"Barbie Doll" appears in Piercy's 1973 collection, To Be of Use. By using the iconic image of the Barbie doll as a kind of straw "man," Piercy implicitly criticizes the ways in which women are socialized into stereotypical feminine behavior. Written as a fairy-tale of sorts, "Barbie Doll" suggests that the enormous social pressures on women to conform to particular ways of looking and behaving are ultimately destructive.