Isn't it Ironic?

      In Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy, the irony starts right off the bat beginning with the title. When seeing the word Barbie one immediately thinks of an image of perfection, and this creates expectations that will not be met.
      The poem starts off with the author setting up a normal,young, and beautiful girl like any other. This image immediately changes in what the author calls,"the magic of puberty,but of course there is nothing magical about it because the girl gets criticized for having a big nose and fat legs. This is an example of verbal irony because the author doesn't mean what she's saying.
      Furthermore, the author goes on to say some good qualities about the girl, "She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity."This description shows masculine traits that don't fit the conventional ideas of beauty. People told her to change, but eventually she grew tired of not being accepted and, "so she cut up her nose and her legs and offered them up." meaning she took her own life.
     It's not until she's lying in her casket that people call her pretty, and the poem ends saying that it is a happy ending, presumably because the girl got what she wanted and was finally seen by others as pretty. But do they really mean it? Do they truly see her beauty now that it is too late or do they simply feel bad for her and feel the need to say it? Yet again more irony.
     I believe that the author uses irony in her poem to create exaggeration and really stress the point of how far you have to go to be accepted by others.