Exemplar

feminism man

The inadequate bookshelf that sat near the door

that my sister used to call her own was

mostly made up of adolescent reads,

books better suited for preteen girls rather than

intellectually budding young ladies--

juvenile vocabularies and simple, non-complex

plot lines do little to craft and create

worldly, knowledgeable women.

I thought I must spring clean the

naiveté away and replace it with

the works of great authors like

Sylvia Plath

Simone de Beauvoir

Virginia Woolf Margaret Atwood

Betty Friedan;

ingenious femme fatales that cut down

to the brittled bones of the misogynists

and burned their marrow along with the

ashes of bras and aprons and 350 degree oven heat.  

Growing up, to me, seemed like a wonderful epiphany

chock-full of ideas and opinions and

clever, ironic remarks that chased satirical witticisms

like felines to rodents and wolves to deer--

being an adult would guarantee me a say,

a vote

prior 1920’s America

play dress up as a suffragette

women’s rights

femininity personified by dolls in plastic houses.

To be eighteen-years-old,

the goal, the legality, the bright light at the end of the tunnel;

the official womanhood it would bestow upon me

seemed like something almost tangible

with the way that it loomed over my head.

Get good marks

graduate high school

travel back in time sixty years

meet a nice boy

become a “good wife”

have dinner ready by five

bear two beautiful heirs

clean up the messes left in the kitchen

fast-forward to the twenty-first century

go to a good college

find a stable career

settle down if the fancy strikes you

live non-docile and full of passion--

the parallelism of times are severely

di

  lap

       i

         dat

              ed.

1950’s America would never be a home for me

because I am much too wild to be contained.

Author's Note

Give me constrictive criticism or else

Reviews

[Aries]

No "constrictive" criticism here, just praise for a poem well-written and much needed social commentary :) Sadly, misogyny still runs rampant in today's culture and change seems so far off, we can only spread awareness and shame those who take part in it. Message aside, I love the form of the writing and the metaphors employed, and overall it was just a pleasant and agreeable read. Thank you for writing and I hope to see more!

[Epipsychologist]

I think you should rephrase the first paragraph. It sounds a bit like you are forcing your views on what femininity is on your sister, unless that was intentional. Otherwise the poem has some really nice lines, like ashes of bras and oven heat etc. That line I thought was particularly effective.