In the poem, "Barbie Doll", why did people view her corpse in the funeral parlor and think she looked pretty? Please use text from the poem to...

This part of the poem "Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy can be
found in the last stanza, where it says:

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In the casket displayed on satin she
lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty
nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty?
everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy
ending.

When the "girlchild"
(who represents every girl and woman) was alive, she was told that she possessed
intelligence, a strong back, a good dexterity with her hands, and a high sexual passion.
However, none of those important factors for being a happy woman matter to society. What
matters to the society to which the poem refers is the superficiality of womanhood: The
looks, the pose, the fake mannerisms, in all, the fantasy of being a
woman.

To answer your question, this is the reason why the
girlchild has to die in order to be accepted by others: Once the girlchild gives up
trying to be a real, natural woman, she dies. Yet, the undertaker makes her into that
ideal-looking fake woman society wants her to be. Once in her casket, she looks like
they like. She has to be dead and give up her real aspect of womanhood in order to
satisfy a society that lives in oblivion as to what women are really like, what they
need, and how they should be treated.