Audre Lorde defines the erotic as “a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings; it is the assertion of the live force of women, creative energy empowered and knowledge of ourselves.” Lorde further states that it is the “recognising the power of the erotic within our lies can give us the energy to pursue genuine change within our world” (Audre Lorde, “Uses of the Erotic,” Sister Outsider, p.54-59). As Lorde is suggesting in her essay, those who experience oppression because of sexual desire or sexuality should embrace the erotic. Through Lorde’s poetry, the poet attempts to give those from a marginalised group a voice within literature. In addition, Audre Lorde emphasises in her poetry, as does …show more content…
As Lorde challenges and reframes the unicorn seduction narrative from Western folklore in “The Black Unicorn;” for while the unicorn has always remained white and male, her unicorn is Black and female. Such a representational shift suggests that Lorde is attempting to challenge women’s experiences that have previously been unnamed or have been deemed “unspeakable.” Lorde writes: “It is not on her lap where the horn rests / but deep in her moonpit / growing.” (Audre Lorde, “The Black Unicorn”, 1978, p.3). Through these two lines, Lorde is evoking sensuality void of male involvement, instead refiguring the dominant iconography of the phallic “horn”, inverted; it is implying that the horn is the marker of female sexual power. According to Cherise Pollard, “Black arts poetry often used phallic symbols to idealise black warriors revolutionary power” because within the Black Arts Movement, powerlessness was associated with femininity and homosexuality (Cherise Pollard, Sexual Subversions, Political Inversions: Women’s Poetry and the Politics of the Black Arts Movement, 1996,
In Deborah E. McDowell’s essay Black Female Sexuality in Passing, she writes about the sexual repression of women seen in Nella Larsen‘s writings during the Harlem Renaissance, where black women had difficulty expressing their sexuality. In her essay, she writes about topics affecting the sexuality of women such as, religion, marriage, and male dominated societies. In Toni Morrison’s short story, “Recitatif” there are examples of women who struggle to express their sexuality. The people in society judge women based off their appearance, and society holds back women from expressing themselves due to society wanting them to dress/act a certain way. Religion is one point McDowell brings forth in her essay, during the Jazz era she stated that singers such as Bessie Smith, Gertrude Rainey, and Victoria Spivey sung about sexual feelings in their songs.
As a child a role model is need to be guided toward the right path. Being a child who is neglected, the fear of being different holds them back from being who they were meant to be. This poem is filled with symbolization that makes the reader connect with the speaker's emotions and thoughts. "Hanging Fire" written by Audre Lorde is a poem where the protagonist talks about all her fears and isolation; she is a little girl who wants guidance from her mother who is behind a closed door. The speaker is living in a world where appearance is everything, so asks herself, "How come my knees are always so ashy" (Lorde lines 6-7).
For some people accepting reality can be challenging and a rebellious concept. This is an internal conflict that needs to be faced within oneself. Within the poem, “Coal” by Audre Lorde, the author is learning to embrace who she is and what makes up her central identity as a person. The author is discovering how to cope with how she is being perceived in this world. Throughout the poem, Lorde uses figurative language and specific imagery to explain her deepest feelings about how she thinks the world views her. She is very passionate and this causes her to release anguish to let others know how she is feeling.
Poems have never been my favorite thing, however, the poems that I chose to analyze today were amazing. They had meaning that took me quite a while to understand, but in the end it all came together. Audre Lorde is a black, lesbian, published author, mother and self-proclaimed warrior.
It throws the ambiguity of the piece wide open and in doing so empowers women across all spheres, encouraging a confronting discussion about women, their bodies and their place in the world. Paintings such as Black Iris discuss that natural beauty is found in many forms, and as Seeberg (2002) notes, that a galaxy of ideas can be and that form can be incorporated into an individual object, which, can be viewed in many different ways and is always subjective to the viewer. Black Iris caused a commotion when it was first shown. A woman producing a body of work that resembled, according to the Freudian mind, female genitalia, of which as Breedlove (1986) discusses was deeply upsetting to O’Keeffe as the artwork was more often than not critiqued with what the artworks said about her rather than the work in general.
What is it about sex that makes everyone so uncomfortable? Upon reading Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home, one of the major themes that the novel goes in depth about is Nidali’s sexual awakening. Many students would argue that this novel is littered with too much sexual activity, i.e. masturbation. However, A Map of Home is a novel about finding your place in this world; the search for your identity and purpose. Sexual identity plays a significant part of that continuum. You may question, “Well, could you have figure out a way to describe her story without all the sex stuff?” This statement would demolish the novel’s relatable and sheer honest tone, as well as disintegrate the genuineness behind the narrative if Jarrar would omit Nidali’s sexual experiences. The complete fact that young teenagers do think about sex so often makes one grasp the true relatability this novel showcases through the main character’s sexual experiences. In this essay, I plan to explore the importance of sexual awakening, Nidali’s own reasons for experimenting with her sexuality, and what we can ultimately learn from being open with what we want in that context.
In this paper, I plan to explore and gain some insight on Audre Lorde’s personal background and what motivated her to compose a number of empowering and highly respected literary works such as “Poetry is Not a Luxury”. In “Poetry is Not a Luxury”, Lorde not only gives voice to people especially women who are underrepresented, but also strongly encourages one to step out of their comfort zone and utilize writing or poetry to express and free oneself of repressed emotions. I am greatly interested in broadening my knowledge and understanding of the themes that are most prominent in Lorde’s works such as feminism, sexism and racism. It is my hope that after knowing more about her that I would also be inspired to translate my thoughts and feelings
To italicize, Lorde believes that it is not differences between races that separate women, but rather it is a “refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine the distortions which result from…misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation” (Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” 115). By stressing the belief that the differences between women “are insurmountable barriers, or do not exist at all” (Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” 115), valuable cognition is wasted when it should be challenged towards dissecting the roots of difference, “[developing] new definitions of power[,] and [pioneering] new patterns of relating across difference” (Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” 123). Lorde surmises that “human difference
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality were dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had. In both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, we see that there are two types of women who arise from the demands of these expectations. The first is the obedient women, the one who has buckled and succumbed to become an empty emotionless shell. In men’s eyes this type of woman was a sort of “angel” perfect in that she did and acted exactly as what was expected of her. The second type of woman is the “rebel”, the woman who is willing to fight in order to keep her creativity and passion. Patriarchal silencing inspires a bond between those women who are forced into submission and/or those who are too submissive to maintain their individuality, and those women who are able and willing to fight for the ability to be unique.
If we take a look at the issue of sexuality and how it develops throughout the novel, sexuality represents a site where the notions of racism, sexism and heterosexism intersect: “African-American women’s experiences with pornography, prostitution, and rape demonstrate how erotic power becomes commodified and exploited by social institutions” (Collins 167). If we consider the history of rape of slave women, as “rape has been one fundamental tool of sexual violence directed against African-American women” (146) and if we accept Patricia Collins’ claim according to which “all systems of oppression rely on harnessing the power of the erotic” (128), then we may conclude here that sexuality is a crucial element in Celie’s path to survival and personal growth: if the power of the erotic plays a distinct role in establishing relations of domination, then “reclaiming and self-defining that same eroticism may constitute one path toward Black women’s empowerment” (128) and this is exactly the case of Celie and her sexual and romantic relationship with Shug. Thus, sexuality comes to represent the main tool in fighting against these oppressions. If in the beginning of the novel, Celie is the victim of oppression and domination through the act of rape (“First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around.
Emily Dickinson Poetry has been around for many years. Poems are a piece of literature that use rhythm, or beautiful language to express imaginary or elevated thoughts of one’s life. Poetry is a piece of someone mind. Most poets will write about life or emotions. This is entertaining because it allows ones to think upon their own life.
In comparing the work of Luis Negron and Audre Lorde, one becomes able to unveil the often unrecognized distinction between the erotic and the pornographic aspects of sexuality. Moreover, the main character of The Chosen One, displays the very contrast that Lorde refers to in The uses of the Erotic. Although, the character representing these sexual variances happens to be male in The Chosen One. The need for the distinction between pornographic and erotic allows for Lorde to display the importance of feminine power within sexuality. After defining the importance of living instead of existing within an erotic culture, it can be presumed that the encounters of the boy in The Chosen One are seen as pornographic acts of oppression and not real
In the article, “Uses of the Erotica: The Erotic as Power,” Audre Lorde examines and further challenges the conventional view of eroticism in a society organized by patriarchy. Many people may perceive Lorde’s interpretation of the term “erotic” as unconventional—the idea that being erotic means having a strong internal sense of satisfaction that ultimately empowers an individual, specifically in women. Lorde begins her article by stating one of the many definitions she believes to describe the term “erotic.” As a whole, “the erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling” (Lorde, 53). This definition speaks predominantly to the innate power of women and those who want to feel liberated in every aspect of their lives.
Sylvia Plath’s poetry reverberates with universal female experience and anxieties; it addresses a female upbringing, pregnancy, childbirth, marriage while also critically engaging with stereotypes of femininity, often illustrating these through myth or metaphor. These feminine themes are recurrent throughout her poetry, often written about with a sense of ambivalence or fear. Putting aside Plath’s own autobiographical influences in the production of this poetry, the inclination towards darkness is a notable trend among women drawn to writing. Plath’s poetry often draws upon stereotypes, and this may reflect the toxicity of the ‘Poetess’ and stereotypic, often creatively paralysing, expectations that underpin the label. Germaine Greer notes that female poets feel pressure to “cannibalise” themselves because “unhappy women will be attracted to poetry, and that poetry will give their unhappiness permanent form in intransigent text” (Greer, 391).
Growing from a young woman who was humiliated by the duality of her sexuality, to a woman who reclaims her sexuality through her sexual experiences as a dominatrix. Although not all feminists think alike, some may even dispute Febos claims; that being a dominatrix can result in female empowerment. In recent conventions regarding, ‘dominatrix’ the figure is either hypersexualized or seen as a threat. This harmful parallel normalized ‘dommes’ or ‘dominatrixes’ as a threat to 'traditional sexuality.' Ultimately, these critics believe this line of work leads to the disempowerment of women and creates a hostile persona. Feminists theorists such as Andrea Dworkin and Audre Lorde both echo the following views, "women facilitate a complex and contradictory negotiation of pain, pleasure, and power in their performance in the fetish realm of BDSM... is linked to female sexuality and violence."(Dworkin, 410) Dworkin claims of BDSM reinforcing violence in women rest upon the questionable assumption that women are not in control. Consequently, arguing that the inherent violence that exists within these practices are primarily those directed against women. Lorde reinforces this idea when she states how BDSM legitimizes the male desire to subdue, assault and control women. These ideas are by extension, a reflection of the negative patriarchal connotations and the stigmas that are attached to BDSM.