Washington 1

Aja Washington
March 25, 2017
English 305

Paper 2 Assignment

Denise Duhamel uses poetry to share her perspectives and others on Mattel’s most

popular toy Barbie. “Oriental Barbie” and “Black Barbie” focuses on serious worldwide issues

which are sexism, racism, and also what is considered beautiful or the ideal woman. Barbie is

used as a repetition of motif in both poems to show how women of color are viewed. Both poems

having reoccurring images of Barbie and word Barbie reoccurs. This is illustrated in “Oriental

Barbie” where the Barbie depicts Asian women in a sexist and racist way. In the poem “Black

Barbie History” the Barbie isn’t even really recognized as being black and her black features

don’t exist. It also shows different perspectives of beauty and what is considered being a

beautiful woman or having an ideal body. These poems demonstrate how Duhamel uses

Barbie’s to educate her audience on everyday issues that people face like race, gender, and body

image.

In the poem “Oriental Barbie” Duhamel uses Barbie to elaborate on the various ways

Asian women are stereotyped when it comes to sex and race. The poet explains that the Oriental

Barbie could be from various places like China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam,

Korea or Thailand. The decision is based on the child that is playing with the doll. Duhamel

writes: “It’s all the same, according to Mattel”. This is an example of how the Barbie is used to

show how some people view Asians. A lot of people are ignorant to the fact that all of these

ethnicities are different and have many different backgrounds. Regardless, of their differences of
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culture, language, and ethnicity they are all viewed as being the same from some perspectives.

All Asians are put in one category.

“Oriental Barbie” also demonstrates how Asian women are viewed through Barbie

when it comes to being a woman. Duhamel writes: “the Orient, where men are kings…” The

poet uses Barbie to prove how Asian women are viewed as less than compared to men. Asian

men are often seen as kings compared to Asian women. Duhamel also uses Barbie to prove that

Asian women are viewed as women that serve men. “White Ken lies on his stomach while an

Oriental Barbie walks on his back. Or is it a real women stepping on Ken? Or Oriental Barbie

stepping on a real man?” This shows that Asian women aren’t considered real woman unless

they are catering to the opposite sex. Barbie is used as a repetition of motif in “Oriental Barbie”

to show how Asian women are stereotyped as all being the same and also being less than the

opposite sex. This stereotype is used to identify all Asian women and put them all in one box.

Similar to “Oriental Barbie”, “Black Barbie History” focuses on racism, but also

focuses on body image. In the poem “Black Barbie History” Duhamel uses Barbie to show her

audience that some people may not recognize black as being beautiful. The poet writes about

how Black Barbie’s look exactly like white Barbie’s. She further explains that their mold is

exactly the same only difference is the color. Duhamel writes: “Even the Julia Baker doll, who

was supposed /to resemble actress Diahann Carroll, wound up /with White Barbie’s tiny hands,

flexed feet, and slight nose.” (3-5) Although Diahann Carroll is a black woman and the doll was

supposed to resemble her. Instead, it still resembled a white woman. The doll looked nothing like

her. It doesn’t take a rocket science to know that black people and white people body features are

more different than similar. The poet uses Barbie to show others perspective on black people and

their beauty. Mattel didn’t consider to give the Black Barbie any black features. Instead, all of
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their features are erased. This is an example of racism because it shows that something that is

suppose represent black people or black culture is eliminated because it’s not consider beautiful

or ideal to them.

“Black Barbie History” also demonstrates others perspectives when it comes to the ideal

female body and what is consider beautiful or the right body. Duhamel writes: “She always

keeps/ her trim figure, her waist not much thicker than her neck. / She smiles no matter what,

never making herself/ needy or vulnerable. Today, the same plastic surgery/ used on Black

Barbie can smooth those ethnic features in all of us.” (14-20) The writer uses Barbie to explain

how women are expected to look and what is considered beautiful. Similar to the Barbie, the

right or perfect body for a woman is being trim and having a slim figure. This is what American

culture considers the ideal body for woman. Barbie is also used in this poem to show how the

ideal body is affecting women. That they’re going to plastic surgeons to erase their ethnic

features or to fix things that they may consider flaws. Duhamel mentions that this is leading to all

women to look alike similar to the white Barbie and the black Barbie. Barbie is a repetition of

motif in “Black Barbie history” to bring awareness of the standard of beauty women are held to

and also how a lot of things that represent black beauty in the world has white features.

Denise Duhamel poems “Oriental Barbie” and “Black Barbie History” focuses on

major social issues like racism, sexism, and body image. Barbie is used as a repetition of motif to

teach her audience on how women of color are viewed from others perspective. Duhamel also

uses Barbie to shine light on issues that women go through when it comes to having an ideal

body and being beautiful. Although Barbie is looked at as just a popular toy that young girls

love to play with. It’s actually sending its audience negative and false ideas about women, body
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image, and race. “Oriental Barbie” and “Black Barbie History” both use Barbie as a repetition of

motif to bring awareness of these unfortunate problems that women face every day.
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Work Cited

Duhamel, Denise. “Oriental Barbie” Kinky, Orchises Press 1997, p. 19

Duhamel, Denise. “Black Barbie History” Kinky, Orchises Press 1997, p. 20