everyone at her school that she is good looking. At the end of the poem she is laying in her coffin at her funeral they say, “Doesn’t she look pretty’ everyone said, consummation at last”. I hope to use this as pathos in my essay to link people’s emotion to my topic.

"Teenage Bullying." - Bullying Statistics. N.p., 2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2012.

            <http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/teenage-bullying.html>.

To help my argument I am choosing to use good evidence of bullying that can occur in schools, workplaces and other places. There are three types of bulling- verbal, physical and cyber. Approximately 30 percent of teens are either bullied or have bullied others. This bullying leads to self-esteem issues, stress and sometimes-even death. Bullying can be linked to the reasons why people act the way the do later in life. But most importantly for this essay the bullying that the girl received in the poem "Barbie Doll" took that criticism seriously and took her own life. Bullying is another way men and women are objectified in today's society. They may not be sex objects like in magazines or commercials but they are compared to them.