"Barbie Doll"

I wouldn’t have thought that males have the same pressures to look good as females do. However, the Ken Barbie doll has some abs and nice looking biceps, representing the ideal man—strong and handsome. From day one, boys are expected to be boys. They are given Tonka trucks, get to play in mud, and are given guns and ATV’s when they are old enough. However, what if this boy did not want to play in the mud or go hunting? Now he is challenging society, his parent’s expectations, and all social norms. This is much like the peer pressure females face with their appearance. However, males could have more peer pressure haunting them because females are not very often frowned upon if they would rather go hunting than shopping.

If I had to rewrite this poem to reflect the experience of a young man, the title would be “So I don’t like to go hunting?” or something like that. It would be more based on the expectations presented to a young man that happens to be gay. The peer pressure to be masculine would eat him apart and have a bad ending, much like in “Barbie Doll”. I would use informal diction to make the poem be read like a story, just as it is in the female version. This would force the reader to give the poem a dramatic outline and be thought about in all seriousness.