In critical assessment of the world of Popular Culture and the Representation of Gender and its affect on both the masculine and feminine gender is well proven in different academic and social studies. These critical assessments should be considered a wake up call for all in that we ignore the warning signs and exploit the danger in place of fighting against it. If we do not fight as equals, then feminism has no true hold on culture in any way. This, in actuality, is of a far greater impact on the lives of men and women, as well as boys and girls. Popular Culture and the Representation of Gender have a tendency to mould a generation, and the portrayal of men and women in suggestive poses manages a platform for strong debate. The Music video, “Barbie Girl”, by Aqua and the poem, “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy portrays women in the sense of commoditization in the context of Popular Culture and the Representation of Gender.
The music video “Barbie Girl” shows a woman to be completely dependant on the man for her existence and the lyrics indicates a wholesome aspect of materialism. This materialism tends to be more precise to point of commoditisation when the woman in the music video sings, “I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world / Life in plastic, it’s fantastic! / You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere / Imagination life is your creation”. (Aqua, 1) It is a complete and defenceless submission to market economy where the woman mind and body is subjected only in context of lust. The entire process is shown as in complete agreement of the woman’s consent and the woman appears to be extremely happy with the entire scenario.
The same commoditisation of woman or viewing woman as a sex object is seen in the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy. However, she represents the poem in from of satire and indicates the evil sides of today’s Popular Culture and the Representation of the fairer Gender as market commodity. The poet narrates the physical details of a woman and states, “She was healthy, tested intelligent, / possessed strong arms and back, / abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.” (Piercy, 1) However, there was a small drawback and it was her “a great big nose and fat legs”. (Piercy, 1) Everyone wanted her to have a perfect body and that resulted her to “cut off her nose and her legs / and offered them up”. (Piercy, 1) This poem indicates the inclination of a woman towards becoming a commodity and its fatal result when the subject found it was not possible to become the perfect commodity.
Both works, directly and indirectly, indicates the modern perception of woman and the Popular Culture and the Representation of Gender under stereotyped mode. Under such perception, a woman is nothing but the object of a man’s lust and in both the works it is seen that the woman is happy to be a commodity and that indicates or represents the situation of today’s parameters of a woman’s world. Here the end goal for a woman is becoming a commodity in a man’s hand. That completes the commoditisation of a woman, and the society, with its markets and economies, has indicated this place for her.
Works Cited:
Aqua. “Barbie Girl”. Music video. Youtube.com. 2006. Retrieved on 07.04.2008 from www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEzh10_xoqw
Piercy, Marge. “Barbie Doll”. poemhunter.com. 2007. Retrieved on 07.04.2008 from www.poemhunter.com/poem/barbie-doll
