Maya Angelou, the Feminist. perspectives. “Phenomenal Woman” is a lyrical poem about a woman who knows she isn’t pretty or cute but still knows why people pay attention to her when she walks into a room. The first two lines of Maya’s poem are already nervous about feminist notions. It talks about a woman who is so proud to be woman, who is confidence and has faith in herself. It goes through how pretty women don’t believe her reasons and why even men deny it, but she knows the truth: she is sexy. Confidence and comfort in one's own skin, the speaker insists, are the markers of true beauty, and the poem thus offers an empowering message for all women. Amazoncom Maya Angelou Poster Feminist Quote Im A Feminist. Therefore, she displays feminism in her poems Phenomenal woman and All Women Work. / They try so much / But they can't touch / My inner mystery. This essay is a critical analysis of Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” in relation to her views on feminism. A feminist writer and poet, Maya Angelou has inspired a number of us with her words. But they can’t touch. Get in touch with Custom Essay Writing Service for high quality writings. Thank you so much for this short and sweet description. From a feminist perspective, I believe that this is a biased societal expectation because women are expected to almost starve themselves in order to be considered 'pretty', while a wider range of male body types are deemed attractive. Maya Angelou is a feminist writer and her work encompassed the struggles and triumphs of a black woman in America. The Importance of ‘Phenomenal Woman’ to Angelou's Collection of Poems Was searching for ideas on my English NEAKindly check out my blog too bemeruwa.blogspot.com P. Liked the article because it gives in-depth analysis reviewing each and every line by Angelou. The poem Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou contains the element of feminism as it presents the ability of a woman to be extraordinary and remarkable among others. Those who read her poems closely would understand that each of her word contains diverse meanings. In their celebration of a particularly defined "phenomenal woman," they serve as ancillary, supporting texts for Angelou's more adeptly rendered self-portraits, and even guide the reader to (or back to) the autobiographies. Angelou was quoted both on her support for a woman’s right to choose on matters of abortion and on the strength she found in choosing to keep her own teenage pregnancy and raise her son, Guy, against all the odds. In her poem „Phenomenal woman” Angelou speaks as a self-confident woman, she wants to show the world what makes her beautiful and she expresses it in a various way. Maya Angelou is seen as a feminist writer combining the power struggle of equality for women as well as a end to racial prejudice. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Amazoncom And Still I Rise Maya Angelou Quote Civil Rights. Monday, February 28, 2011 A Feminist Approach to "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou In English class, as we've continued to read Hamlet, we've also learned about various critical approaches to literature, such as the Marxist, new historical, psychoanalytic, and feminist perspectives. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.” A phenomenal woman for sure! She also believes in her inner strength that makes her able to achieve success in her life as man could be. Pretty women wonder where my secret lies I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size But when I start to tell them They think I'm telling lies. I chose to analyze. This dehumanization may have also been intended to conjure an image of men as less powerful creatures. I especially liked the line about the speaker not bowing her head. Phenomenally. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  It talks about a woman who is so proud to be woman, who is confidence and has faith in herself. Chance should be given to them and people need to trust their ability. While the themes were perhaps more obvious in this poem than in many other literary works, I look forward to the challenge of identifying feminist concepts in everything I read, including, Freelance Fight Goes National: Must-Know Info on The ABC Test, “Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves” – a working author’s review, The Enlightenment of Tragedy - Dramatic Art Primer, Persuasive Writing Techniques: A Step-By-Step Approach, Cat's Eye Writer Blog | Judy Dunn | Blogging Coach | Social Media Copywriter. Phenomenal woman, That's me. Maya Angelou is a writer and poet who cares and wants to raise the degree of black women. Right off the bat, with a title like that, you'd probably expect the poem to be a gold mine for feminist issues, and it doesn't disappoint. Phenomenal Woman: About the Poem. / Phenomenal woman, / That's me." While other women also interested to know the secret of her success which is actually lies on her confident and the towering personality she has. By declaring her own confidence in her more curvaceous body type, Angelou's writing serves as an inspiration to the majority of women who don't fall within the super model classification. . 19:1 January 2019 India’s Higher Education Authority UGC Approved List of Journals Serial Number 49042 ===== Feminism and Social Disparity in the Poems of Maya Angelou and Meena Kandasamy - A Study Shaziya Fathima, M.A. First, the reseacher concludes that the dominant type of feminsm in Maya Angelou's poem is Radical Feminism because discrimination toward black women are related to the bad history of black people. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. The poem Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou contains the element of feminism as it presents the ability of a woman to be extraordinary and remarkable among others. They try so much. This shows that how a woman can be dominant and influential to everybody either to men and other women too when men are fancy her while the women envy her. ( Log Out /  Feminism in Maya Angelou’s’ poetry was also important. Back then, all rebellious black women were feminists. She goes on to claim that her attractiveness lies in "The span of my hips", among other features, and then closes the stanza with "I'm a woman / Phenomenally. It will be elaborated through the analytical interpretation of narrator‟s wish of escapism into the World of Nature, by denouncing the dull, monotonous and dreary What makes those men fancy her is the phenomenal appearance that she has which leads her to be successful in her life. I'm a woman Phenomenally. REFERENCES Angelou, M. (1994). Through this poem I can discover that the poet somehow tries to say that women should have the right to engage with society and not to believe and follow the gender stereotypes blindly without an observation and experiment of how women can work and manage their life. 19 Badass Feminist Quotes. From these select lines, I gather that she believes females possess a sort of seductive power over men. "Phenomenal Woman" is a poem by Maya Angelou, first published in 1978. Thus, it is believed that they are not eligible for the independent as men could be. ( Log Out /  One of whom was, Maya Angelou. The way she walks, the way she smiles, and the curves of her body make people of all genders stare at her when she walks through a room. As you all probably know by now, I'm a bit infatuated with the art of poetry, so I decided it'd be interesting to take a feminist approach to a poem. It proves that women are not like what has been claimed by post-structuralist feminist who inspired by psychoanalysis idea that the position of woman is founded on the notion of lack. / When I try to show them, / They say they still can't see." The feminist approach to literature particularly struck a chord with me, perhaps because I could relate to the issues as a young woman coming into my own. Maya Angelou: a phenomenal woman. I'm new here...:)Also, know about [url=http://artofapproachingwomenreview.com/]how to approach women[/url]........ Beautiful! / When you see me passing, / It ought to make you proud." That perception is not true seems this poem has proved that a woman in this poem presented as someone who could work and survive for her life by the strength she has. / I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size". In Phenomenal Woman, Angelou celebrates her body and the uniqueness that separates her from other women. Hence, only a comprehensive reviewing would do justice to Angelou. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Phenomenal Woman (Maya Angelou poem) by Maya Angelou. The poem rejects narrow societal expectations of women and proposes an alternative perspective on what defines real beauty. A woman in this poem is able to tackle the attention of the men even she does not have that much beauty of a woman supposedly has. Since her collection of poems “And Still I Rise” are written mainly from a female’s point of view, most of her poems present the reader with some form of feminist view, or a feminist interpretation as well as poems that don’t conform feminist ideas. With this achieved, Angelou's "phenomenal woman," as persona and / I don't shout or jump about / Or have to talk real loud. It is portrayed in her works, such as in her poems entitled “Still I Rise” and “Phenomenal Woman”. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The first two lines are already fraught with feminist ideas, as Angelou writes, "Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I think "Phenomenal Woman" is an excellent example of the importance of feminist ideas. Feminist Quotes From Revolutionary Women Ellevate . Maya Angelou reciting one of her poems, famous for ‘Women Empowerment’ – ‘Phenomenal Woman’ Maya Angelou – Feminist Quotes “The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. In this stanza, the feminist themes deepen, as Angelou begins to explore male and female gender identities. Let’s start with the form of the poem. jessica Care moore . Maya Angelou is one of the poets who use a poem as a … The poem appeared in Angelou’s third volume of poetry, And Still I Rise, which was first published in 1978. Her sound was on purpose. We pay tribute to the inimitable American poet and civil rights icon, who passed away yesterday. Here is an analysis of Maya Angelou ’s Phenomenal Woman, which defies the stereotypes women are often faced with today. Angelou is clearly alluding to our culture's connection between thinness and attractiveness in women. Although they are founded of the notion of lack, which is referring to the lack of “the male equipment”, women are actually able to have place in society and have the rights as men could have. ( Log Out /  The poem is like a ballad, it is a free verse narrative. It talks about a woman who is so proud to be woman, who is confidence and has faith in herself bezglasnaaz and 28 more users found this answer helpful 4.0 I say, It's in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. Though some women may dismiss such a concept as petty, it is important to note that Angelou portrays the female figure as dominant, as she describes men falling to a submissive position in her presence. The poem has been divided into four stanzas. There are no conventional rhymes, just some sporadically important ones. The 10 Best Quotes From Maya Angelous I Know Why The Caged Bird. She even compares the men who "swarm" around the speaker to "a hive of honey bees". I'm glad I came across this. When Angelou writes "It ought to make you proud", she directly appeals to the female gender as a whole, urging women to embrace their beauty and embody the speaker's quiet confidence. Essays for Phenomenal Woman (Maya Angelou poem) Phenomenal Woman (Maya Angelou poem) essays are academic essays for citation. A free verse written by the African-American poet, autobiographer, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, ‘Phenomenal Woman’ speaks of a self-confident woman challenging the typical concept of beauty and womanhood.The poem argues the traditional outlooks and apprehensions of femininity, establishing at the same time that beauty is not only skin … PHENOMENAL WOMAN by Maya Angelou. In these two poems, Maya Angelou explains about the idea of black feminism and … Arts+Culture News. She states, “Pretty women wonder where my secret lies” (Frank, 723-725). In the final stanza, the lines that stood out to me were, "Now you understand / Just why my head's not bowed. Maya Angelou was not Maya Angelou’s name at birth. It proves that women are not like what has been claimed by post-structuralist feminist who inspired by psychoanalysis idea that the position of woman is founded on the notion of lack.... A woman in this poem is able to tackle the attention of the men even she does … The poem is one of the four poems in her collection Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women. … Like her work, she created it. In the second poem, ‘Phenomenal Woman’, Maya Angelou describes a standard of beauty that beauty is not having beautiful face and slim smart body and thin lip. “Men themselves have wondered. she was an important woman when it came to her showing hardships among all women by focusing to address issues that were involved with feminism, sexism,and racism. Simone de Beauvoir Maya Angelou’s poem, “Men” is an exceptional example of power V/S powerlessness and it skilfully takes us into the mindset of a woman who has doubtlessly been a victim of the male dominating society. 29 May 2014. In her poem “Phenomenal Women”, Angelou effectively uses the literary devices to give reason to why she is phenomenal. My inner mystery. She writes, "I walk into a room / Just as cool as you please, / And to a man, / The fellows stand or / Fall down on their knees." Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar, Maya Angelou is a world-famous author. Feminism and Social Disparity in the Poems of Maya Angelou and Meena Kandasamy - A Study ===== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. Though the obvious meaning of holding her head high is a physical expression of her sense of pride, Angelou may also be suggesting that the speaker is not "bowing" to men, or, in simpler terms, refusing to submit to men's authority. May 29, 2014. Here are some of my favourite lines by her and why she inspired me. These lines further support the dynamic she's constructing in which the speaker, the female figure, possesses more power than any man. By. This poem represents the evidence of capability or power of a woman over anything which is directly denying the stereotypes of gender that people have on women. About the speaker not bowing her head inner strength that makes her able to success! Not eligible for the independent as men could be of honey bees '' toward! 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