Oppression In 'Homage To My Hip'

435 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay for self acceptance importance

Oppression through Sizeism is prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s size (Sizeism). Throughout the poem “homage to my hips” Clifton suggests that through Sizeism she learned to hate her “hips” because she was a young black woman who did not fit within Caucasian standards of beauty. Clifton writes “I have known [my hips] to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top!” highlighting positive images of the female body that parallel the negativity of female oppression. Clifton emphasizes that men do not hold real power at the mercy of a woman and her charm, for a woman who learns to love everything about herself, including her body holds the greatest power against a man. The perspective Clifton takes in her poem can be attributed to the fact that her “poetry is rooted in her experiences as an African American woman raised in an impoverished urban environment, who has a strong and enduring love for family and community” (Lucille …show more content…

Highlighting how throughout her life Clifton faced the oppression of a young black woman growing up in the mid twentieth century, constantly facing oppression due to ethnicity as well as gender. From this information one can suggest that the last line of the “homage to my hips” is a metaphor for her life and a message Clifton holds for young girls to keep learning to accept themselves for it is the greatest freedom one can experience. Continuing Qiu Jin in “Preoccupation” parallels Clifton by writing “with heated hearts arouse all women’s spirits.” This expression of freedom allowed women to realize they too could be freed, striking the hearts of women in china to stop oppression and creating a sense of revival and battle. While living in China during the Qing Dynasty

Show More
Related

  • Gender Roles In The Jade Peony

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    The united States Declaration of independence states that all men are equal, but aren’t all women as well? Nowadays, the numbers for the population are at an increase for the support in gender equality, with the capture of feminist labels. The seek for equality between men and women, and criticize the privileges that arouse by gender differences. However in Old China, males control almost everything due to a patriarchal society. At that time, not only men, but also women are influenced by male chauvinism. In the Jade Peony, written by Wayson Choy, female characters are affected by an unequal perspective despite their age group.

    Read More

  • Homage To My Hips By Lucille Clifton

    1150 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the first few lines Clifton says, “these hips are big hips / they need space to / move around in”(lines 1-3). These lines immediately invoke an idea of hips, implied women, needing opportunities and room in this world to make a difference. Women will not fit into societies molds predetermined for them simply because of there gender. Instead, women need the same opportunities for advancement and success that men are given. These lines begin to allude to the fluid movement of the poem that is similar to hips swinging. The movement of the poem is amplified by the poet’s significant choice to use free form instead of a more traditional form. Clifton’s decision to use free form is another way for her to show women breaking tradition with success and grace. The movement and free form in this poem also symbolizes the way in which women are approaching the male dominated world. Women are attempting to break down stereotypes while proving they are capable and intelligent, in order to reiterate that gender has no affect on one’s intelligence or

    Read More

  • Bound Feet And Western Dress

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chang Yu-I understood woman's liberation as the tool for changing the Chinese culture. It was about a woman becoming her own person rather than the property of a man whom she must cherish under every circumstance. Yu-I believed that a woman's liberation was in finding her own independence and strength in Chinese society.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Color Of Water

    1778 Words  | 4 Pages

    An example of this can be found in Native Son, while Bigger is portrayed as a hyper masculine character the author emphasizes the differences of the two genders by giving the women in the novel . weaker personas and characters that are less subject to change and development. The woman whose character development is most prominent is the mother´ s when she transfers from having a sharp and tough demeanor at the beginning of the novel, ¨´Bigger, sometimes I wonder why I birthed you...We wouldn't have to live in this garbage dump if you had any manhood in you,” (Wright 8). This is also seen in the way that people in power, such as police officers, treat women differently than men. In Native Son, Bigger overhears two men discussing Bessie, “‘Say you see that brown gal in there… Boy, she was a peach wasn't she?’ ‘Yeah; I wonder what on earth a nigger wants to kill a white woman for when he has such a good looking woman in his own race….’” (Wright 260). In the society of 1940’s America, society focused on typical gender roles and enforced them by ingraining into life itself, teach children the importance of earning their place. The form of oppression differs between races, but still emphasizes elevating men above all

    Read More

  • Cultural Appropriation: Oppression or Appreciation?

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    1. What you are studying (which three works and the topic of your paper) Topic: I’m going to be writing my paper on Cultural Appropriation. I’m going to focus on cultural appropriation in music and hip hop. Then I’m going to use cultural appropriation in hair as a way of questioning whether cultural appropriation is actually cultural appreciation.

    Read More

  • Victoria Bromley Feminist Analysis

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    This means that these women have less privileges than black males, because even though both of them share the same race, male as a gender is generally ranked higher than women. Similarly, black men have less privileges than white men, because the white race is ranked higher in society. These universalizing assumptions rely on the essentialist way of thinking, therefore blocking the fact that women’s lives are much more diverse, as each woman has different, multiple life experiences and personality traits. This idea of the power-dominated group of society is known to be rooted from the other oppressive structures such as Eurocentrism, heterosexism, transphobia, and ableism. For example, Eurocentrism is “a view that Europe is the centre of the world and “civilization”, and everything must be measured against this standard.” (56). This ideal standard is creating oppression towards members of society who are not necessarily white, male or heterosexual, thus, allowing inequality to take place and unearned privilege towards this group of “power-dominated” people. From children’s Disney movies, kids witness masculine and feminine stereotypes from a very young age. These reinforced stereotypes teach children how men and women should act, look and behave. For example, in the movie “Hercules”, a delicate and gentle princess finds love with the big, muscular, and ‘manly’ hero named Hercules. As these films describe that men are the complete opposites of

    Read More

  • Gay African American on TV

    2543 Words  | 6 Pages

    ...hough he is tall and strong, Julien’s masculinity is policed aggressively and violently by his peers. When the rumor spreads that Julien is gay, his fellow officers, beat and intimidate him. Despite his stature, Julien quietly submits to their threats and intimidation. Quite literally, Julien’s masculinity is “policed” by his fellow police officers. Much like Patricia Hill Collins’ assertion about controlling images and that representations of black women as mammies and matriarchs work as “powerful ideological justifications” for “intersecting oppressions of race, class, gender and sexuality” (p. 69) the same can be applied to the controlling images of black male masculinity, “the “faggot and the queen”. Controlling images function to justify various oppressions by distorting reality through reducing the stereotyped subjected black body to a controllable object.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Lessons For Women By Ban Zhao

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lessons for Women was written by Ban Zhao, the leading female Confucian scholar of classical China, in 100 C.E. It was written to apply Confucian principles to the moral instruction of women, and was particularly addressed to Ban Zhao’s own daughters. As her best remembered work, it allows the reader insight into the common role of a woman during this fascinating time-period. The work starts off by Ban Zhao unconvincingly berating herself, and claiming how she once lived with the constant fear of disgracing her family. This argument is rather implausible, for the reader already knows the credibility of Ban Zhao, and how important her role was in ancient China.

    Read More

  • Wild Swans Analysis

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    The early part of the novel shows women’s place in Chinese culture. Women had no say or position in society. They were viewed as objects, and were used as concubines and treated with disparagement in society. The status of women’s social rank in the 20th century in China is a definite positive change. As the development of Communism continued, women were allowed to be involved in not only protests, but attended universities and more opportunities outside “house” work. Communism established gender equality and legimated free marriage, instead of concunbinage. Mao’s slogan, “Women hold half of the sky”, became extremely popular. Women did almost any job a man performed. Women were victims by being compared to objects and treated as sex slaves. This was compared to the human acts right, because it was an issue of inhumane treatment.

    Read More

  • A Pair of Tickets by Amy Tan

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...Also an important quote is when she says, "But today I realize I've never really known what it means to be Chinese. I am thirty-six years old" (857). Even though she was in her 30's and still had that identity crisis, it was uplifting knowing that all it took for her to resolve that conflict was one meeting with her sisters.

    Read More

  • Femininity Versus Androgyny in The Laugh of the Medusa and A Room of One's Own

    2379 Words  | 5 Pages

    One of Cixous's main intents is "to break up, to destroy" (309). This destruction of injustice colors her entire perspective; much of her essay is devoted to reaction, to toppling the tyranny of men. Men's writing, she argues, "is a locus where the repression of women has been perpetuated, over and over, more or less consciously, and...has grossly exaggerated all the signs of sexual opposition" (311). Cixous compares women's self-image to that of disenfranchised blacks: "They can be taught that their territory is black: because you are Africa, you are black. Your continent is dark. Dark is dangerous...And so we have internalized this horror of the dark" (310). Through these cultural judgments, men "have made for women an antinarcissism!...They have constructed the infamous logic of antilove" (310). She connects this antilove most strongly with self-loathing for the body: "We've been turned away from our bodies, shamefully taught to ignore them, to strike them with that stupid sexual modesty" (315).

    Read More

  • Sexism and Racism in “The Color Purple”

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sexism is a form of discrimination based on a person's sex, with such attitudes being based on beliefs in traditional stereotypes of different roles of the sexes. Sexism is not just a matter of individual attitudes; it is built into the institutions of society. In the film, Walker shows the difficult life of sexism for black women. For example, Celie was being raped by her stepfather at the age of fourteen. He takes her children away from her and then gives her away to a man to be married that she did not love or care for that she can only refer to him as mister. While living with him, she had to endure his beatings and take care of his children from another woman. During that time in the South, abuse from spouse was common, tolerated, and thought to be right. Men were the ones that worried about whether their actions or their behaviors are masculine enough. Take Harpo for an example, who found it hard to discipline his wife, Sofia. He asked, his father how he can get Sofia to listen to him. His father replies, “You ever hit her?” When Harpo says no, his father says, “Well how you expect to make her mind? Wives are like

    Read More

  • Story Of An Hour Oppression Analysis

    1156 Words  | 3 Pages

    “There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.

    Read More

  • Sexism in Dancehall Music

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...l pleasure that matters over the woman’s. “So mi fuck her out hard when she position from back, worse de gul skin clean, yes and de pum pum fat.” Yet again this supports that idea that a woman is supposed to attract a man with her looks but also goes further to state that the power available to women is determined by her sexual nature in order to gain the achievement of being the women he wants. “Gi mi straight up pussy cause she know say gangsta no saps, it’s a fucking affair gal siddung pon mi cocky like chair,” this brings out the motion of objectification of women. In the last lines, “Wan mek a run but mi cab inna de air, Fling her pon de ground and put she foot inna de air” the action of taking control mentined clearly above eliminates the notion of respect of men towards women in this dyadic relation, which highlights women subordinate and inferior position.

    Read More

  • Maya Angelou's Reader Response In Phenomenal Woman

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    To look at woman in this day and age, we try to base ourselves off of the size two or below that we see on television walking down the runway. But what they don’t advertise is that it’s even more beautiful to be a size 10 or above. “Phenomenal Woman” is a poem that shows that even if you’re not that size two or below, you’re still beautiful no matter what size you are. Every woman is beautiful inside and out, but it is those who carry themselves with etiquette and poise whom are the most beautiful. Maya Angelou speaks of this many times in her poem “Phenomenal Woman.” In my opinion, this poem should be read by all women who struggle with self-esteem issues because the poem teaches women to be who they are and to not let anyone belittle them because they are not the desirable size zero we women all wish to be; we women are phenomenal because of what we do to make a difference in this world and how we carry ourselves while doing it.

    Read More

More about Oppression In 'Homage To My Hip'

Open Document