While reading "While I was Growing Up" by Nellie Wong I was flooded with images that gave me a strong reaction. When Wong writes, "when I was growing up, my sisters with fair skin got praised" (295) I can picture her and her family and the judgment that she passes on herself when being compared. It gave me a strong reaction because I can relate with the competitiveness against siblings over things that you cannot even control. She also writes, "I began to wear imaginary pale skin" (295) which makes me feel sorry for her in the fact that she thought she had to be someone she couldn't control. I believe I also had a strong reaction to this particular line because of the way girls today try to fit in some way or another, even if it means trying to hide or change who they are.
Reading "The Thirty Eighth Year" by Lucille Clifton made me feel sadness for the woman in the poem. She believes herself to be ordinary and says "I had expected to be smaller than this, more beautiful/" (297). The end of the poem says "I had not expected to be an ordinary woman" (298). Reading this poem brought me back to "When I was Growing Up" and how the woman in that poem would have done anything to be "ordinary" in the eyes of her family and others where this woman would do anything to not be "ordinary." It is also interesting to see the opinion that the women in the poems have about what is seen as ordinary. What defines ordinary? What makes a woman ordinary?
Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" gave me strong images of the life she has and how disappointed it leaves her from day to day. She says "that a man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches/" (442), but these sort of things never happen to her. I can picture her working hard and bearing thirteen children in her difficult life, but not getting the appreciation she deserves. This piece of writing made me think of "The Thirty Eighth Year" and how the woman is upset with being ordinary, but if ordinary is being "helped into carriages" Truth would love to be treated like an ordinary woman.
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After reading your response to "When I was Growing Up" I definitly agree that the woman in the poem and many women in our society feel the need to live up to something that is unattainable. Just as having white skin is (for all intents and purposes) unattainable for the woman in the poem, having that 'perfect' look that society perscribes is also naturally unattainable. I would like to further your final comment to add that a lot of men also feel this pressure to put on an aire of masculenity(sp) and to fit the popular 'look' as well as women although societies image of the 'ideal' woman is very much more prevalent in all forms of media.
ReplyDeleteTo extend that comment further to your posting on "The Thirty Eight Year" I would like to agree completely with you as far as your questioning of what defines ordinary and what makes anyone ordinary? I don't think that there is an 'ordinary' anyone out in the world. I think that if we were all some uniform 'ordinary' the world would be a very boring place.
And now to your response of "Ain't I a Woman?". For me this writing brought home the idea that no one is 'ordinary'. When compared to the way one woman might be helped into carriages and over puddles and not be happy with this type of treatment, while another woman would give anything to be treated this way. For me this reinforces the fact that all women, all people, are very unique and threfore should all be treated with a basic respect (obviously) but care should be taken to learn what each individual woman appreciates. I wouldn't want to help a woman into vehicles and over puddles if she'd rather be seen as strong and independent and on the other hand I wouldn't want to cause another woman to walk through a puddle thinking that she is fiercely independent and would be offended if offered help when she really would appreciate it. I hope that makes sense. It boils down to everyone being unique :)
In response to your response on "When i was growing up", i agree with the fact that women to day seem to falsify themselves in order to fit the ideal and standards that society has set for the "Ideal Women". For me personally being an african american i feel that the standards are set high as well and that some are set so high specifically so that we are not able to reach them.
ReplyDeleteIn response to "The Thirty Eighth Year", Really what does "ordinary" really mean? I feel that everyone is there own type of ordinary this word can't be defined in my opinion.
Ain't I a Woman?: For me this reading made me feel very impowered but it also made me think of the mistreatment and unappreciation that women face everyday. It made me also question the amount of respect that women in general get for working just as hard if not harder at the same jobs that men do.