Analysis Of France Ellen Watkins's Poem A Double Standard

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In France Ellen Watkins Harper poem, “A Double Standard” the theme is gender wars/battle of the sexes, the genre is a poem, media is audio and literature, and the author is France Ellen Watkins Harper. The poet used repetition, the stanza is quatrain and anaphora were utilized in the in beginning. In society, there is an abundance of double standards for men and women even though we are all human beings. However, women just seem to cannot get a break towards gender equality. Everything that some men do there is always this phrase of exculpating that boys will be boys, but now it is time to hold men accountable for their actions. Society perceptions of women are that they should not cheat, it is their fault if the man leaves, and are emotional. …show more content…

However, the slavery owner Caucasian wife would know about the cheating, but would never leave her husband instead she would get rid of the Black women, so that her husband would not have sex with the slave anymore. Society has these sexual double standards and consequences of affairs of what women should and should not do so when Harper was saying “Do you blame me” or “Can you blame me” she is referring to society hypocritical perceptions of what is acceptable of a women actions.
In the early 1900s if the marriage was not working only the men could ask for a divorce. In the perception of society, it is the woman fault if her man leaves her for another woman because she was not fulfilling her man needs or not being more woman enough, but what about blaming the man for breaking the woman heart and making her coldhearted. Harper said “When you so coldly crushed me down and then excused the man? This goes to show that during herstory there was some complication of sexism and gender roles inequality amongst men and women and that the blame should be on the man and not the

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