Sunday, May 4, 2008
BA # 12
C. Carole Satymaurti's "I Shall Paint My Nails Red" contains view points of a feminist. Men are typically known to expect women to look like a certain image, and the speaker in this poem is fanatic about dying her hair, and painting her nails red. She does these things because she is insecure. Women are typically not stereotyped into using their hands to do work. Men are the ones who usually do the dirty work, but this poem shows that a feminist wrote it because the speaker says "Because I am proud of my hands" (line 2). The poet seems to be a feminist because she puts a situation in the poem about a mother and her daughter not always having the best relationship. "Because my daughter will say ugh"(6) suggests that not all relationships are happy. Some questions I would ask are: What are some more of the social expectations of women that can be applied to this poem? Does the poet seem to know the feminist side of things, and the speaker does not? Does the persona of the poem feel insecure in being a woman, or is she strong?
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2 comments:
This poem does show both a more positive view and a more negitive sterotype of women, with the reference to beauty rituals and the reference to being proud of her working hands. Although the refernce to the daughther isn't positive, I think the poet's purpose was to show a realness in their realtionship, not nessecarily meaning the realtionship is very damaged. I believe the woman in the poem is supposed to be portrayed as a regular women, with both pride and insecurities.
I believe the poem is more about revealing this girl's insecurity: it displays the things she does to feel content with herself (either because she is pretty, or because she is powerful).
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