American singer-songwriter Halsey performed a poem titled "A story like mine" at the Women’s March on January 20, 2018. Throughout her poem she references to several encounters with sexual abuse, whether it was her personal story or of a friends experience. She then proceeds to persuade us to always care for everyone and to listen to those who seem to need to be heard because they might not have someone to support them regardless of what their unique situation might be. Halsey also states that no one is safe regardless of who you are or how powerful you think to be, no one is untouchable. Halsey begins building her credibility with personal experiences with sexual abuse assault by using pathos to grasp the audiences’ emotion, yet also informing her audience and using a rhetorical situation.
In her poem, Halsey starts it off by introducing the audience the story of her friend Sam who was raped by someone they both knew. "So now I'm with Sam, at the place with a plan, waiting for the results of a medical exam and she's praying she doesn’t need an abortion." Using rape
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At the beginning of her poem she uses imagery so that her audience is able to truly see what it might have been for her friend as she was sexually assaulted, she wants those listening to her to picture themselves there being taken advantage of by someone she personally knew. She states in her poem, "And he held her down with her textbook beside her and he covered her mouth and came inside her". This make us think and we imagine how that must have been for her as she was forcefully held down with no one coming to her rescue, she felt helpless which is how many people feel when trying to fight this issue. Halsey’s intentions of that line were for her audience to feel the same pain and emotion which would lead them to fight back for a solution to avoid any more stories like these from
This is shown through the tone changing from being disappointed and critical to acceptance and appreciative. The speaker’s friend, who after listening to the speaker’s complaints, says that it seems like she was “a child who had been wanted” (line 12). This statement resonates with the speaker and slowly begins to change her thinking. This is apparent from the following line where the speaker states that “I took the wine against my lips as if my mouth were moving along that valved wall in my mother's body” (line 13 to line 15). The speaker is imagining her mother’s experience while creating her and giving birth to her. In the next several lines the speakers describe what she sees. She expresses that she can see her mother as “she was bearing down, and then breathing from the mask, and then bearing down, pressing me out into the world” (line 15 to line 18). The speaker can finally understand that to her mother the world and life she currently lived weren't enough for her. The imagery in the final lines of this poem list all the things that weren’t enough for the mother. They express that “the moon, the sun, Orion cartwheeling across the dark, not the earth, the sea” (line 19 to 21) none of those things matter to the mother. The only thing that matter was giving birth and having her child. Only then will she be satisfied with her life and
Weigl utilizes the sense of touching or feeling to convey to the reader the somber mood of the poem, “Shivering on the chrome table” (5); “she passed the needle to the doctor” (16); “only the weight of her in my arms” (28). When the reader reads these lines in the poem, they can feel what the characters feel. They can imagine May laying on the cold, chrome table shivering. They can imagine the nurse passing the needle to the doctor that ends May’s suffering. They can imagine May’s limp body in the arms of her owner once all the pain has left her
Here Gretel has realised she has lost her innocence and her childhood has been robbed, like so many children of today’s world. In the poem, symbolism is used as a powerful technique to reinforce the darkness Gretel feels but also relates this common human experience, fear, to our own life.
The speaker talks about what happens after being emotionally hurt by stating “getting a transfusion from the fire, picking the scabs off our heart, then wringing it out like a sock” (lines 29-31). Words such as ‘transfusion’ and ‘scab’ creates an image of healing and the word ‘wringing’ creates an image of getting rid of unwanted substances. The speaker is explaining that to heal from despair, people need to get their spark back, stop hiding their feelings, and get rid of unwanted feelings. The speaker uses other examples of imagery when she states “Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow, you gave it a back rub, and then you covered it with a blanket” (lines 32-34). The statement gives an image how a baby is comforted when upset. The speaker is explaining that after experiencing despair, it is okay to want to rest and be comforted like a child. The stanza is an example of courage because even after despair, people still have to keep on living.
She begins talking about her childhood and who raised her until she was three years old. The woman who raised her was Thrupkaew’s “auntie”, a distant relative of the family. The speaker remembers “the thick, straight hair, and how it would come around [her] like a curtain when she bent to pick [her] up” (Thrupkaew). She remembers her soft Thai accent, the way she would cling to her auntie even if she just needed to go to the bathroom. But she also remembers that her auntie would be “beaten and slapped by another member of my family. [She] remembers screaming hysterically and wanting it to stop, as [she] did every single time it happened, for things as minor as…being a little late” (Thrupkaew). She couldn’t bear to see her beloved family member in so much pain, so she fought with the only tool she had: her voice. Instead of ceasing, her auntie was just beaten behind closed doors. It’s so heart-breaking for experiencing this as a little girl, her innocence stolen at such a young age. For those who have close family, how would it make you feel if someone you loved was beaten right in front of you? By sharing her story, Thrupkaew uses emotion to convey her feelings about human
Ensler uses letter to show how horrible a girl be brainwashed by every injustice around her. It shows with “when Brad slaps me. It doesn’t hurt as much as…he couldn’t bear everyone staring at you…” (Ensler 73). It is left to reader’s feeling that what is the meaning of “slap doesn’t hurt”, if it means that the girl think being slapped is a normal thing for her.
The purpose of the speech provided by Chimamanda Adichie is to portray the various impacts a single story can have on both an individual and a society. This is because of the usage of stereotypes provided by the media which creates an overall image, that everyone believes to be true. This is prominent when she says “A single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” Having a single story also confines the world to generalized outlooks on cultures, religions and nationalities. Due to this, individuals must seek for diversity and different perspectives, in which everyone should be able to see the world as it is, not just the aspect that the media portrays. Through
Through these lines, the poet hopes to see people who’d sense and understand when one’s in need of help. She wishes they’d run to their aid and help them no matter the cost.
In the month of March 2016, Women of the World Poetry Slam had Rachel Wiley, a poet and body-positive activist, present her now viral poem called “The Dozens” (Vagianos 2016). This poem was about slams white feminism as a clear indication of whiteness self-defense mechanism. In this poem Wiley included various kinds social events that have occurred in the past years and just to name two: Raven Symone on blackness and Miley Cyrus and Nicki Manji at the VMAs. White feminism continues to become more problematic as the media continues to allow it to be because whiteness makes money; however, intersectionality about race, public imagery, and actual feminism also continues to go viral as the diversity of American become more and more productive.
An unwelcome sisterhood.” Now, the story is about these women and the thousands of women like them who have suffered sexual assault and all it incumbent pain.(LA Times). Thirty-five women have given voice and power to the thousands of women who have hidden their sexual assault due to fear shame, fear, confusion, a desire to put it behind them, or misguided loyalty; it empowers even those who came forward with their rape allegations. Draped in black, the color of loss, the picture powerfully illustrates that sexual assault victims are from all walks of life. These women allege that their assaults took place when they were young, and middle aged, while they were in college, while they were working; while they were mothers, when they were childless.
Structurally, this poem is a free verse poem having no rhyme, nor rhyme scheme. It has no poetic constraints because Collins chooses it to have a natural flow of thought when the readers read through it. The poem consists of a constant repetition of one stanza with four lines although the last stanza of the poem ends with two lines. These last two lines indicates that there is a possible volta in the poem. It reads: “You might have gone down as the first person/ to ever fall in love with the sadness of another” (Collins 25-26). In these two lines, Collins is specifying new ideas. Guadally it marks a tone of curiosity to the readers because the author’s intent is clearly not exploring about the“The first dream”, but is now exploring the beginning of emotions. The author establishes a tone of loneliness in the poem. This is clearly shown in lines 20-22: “moving off by herself to be alone near water,/ except that the curve of her young shoulders/ and the tilt of her downcast head” (Collins). Collins description of the female dreamer reaction of her first dream shows that she is not willingly to tell anyone about her dream in fear of being an outcast. Instead she chooses to seclude herself, and struggle to make sense of what she has experience. The author utilize imagery in this poem to appeal to the bodily senses of the reader. In line 13-16 he
Cox is saying that when people other than white and straight are sharing their heartbreaking stories, the audience treats them differently; differently than they would if a straight white woman shared the exact same story. There is a different tenor, different perspective, when it comes to race and sexual orientation with the #MeToo Movement. Intersectionality plays a vital role in feminism; with it, it can be seen that people with different identities are being treated differently, even though similar crimes are
I love that this was put into perspective in a couples life. I find it a good way to explain comparative advantages as well as opportunity cost. I feel that many people do not know the value of there own time. A line that really spoke out to me in this article was when it referred to this concept being similar to a student loan. I have the argument many times with my friends that if they went to school and invested in their future they should be able to pay off their student loans. I can relate to this article very much. Im a very young mom of a two year old little girl. I am in school and am a nanny for two different families. My daughter is in school 5 days a week while I nanny and do school work. If I was trying to save money I could keep
I placed myself at this point on the scale because the time I was born was a period my parents had to face the most difficult economic. They had no land; no money and nothing accept the small house where we lived. My father had to go to work for others and my mother stayed home for taking her children (one was 3, another 2 and I). So, I and my two older brothers to live in a status lack of food, milk, and clothing. My mother said, there were days, my father could not find a job, so we had no money to get food and milk and we just ate rice only. For me, my mother was not enough milk, so she had to cook rice and took water rice feeding me instead milk. My mother told me that my family had to live in this situation for a long time.
This song is an excellent example of the empowerment women and men may need occasionally. When someone is faced with a painful situation, people basically show two kinds of reaction: giving up or struggling. Those who decide to give up will usually keep complaining and blaming others for the situation they face. In contrast, those who decide to struggle, even though initially show almost the same reactions as the first group of people, they will finally choose to look at the good side of the situation they face. The process of being down, looking for the positives, and avoiding negative thoughts or feelings may be difficult but could ultimately result in the greatest gift of all, happiness.