9 June 2010

Daystar: I love this poem by Rita Dove. I think it does a nice job conveying the reality of a woman being constantly surrounded, with no time for just herself. In our society, women seem to be expected to fulfill a motherly roll and bare many children, settle down and get married and devote most of their life to the household and tending to the many needs of her family. To me, this idea has always appeared to be very bland and monotonous, not to mention hectic. So hectic, that I think any woman would just want some solitude for a moment. I love how Rita Dove conveys this, “and think of the place that was hers/for an hour-where/she was nothing/pure nothing, in the middle of the day.” I think to a housewife this sort of idea of solitude and being alone would be so coveted because it is so rare.

Why I Want a Wife: This piece of work was flawless and entirely too truthful. I think as a society we tend to take for granted how incredibly hard a wife and stay at home mother has to work just keep the household moving. I love the way Syfers gives such a long and detailed list of all of the tasks a wife has to keep track of consistently; it simply sounds exhausting. I think it is depressing that our society encourages women to fulfill this role and even looks down upon father's who assume this taxing position rather than “bringing home the bacon.” I really love the section about sexuality, “I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs, a wife who makes love passionately and eagerly when I feel like it, a wife that makes sure that I am satisfied.” To be honest, this sort of disgusted me because for the most part, I would say it is true. It shows that the sexual needs of women aren't necessarily important and that the role for women is to exist only as a object to please a man as we talked about in class.

A Pair of Silk Stockings: In this text, the woman seems to be having an inner struggle of pleasing herself and tending to the needs of her children. Upon reading the text I wanted to peg the woman as being selfish. However, I don't believe that my initial feeling can be justified. When you think about the woman's role as a mother, she tends to the needs of her children every day, so for her to spend just one measly day showering herself with rewards that she clearly deserves is simply not selfish but rather, necessary. It seems as though women tend to feel that if they give themselves anything, they are being selfish when really they are just being human. Women tend to get tangled in this idea of constantly needing to please everyone else that we simply tend to forgot about ourselves. I think Chopin conveys this idea well when she writes, “no! When she came to think of it, between getting the children fed and the place righted, and preparing herself for the shopping bout, she had actually forgotten to eat any luncheon at all!” Chopin is showing how much time this woman devotes to everyone else, so much in fact that she had actually forgotten to eat, which is something that is necessary. Clearly this woman deserved her shopping adventure, her escape from the monotonous reality she occupies.