Homage To My Hips By Lucille Piercy

In “Homage to My Hips,” by Lucille Clifton, and “Barbie Doll,” by Marge Piercy, both speakers face judgments based on their physical appearance as women in their society. However, they both choose to deal with them through opposing actions. Clifton describes herself as being a woman who’s comfortable in her own skin while Piercy describes the idealistic vision of a woman. In “Homage to My Hips”, the speaker is proud and appreciative of her wide hips to the point where she parades them throughout the poem. The word “homage” means to “pay tribute” to something and in this poem, the speaker is “paying tribute” to her hips. At a young age, girls are taught to find imperfections with their body, mostly complaining about their hips being too big

The poem begins with the birth of a "girlchild" and all of the typical toys that girls at a young age play with. “This girlchild was born as usual and presented dolls that did pee-pee and miniature GE stoves and irons and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.” (Piercy Lines 1-4). When the girl hits puberty, her classmates tell her she has a big nose and fat legs. (Piercy Lines 5-6). In the difficult physical and emotional stage of puberty, the girl is harassed and degraded because she does not physically fit the acceptable standards of what a girl should look like. The second stanza portrays the girl in a non-attractive way as if any man would only want to use her for manual labor and child birth even with her intelligence. “She was healthy, tested intelligent, possessed strong arms ad back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.” (Piercy Lines 8-9). “She went to and fro apologizing. Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.” (Piercy Lines 10-11). The second stanza explains that she is giving into society’s strength and apologizing for her appearance. The last line of the second stanza, “Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs,” explains that no matter how many times the girl apologizes she will always be seen as the girl with the unacceptable sized legs and nose. (Piercy Line 10). “Her good nature wore out like a fan belt so she cut off her nose and her legs

In the poem “Barbie Doll” a young girl who is constantly facing the opinionated and ever-changing image of “perfect beauty” is driven to a breaking point due to constantly being reminded she is not appealingly pleasing in some ways. As a woman, one of the hardest things to learn is how to love yourself and your body in its natural form. In “Barbie Doll” she went as far as to cut off her nose and legs to conform to society’s definition of beauty. This example portrays that people must be grateful for what they have, and if they are displeased, to either find a solution to their problem, or move on from