Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"What Are Big Girls Made Of" is a poem by Marge Piercy, first published in her 1984 collection, "Available Light". The poem explores society's unrealistic and harmful expectations for women's bodies, beauty standards, and the damaging impact it can have on their self-esteem and body image.

Explanation:

The poem opens with a rhetorical question, "The construction of a woman:/Is it war?" which suggests that women's bodies are often perceived as battlegrounds and subjected to societal pressures and standards. Piercy then describes the expectations placed on women's physical appearance, including being "made up" with cosmetics, having a "good figure" and "healthy" skin. The second stanza expands on these expectations, with women being expected to be "clean" and "smooth", and to have "plump" and "voluptuous" bodies.

The poem then turns to the damaging impact these expectations can have on women, with Piercy describing the ways in which women are objectified, fetishized, and commodified. Women's bodies become products to be consumed and scrutinized by others, rather than their own selves. The final stanza offers a powerful call to action, urging women to reject these damaging societal norms and expectations and instead embrace their own unique beauty and individuality.

Poetic Elements:

• Free verse structure
• Rhetorical questions
• Alliteration and repetition, such as "sugar and spice" and "plump and voluptuous"
• Imagery, such as "painted" faces and "stuffed" bodies
• Contrast, with descriptions of societal expectations contrasted with the reality of their impact on women
• Irony and satire, with the use of "sugar and spice" to describe the societal expectation of women being sweet and submissive, and the final stanza's call to action
• Symbolism, with the use of the metaphor of construction to describe women's bodies, and the phrase "big girls" representing the societal pressure to conform to a certain body type.

Conclusion:

"What Are Big Girls Made Of" is a powerful critique of societal beauty standards and their impact on women's self-esteem and body image. Piercy's use of imagery, repetition, and symbolism convey the damaging expectations placed on women's bodies, and the poem's call to action encourages women to embrace their unique beauty and reject harmful societal norms.

Poem Snippet:

"The construction of a woman:

Is it war? Are we build

from the bones up

with a heart like a bull dog on a chain?"