Oppression In 'Homage To My Hip'

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Oppression through Sizeism is prejudice or discrimination on the grounds of a person’s size (Sizeism). Throughout the poem “homage to my hips” Clifton suggests that through Sizeism she learned to hate her “hips” because she was a young black woman who did not fit within Caucasian standards of beauty. Clifton writes “I have known [my hips] to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top!” highlighting positive images of the female body that parallel the negativity of female oppression. Clifton emphasizes that men do not hold real power at the mercy of a woman and her charm, for a woman who learns to love everything about herself, including her body holds the greatest power against a man. The perspective Clifton takes in her poem can be attributed to the fact that her “poetry is rooted in her experiences as an African American woman raised in an impoverished urban environment, who has a strong and enduring love for family and community” (Lucille …show more content…

Highlighting how throughout her life Clifton faced the oppression of a young black woman growing up in the mid twentieth century, constantly facing oppression due to ethnicity as well as gender. From this information one can suggest that the last line of the “homage to my hips” is a metaphor for her life and a message Clifton holds for young girls to keep learning to accept themselves for it is the greatest freedom one can experience. Continuing Qiu Jin in “Preoccupation” parallels Clifton by writing “with heated hearts arouse all women’s spirits.” This expression of freedom allowed women to realize they too could be freed, striking the hearts of women in china to stop oppression and creating a sense of revival and battle. While living in China during the Qing Dynasty

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