Definition paper on women's body image?

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STLMomma

New member
I have to write a definition paper for my English class. My topic is women's body image. I had to pick three poems by one poet that talked about the same thing. That's how I figured out the body image. So now I need points to write about. I have to put quotes from the poems into my paper showing the points I am making. The only point I can come up with is how society views a woman's body image. Any suggestions would help and thank you in advance.
I picked these three poems by Marge Piercy
*A Work of Artifice
*Barbie Doll
*The Woman in the Ordinary
 
How beauty rituals, and the way women are supposed to look and act, are constricting, and can hinder our spiritual and emotional growth "The bonsai tree...could have grown eighty feet tall...but a gardener / carefully pruned it," and also how we are subjected to these things from such a young age--like being 'told' to play with Barbie Dolls, being told not to run around and mess up our dresses, etc. ("One must begin very early / to dwarf their growth: / the bound feet, the crippled brain")--and "the crippled brain" can refer to the negative impact that all of this--these expectations, these boxes we are put in--has on us.

How we are taught to be certain things ("She was advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty, / exercise, diet, smile and weedly") until we actually lose who we really are ("Her good nature wore out.")

How what people tell us influences how we act and look ("Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said, / You have a great big nose and fat legs / She was healthy, tested intelligent...she went to and fro apologizing")

And also how everyone focuses so much on our looks: ("She was healthy, tested intelligent / possessed strong arms and back...Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs")--and also "In the everyone said"--so even though she is "dead," they don't mourn for her life, because at least she looks good.

We see and value ourselves based on the reactions of other people ("...who fishes for herself in other's eyes")--we rely on other people's reactions to create ourselves.

"The Woman in the Ordinary" has a LOT of imagery/word choices that play on the idea of being "placed in a box," of trying to be something you're not--or trying to be something other people want you to be: "Is crouching with eyes and muscles clenched...she effaces herself;" "inside the girl who imitates / a Christmas card virgin with glued hands;" "who fishes for herself in other's eyes, / who stoops and creeps to make herself smaller."

How we have to hide ourselves to be "womanly." In "The Woman in the Ordinary," you have girl(s) with "great breasts" and "strong arms" who "laugh...uproariously from the belly," who are "peppery as curry"--but who tries to hold back that "peppery" personality to be "a yam of a woman of butter," who tries to emulate the perfection of the virgin Mary, because that's what women are expected to be (chaste, "good," devoted, etc.)
 
How beauty rituals, and the way women are supposed to look and act, are constricting, and can hinder our spiritual and emotional growth "The bonsai tree...could have grown eighty feet tall...but a gardener / carefully pruned it," and also how we are subjected to these things from such a young age--like being 'told' to play with Barbie Dolls, being told not to run around and mess up our dresses, etc. ("One must begin very early / to dwarf their growth: / the bound feet, the crippled brain")--and "the crippled brain" can refer to the negative impact that all of this--these expectations, these boxes we are put in--has on us.

How we are taught to be certain things ("She was advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty, / exercise, diet, smile and weedly") until we actually lose who we really are ("Her good nature wore out.")

How what people tell us influences how we act and look ("Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said, / You have a great big nose and fat legs / She was healthy, tested intelligent...she went to and fro apologizing")

And also how everyone focuses so much on our looks: ("She was healthy, tested intelligent / possessed strong arms and back...Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs")--and also "In the everyone said"--so even though she is "dead," they don't mourn for her life, because at least she looks good.

We see and value ourselves based on the reactions of other people ("...who fishes for herself in other's eyes")--we rely on other people's reactions to create ourselves.

"The Woman in the Ordinary" has a LOT of imagery/word choices that play on the idea of being "placed in a box," of trying to be something you're not--or trying to be something other people want you to be: "Is crouching with eyes and muscles clenched...she effaces herself;" "inside the girl who imitates / a Christmas card virgin with glued hands;" "who fishes for herself in other's eyes, / who stoops and creeps to make herself smaller."

How we have to hide ourselves to be "womanly." In "The Woman in the Ordinary," you have girl(s) with "great breasts" and "strong arms" who "laugh...uproariously from the belly," who are "peppery as curry"--but who tries to hold back that "peppery" personality to be "a yam of a woman of butter," who tries to emulate the perfection of the virgin Mary, because that's what women are expected to be (chaste, "good," devoted, etc.)
 
How beauty rituals, and the way women are supposed to look and act, are constricting, and can hinder our spiritual and emotional growth "The bonsai tree...could have grown eighty feet tall...but a gardener / carefully pruned it," and also how we are subjected to these things from such a young age--like being 'told' to play with Barbie Dolls, being told not to run around and mess up our dresses, etc. ("One must begin very early / to dwarf their growth: / the bound feet, the crippled brain")--and "the crippled brain" can refer to the negative impact that all of this--these expectations, these boxes we are put in--has on us.

How we are taught to be certain things ("She was advised to play coy, / exhorted to come on hearty, / exercise, diet, smile and weedly") until we actually lose who we really are ("Her good nature wore out.")

How what people tell us influences how we act and look ("Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said, / You have a great big nose and fat legs / She was healthy, tested intelligent...she went to and fro apologizing")

And also how everyone focuses so much on our looks: ("She was healthy, tested intelligent / possessed strong arms and back...Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs")--and also "In the everyone said"--so even though she is "dead," they don't mourn for her life, because at least she looks good.

We see and value ourselves based on the reactions of other people ("...who fishes for herself in other's eyes")--we rely on other people's reactions to create ourselves.

"The Woman in the Ordinary" has a LOT of imagery/word choices that play on the idea of being "placed in a box," of trying to be something you're not--or trying to be something other people want you to be: "Is crouching with eyes and muscles clenched...she effaces herself;" "inside the girl who imitates / a Christmas card virgin with glued hands;" "who fishes for herself in other's eyes, / who stoops and creeps to make herself smaller."

How we have to hide ourselves to be "womanly." In "The Woman in the Ordinary," you have girl(s) with "great breasts" and "strong arms" who "laugh...uproariously from the belly," who are "peppery as curry"--but who tries to hold back that "peppery" personality to be "a yam of a woman of butter," who tries to emulate the perfection of the virgin Mary, because that's what women are expected to be (chaste, "good," devoted, etc.)
 
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