Why are women so underrated in the world that we live in? People fail to recognize the accomplishments that women have and the power that they hold. In this society, women are inferior to men and seen as weak. There have been numerous women, particularly African American, that have been successful and gone unnoticed. There are a few that are known such as Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Queen Latifa, and many more. In contrary, there are some that people do not hear about or observe in books. For example, Mae Jemison, Katherine Johnson, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the list goes on and on. One woman in particular is Nikki Giovanni. Nikki is a poet and author of “Ego-Tripping.”
Ego-Tripping is a poem that published in 1972. “Ego-Trip”
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Nikki took advantage of this trait and wanted to prove that women could hold a higher power.
Throughout the poem, she uses many biblical allusions. This goes to show that she is referencing women and a God like figure. Of course, nobody can be God, but she explains that women are a close second. On her journey to Africa she referenced that women in Egyptian societies in particular held higher status than most societies did. Hence, “I walked to the fertile crescent and built the sphinx.” In stanzas 8 and 9, “I sat on the throne, drinking nectar with Allah,” also imposes that the has high power and is equal to that of God. This is also an example of the biblical allusion of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the fifth stanza, line 30, Nikki says “I turned myself into myself and was Jesus.” She again is comparing herself to Jesus, someone with high power over everyone in the world. The entire sixth stanza establishes that she has complete power. That even the most nonessential parts of her serves as some of the earths most valuable resources. For example, “I caught a cold and blew my nose giving oil to the Arab world.” (Line 41-42) and “Filings from my fingernails are semi-precious jewels” (line 38-39). With all of this said, with African American women taking advantage of their opportunities, they too can show that they hold power over the men or somewhere equal.
Next, Nikki provides evidence that beauty is a strong
Just like many things in the United States, gender inequality has gotten a little out of hand. Gloria Steinem is a known feminist who grew up loving Wonder Woman and feels like there should be more female heroes. Throughout her essay she explains her arguments by manipulating the rhetoric situation and presenting solid claims. Gloria Steinem is not the only talented writer who is demanding to be heard. Maura Reilly gives insight to gender inequality in another entertainment source.
"Women, like men, should try to do the impossible, and when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.” Amelia Earhart. Women have made remarkable impacts on history. Throughout most of history, women have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Their ideal job was to be mothers or housewives. However, there were numerous amounts of women who have stood up for themselves and made a change. When in the face of discrimination, they held their heads high and persevered, showing the world that males are not always authoritative. Joan of Arc was one of these heroic females who made a major impact throughout history.
In analyzation, the connotation aspect of this poem is how women during this time, specifically white women, used their power over black men and their freedom. Although the texts’ literal interpretation, or denotation,
In today 's world, women have an important role. They keep the sanity of others in tact, they maintain the peace, and provide a lot to communities all over the world. Women are just as capable as men when it comes to intellectual thinking, professions, and ideas. But one thing that cannot be changed is that men are just naturally physically stronger than women. So in the 1600’s and about up to the 1950’s, because women were not as physically strong, they were seen as weak in other aspects too. They were treated like decorations, just to be seen and not heard, just hang on a wall. But evidentially this is not true. Women are very powerful in many ways and Anne Hutchinson portrays that throughout her court case. American Jezebel by Eve
In the second stanza she makes it directly clear who she is by stating, “I sat on the throne/ Drinking nectar with Allah/I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe/To cool my thirst/My oldest daughter is Nefertiti/The tears from my birth pains/ Created the Nile/ I am a beautiful woman.” Here we see Giovanni establish that she is in fact a goddess and the mother of Nefertiti whom based on these lines means a beautiful woman and was historically known as a powerful Egyptian queen. The final line of this stanza, “I am a beautiful woman,” also reinforces her pride and confidence as a woman. Giovani also points out her ranking as equivalent to that of Allah since she “…sat on the throne/ Drinking nectar with Allah.”
The women who we all think so highly of did not have a great starting out. Born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas in a one-room, dirt-floored cabin to her parents, George and Susan, who were illiterate and children of slaves. Attempting to turn their
Women have proven time and time again that they are capable, strong, and independent. They’ve proven their worth to society and led us to where we are today. While we still face inequalities in our society, we’ve overcome many hardships not only in our home country, but around the world. We can look at each individual woman above and see how her strength, her confidence, and her dedication contributed to the bigger picture. While individually they may seem like small steps, they are raindrops in the hurricane that helped break down the barricades in our world that trapped these women. Each woman helped to destroy the stigma against their weak and frail bodies, their fragile minds and emotions, and their lack of knowledge of the world. Without women, the Allies would have lost the war. It goes to show that sometimes we have to swallow our pride on our social issues and accept that every person is human. Every person is equal, and if given the opportunity, can be just as contributional as their so-called social
The majority of African American women have a college level education and work in white collar jobs, “over 64% of African American women … are white collar workers” (Deshay). while news and other media sources would try to tell you otherwise. This means that the majority works in high level jobs, for example CEOs, doctors and professers. Another key point to this is the fact that African American women are an important section of business owners that created their business on their own, “97% of African American women who owned businesses were sole proprietors” (Holmes). This means that African American women own their own businesses. This shows through the challenges, that African American women work to get to their white-collar jobs and businesses. In addition to this, there have been a lot of female African American celebrities and politicians. For instance, Shirley Chisholm was the first African American lady to be elected into the United States congress. Condoleezza Rice was the United States Secretary of State in 2005 – 2009. Another example is well known celebrity Beyoncé. These women have shown that African American women can and have held power and become role models. This juxtaposes how life was in the 1930s, where these magnificent ladies wouldn’t have had the chance to mold the
In the twenty first century there are a few men in this world that admits when you think of artist, you don’t typically think of women. Women rights and racism play a strong role when it comes to African American female artist. For decades’ African American woman have always had a permanent double bull’s eye on their back. Their skin and gender was their worst enemy. In the 1700 century women rights movements started to rise. But if you look up women right movements starting in the 1700 century, the face of women rights is predominantly white women. Between books and the internet, they show that it was mostly white women who helped woman rights. If we still struggle to shine light on African American Women now in the 21st century, you cannot
The imagery in the first stanza of “A Woman Speaks” is used to address the unfortunate position black woman are in and inform them of how to fight inequity and bolster the feminist movement. She begins the poem with the, “Moon marked and touched by sun/my magic is unwritten” (line 1-2). She is using the visual beauty of the moon and sun to refer to the beauty and mysteriousness of African American women. This type of magical beauty is not a new concept and can be seen in many other aspects
Sojourner Truth’s words in her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” served as an anthem for women everywhere during her time. Truth struggled with not only racial injustice but also gender inequality that made her less than a person, and second to men in society. In her speech, she warned men of “the upside down” world against the power of women where “together, [women] ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!” Today, America proudly stands thinking that Truth’s uneasiness of gender inequality was put to rest. Oppression for women, however, continues to exist American literature has successfully captured and exposed shifts in attitude towards women and their roles throughout American history.
Society continues to nurture these depriving situations and demonstrate lack of concern towards black women by not celebrating them for the roles they played in the movements. Taylor (1998) asserted that, “despite the fact that the most celebrated leaders of the modern civil rights movements were men, African American women participated at every stage in the struggle for justice and equality” (239). Although black women were not in public eyes during these movements, it was their vision and organizing roles they played that helped in the progression of many liberation movements.
Furthermore, women went from being submissive to being influential. Women have changed the world. We have some of the most powerful and influential women, who have contribute to shaping our society, for example, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey. For instance, Oprah uses TV to help the lives of many Americans; her book club attracts millions of readers and because she is a benevolent billionaire, she gives a lot of money to charity. Oprah also built an all girls school in South Africa to give the underprivileged girls in South Africa a chance to purse a higher education. Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls indicates that, “when you're
Are women less privileged in today’s society than men? Yes, women face many issues on a regular basis that men don’t experience to the same extent. Women are victim to sexual violence, domestic abuse, and gender bias. Firstly, a very common violation to the human rights of women, is sexual violence and harassment. This is a very extensive topic, covering much more than just sexual assault. Sexual violence covers street harassment, unwanted sexual touching or comments, rape, and consent issues. Secondly, women face domestic abuse very often in today 's society, it is rarely discussed, and it covers physical, sexual, and mental abuse, as well as marital rape. Lastly, the final point to be covered in this essay would be gender bias, gender bias occurs in the workplace, schools, the home, public places, and can be a very disturbing public violation of women 's rights. In conclusion, this essay will be looking into each of these topics in depth, explaining that women are indeed less privileged in today 's society than men.
In the poem she says “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide”, and “I am the dream and the hope of the slave”. She is saying that because she is black woman and has to face problems; it has made her stronger. She has risen above and has become the person the slaves had hoped to become one day. Just because she is a minority doesn’t mean she can’t be proud of her accomplishments.