What Do Women Want and My Shoes: Addonizio and Simic Addonizio’s poetry, known for its harsh, street-wise narrators and a wicked sense of wit, has received significant recognition since it first appeared as “The Philosopher’s Club” (1944), a collection of unflinching poems on subjects ranging from mortality to love. Kim Addonizio’s poem, “What Do Women Want” explores the risk that women have of being stereotyped. By employing the literal devices of imagery and metaphor, Addonizio is able to convey the message that what women really want is to be understood. Though her harsh and honest style. Presenting us with this image, she is making a reference to the kinds of stereotypes associated women that might wear such a dress. Addonizio
Kim Addonizio's poetry highlights the microscopic detail into the mortality of the human condition, rebellion, and love. Her themes ranged from sexual sensation to rock n roll rebellion, which was all delivered in a witty format. Addonizio’s poetic meter is delivered in a syncopated blues rhythmic measure comparable to that of the lyrics of the classic blues artists like Skip James where a continuing series of musical notes are overlapped by a repetition of lines that gradually or minorly change through progression. This style is most notable through her fixed form poetry, such as sonnets. So it is only natural that her lyrical poetry is complimented well in accordance of the blues band playing as she simultaneously reads. Addonizio's physique,
During the Art Deco era the calla lily became one of the most popular flowers around. Whether in florist shops or on artist canvases the calla lily became a recurring theme. Like many flowers before it the calla lily came to be more than a flower on its own but it represented the idea of femininity. The calla lily was used by artists such as Tamara de Lempicka, Diego Rivera and Georgia O’Keeffe as a symbol of femininity and feminism. Through examining their works, in relation to their own lives and the events of the day, I will explore how the calla lily came to represent a new type on femininity and feminism.
Dante, an Italian poet during the late middle ages, successfully parallels courtly love with Platonic love in both the La Vita Nuova and the Divine Comedy. Though following the common characteristics of a courtly love, Dante attempts to promote love by elevating it through the lenses of difference levels. Through his love affair with Beatrice, although Beatrice has died, he remains his love and prompts a state of godly love in Paradiso. Dante, aiming to promote the most ideal type of love, criticizes common lust while praises the godly love by comparing his state of mind before and after Beatrice’s death. PJ Klemp essay “Layers of love in Dante’s Vita Nuova” explains the origins of Dante’s love in Plato and Aristotle themes that designate
This essay will be focusing on women who worked during the world war two and their roles in the community. Not only would it focus on their roles it will also look at the fashion of these women; what they wore to work during the war, after the war and what is being worn to work nowadays. The research on the fashion change relates to my work the most as i’ve tried to portray the changes in the fashion of these working class women, what it means and how it shows off women as a being. Even though most of the women that worked during the second world war were said to be in the middle-class range this essay will focus on the working-class females in the society. One of the major subject matter in this essay will be the “Rosie the Riveter” poster although created by various artist during the World War II, the meanings in each posters mirrored the next. Also this essay will reflect on some of the numerous female war artists that used women to portray strength, elegance and raw femininity.
Women are seen as an object like in the poem “My last Duchess” by Robert Browning. The main character is a man who is talking to someone about his previous wife. Off the first few lines the reader can see he likes to show off the power and money he has. Then he says there is a curtain in front of her picture; which means
“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” This maxim applies to the poet Dante Alighieri, writer of The Inferno in the 1300s, because it asserts the need to establish oneself as a contributor to society. Indeed, Dante’s work contributes much to Renaissance Italy as his work is the first of its scope and size to be written in the vernacular. Due to its readability and availability, The Inferno is a nationalistic symbol. With this widespread availability also comes a certain social responsibility; even though Dante’s audience would have been familiar with the religious dogma, he assumes the didactic role of illustrating his own version of Christian justice and emphasizes the need for a personal understanding of divine wisdom and contrapasso, the idea of the perfect punishment for the crime. Dante acts as both author and narrator, completing a physical and spiritual journey into the underworld with Virgil as his guide and mentor. The journey from darkness into light is an allegory full of symbolism, much like that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which shows a philosopher’s journey towards truth. Therefore, Dante would also agree with the maxim, “Wise men learn by others’ harms; fools scarcely by their own,” because on the road to gaining knowledge and spiritual enlightenment, characters who learn valuable lessons from the misfortunes of others strengthen their own paradigms. Nonetheless, the only true way to gain knowledge is to experience it first hand. Dante’s character finds truth by way of his own personal quest.
Hence, in the contemporary fashion industry, the sexualisation and objectification of women’s bodies remain, which means female models and their bodies are sexualized as a beautiful object offering pleasure to others. It is noted that sexualization also means the frequent erotic presentation of women’s bodies in the public spaces (Gill, 2007). Fashion media are more likely to disseminate beauty and images of women’s bodies, which provides a lot of opportunities for people to see the female body as an object. It is worth noticing that men still are dominant in the fashion industry, although this industry is mostly catering for women. For instance, most of head designers who are the main image-makers in the industry are men while women are at the bottom of this industry (Wilson, 2005). More importantly, models’ bodies are always viewed by others in this industry. Their bodies are displayed in the catwalk shows, in the fashion magazines, in the campaigns on the streets, etc. As a consequence, gazed by dominant men in this industry and many consumers all over the world, women need to be read as objects for meeting their demands. Also, female models selected by dominant men need to be meet the standard of beauty that formulated by these men. Their bodies need to be coded sexually with specific meanings by men as well. As Gill (2007)
As a spokesperson for feminism, many of Kruger’s pieces during this time dealt with representations of femininity, and often attacked stereotypes. She would use photographs of women in "static or supine poses, displayed according to cliched conventions of popular representation” (____62) and would contrast these pictures with a feminist statement overtop. In her 1981 design known as “Your gaze hits the side of my face”, a female statue is shown facing away from the viewer, not making eye contact, and exhibiting the “male gaze” so often seen in the media. Kruger explores how damaging the male gaze can be by using the woman as a statue, which enforces the idea of men confining women by believing they are nothing more than sexual objects to be appreciated visually (___pandamoniam fap). In another work titled “We don’t need another hero” (1985), a young girl pokes and looks amazed by the muscles of a young boy. Showing that even as a child, females are trained to look at men as powerful, and men are trained to be strong. Wanting to change the restrictive definitions of gender, Kruger states “we don’t need another hero” to express that we do not need to continue fitting into these molds (___). For the 1989 reproductive rights protest and the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., Kruger created Your Body Is a Battleground
Women fifty years ago faced equality and standard issues similar to equality and society standard issues today. A woman now faces the difficulty of hearing that she can “be herself” and express herself as she pleases without judgment. In Lesley Gore’s 1963 song, “You Don’t Own Me” she addresses many of her frustrations with society’s view of women in a way similar to Colbie Caillat’s 2014 song, “Try”. Gore and Caillat approach similar topics in different ways, Gore protests directly to those whom she feels the attack is coming from, whereas Caillat protests to those who are being attacked with her, declaring that they don’t have to listen to the lies they are being told.
In order to provide a detailed analysis of the poem Glimpses of Women in Overalls it is vital to first establish the context in which it is written. Karen Press was born during the Apartheid era in South African and it can be said that she was therefore much influence by what she witnessed first-hand. To begin one should first observe the title of the poem and note the usage of the word “Women” – meaning more than one woman. Therefore the word choice expresses an observation of not only one, but numerous women throughout the poem.
Fashion has always dictated what gender stereotypes should wear and how they should present themselves to the world with their fashion, these rules and ideals are constantly changing and reversing, occasionally blurring the lines between the two. Gender roles have lessened and obscured in modern society due to subcultures and immediate availability of clothing, the gender ideals do however still exist and designers often heavily rely on these assumptions. Advertising companies often use these gender stereotypes to promote their clients' clothing as well which, in turn, only serves to strengthen traditional ideas of what men and women should wear. In this essay I aim to discuss the ever changing gender divide and how fashion reacts to these alterations and views and reflects the ideals at the time.
I will analyse these sources in my main body. In the past fifty years women have been marginalised and were represented as the weaker sex. The woman in the Kenzo advert is represented stereotypically as a weak human. For example, this can be seen when the woman is bare footed, full of laughter, innocence and leaning on an object, a slam. The woman leaning on the object signifies that the woman cannot live without this perfume.
image of themselves in real life. They are almost computer-generated women like in the movie Simone. Indeed, with the technology we have now, advertisers can transform a product into perfection, at the same time, misleading the consumer into seeing it as “real”, and thus permanently providing impossible standards (Ingham). More and more women are becoming dissatisfied with themselves trying to be this fantasy person created by the men in our society. This distorted view of reality, portrayed by advertisemen...
Christina Rossetti's poem, “In An Artist’s Studio”, explores how men foster a need for control by creating unrealistic expectations for women through their fantasies. Through the use of repetition, contrast of imagery, and symbolism, Rossetti guides us through the gallery inside of an artist’s mind, portraying the fantasies that give him a sense of control over the women he creates.
In today’s society, women are put down for being different and not following the “Barbie stereotype.” Men and women have always had conflicting differences since the beginning of time. Societal and natural given characteristics to both genders whether they are mental or physical have always been quite different amongst the two sexes and now those borders are finally being tested. Slowly but surely women are gaining power and respect. In Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman,” she demonstrates the love a woman can have for herself even though she is not considered beautiful by society. Through the use of the themes self-confidence, body language, and defining oneself as well as several different stylistic techniques Angelou paints a very relatable mindset that most women strive for.