Analysis Of I Want A Dyke For President

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Zoe Leonard, an AID’s activist and founder of feminist collectives “Fierce Pussy”, is the original creator of the impactful poem “I Want A Dyke For President”. Through her piece, Leonard expresses her desire for a presidential candidate who has gone through the same struggles as the people he/she hopes to lead. Leonard not only expresses the need for a candidate who understands struggle, but she also is addressing the injustice that goes on in our country. Her overall goal she hoped to establish when writing this poem is to create awareness of the consistent stereotypical “leader” that always runs for office. Although the poem is recreated by an actor, Leonard’s tone in the poem directed to everyday citizens and voters is not necessarily …show more content…

Unlike many other poets who use forceful tones to persuade their audience, Leonard does almost the exact opposite. Rather than being directly in the audiences face about making a change, she simply tells her personal thoughts in a way that causes others to challenge their own beliefs and possibly even agree with her and make a change. “I Want A Dyke For President” was not written to stir up disagreements, it was actually to address the type of injustice that was occurring during the time period when it was written. Similar to Leonard’s views, “On the Mindless Menace of Violence”, a speech by Robert F. Kennedy states “The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human being whom other human beings loved and needed.” (Kennedy 1). This quote is a similar idea to Leonard’s because Kennedy is expressing his opinion in hopes of persuading the audience to all join as one for a connected America. Leonard was seeking the same thing in her poem, and like Kennedy she effectively used this type of invitational rhetoric to convince her audience to come together as one and join in a common agreement that there needs to be a change in

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