Poem for Wednesday and Barbie

Barbie Doll
By Marge Piercy

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.

-------- 

Good news, you don't have to hear about Taylor Swift today...because we went to see the Barbie movie! That was in the late afternoon after getting to talk to all three of my good high school friends in the morning, then a midday appointment with a new doctor at a practice that had come highly recommended. I really liked her, so of course she's stepping back at the end of the year to spend more time with her two children under five and specializing instead of seeing GP patients! So I either have to hope I like her replacement or go looking for yet another PCP elsewhere, sigh. This place does have excellent phlebotomists and nurses and very little wait time, so I'm inclined to think I want to stick with it. 

Paul and I went to Barbie near 5 p.m., so it wasn't crowded, which made me glad because I know someone who caught covid at the Taylor Swift concert despite the fact that the stadium and its ramps are fully outdoors. The movie is hilarious, full of fun nostalgia -- I knew people who owned a lot of the Barbie toys and outfits referenced -- and strong on the girl power, though it's very second- and third-wave feminist (not a lot of intersectionality despite Barbies of many ethnic appearances, and even narrator Helen Mirren made a snarky comment about how if beauty isn't supposed to be the most important thing, maybe Margot Robbie was the wrong casting). Here I am enjoying it in my Barbie shoe jewelry!