Oneself for the Female Gender Literature & Language Essay
Basically i will give you the selected poem (1st source) and you just have to write about how gender & sexuality are a theme in this poem.
If you cant elaborate much in gender and sexuality as a theme, you can use a different theme from the following:
Social class
Gender
Or genre.
I will provide a website of the poet's history for the second source, so it will help you understand why they came up with this poem.
I have provided the guidelines and i have provided the poem.
It is by Aisha Sasha john.
The papers that are marked with an orange marker are other poems by her incase you want to refer to any of them to provide evidence for why you think she wrote this poem and why your assumptions are as stated.
Please do provide that she is a canadian poet, artist, and dancer. This should help alot to understand her rhythm.
Here is a website to tell you more about her history:
http://open-book(dot)ca/Writer-in-Residence/Archives/Aisha-Sasha-John/On-Writing-with-Aisha-Sasha-John
Professor
Course
Date
Oneself for the Female Gender
Most poems usually aim at portraying the personal perceptions of the poet, or issues afflicting the society at one instance or the other. Some might be for the sake of activism while others for simply creating awareness. There are some poets, however, who try to veer off the main course of poetry, so as to come up with something distinct. Aisha Sasha John’s poem is nothing like a cliché or a general statement as it may sound when one reads it for the first time. John draws her inspiration from the “Black Lives Matter” movement and narrows it down to the challenges of vulnerable female gender.
She used the idea to come up with this poem; a quotidian and daily life of an artist, woman, lover, and a human being. All these fused into one personality, lay the foundations of what is definitely a great poem, with clear and brilliant diction. This poem epitomizes the great work of Aisha and her artwork. For instance, in the second page of this poem, Aisha is declaring that she has left prime sweetness. Thus, it is evident that she is concerned about her gender and sexuality but she is not wondering whether or not she is Aisha, because she is confident about it. It is what makes and defines her altogether.
This poem shows how people see Aisha through her mundane and colloquial life; as an object. Through her confident and consistent voice and tone, Aisha shows how the female gender in the Black community is seen as an object. Quite generally, she brings out the society’s interpretation and perception of women as not only sexual objects, but also ‘second tier’ members of the community. For instance, Aisha describes her local surrounding, “I sleep in a room/I store clothing there./ Outside my room is a hall/That leads to a door/Beyond which/Is a street,” (1-6).
Based on this description, the surrounding Alisha grew up in does not look suitable for a female but she seems confident with herself as she tries to make sense of the things around her. John continues “When I am dead this time/Will be an object/ And I/Will be an object/Too,” (16-20). Asha shows how the society views a woman when time passes on and her beauty fades. She insists that when a woman is no more, the society forgets her achievements because she is viewed as an object whose usefulness diminishes with time and dies with her. Just like a commodity which is usually attractive and shiny when new and ugly as well as unattractive after it ages, so do women and the society’s perception of them.
John’s artwork also describes how men perceive women as sexual objects who should be appreciated for what they offer and not who they really are. Aisha aims to show how men see women as sexual objects whose job is to please men. In page three of this poem, John reflects “He thinks I should be glad because they/Like the idea of Aisha, and then she continues to next stanz...