It should not come as a surprise to say that the sexualization and objectification of women has been around for many years. Whether it be in movies, books, poems, advertisement, etc. women are seen as objects or things that are not to be taken seriously. Women are just the pretty distractions that need to be saved by the hero (a man of course). Throughout the years many women have tried to fight back against this phenomenon. In this blog, I wanted to focus on one poem by Judy Grahn called, "I have come to claim Marilyn Monroe's body" In this poem, Grahn addresses the sexualization of Marilyn Monroe and how she wants to handle it. She does this throughout the entire poem, but we are only going to focus on a few different lines. The first lines are, “Look at those luscious long brown bones /that wide and crusty pelvis /ha ha” In this stanza Grahn writes about the dead Marilyn Monroe’s bones as beautiful features of the dead woman like as to make fun of the people who only adored her for her body and saw her as a sex object. It is as if she says, “Why don’t you want her body now? Look how amazing her bones are!” She is pointing out that if people crave her body they might as well crave it now, too. Another topic Grahn seems to keep going back to is the irony of her beating the people that wanted to have Monroe’s body for themselves, with Monroe’s body. Grahn writes, “but when one of the reporters comes too close /I beat him /bust his camera with your long smooth thigh /and with your lovely knuckle bone /I break his eye” and “’How would you like to see Marilyn Monroe, /in action, smiling, and without her clothes?” /We shall wait long enough to see them make familiar faces /and then I shall beat them with your skull. /hubba. hubba. hubba. hubba. hubba.” Each of these lines shows how the thing that these people think they have the right to have, in this case Marilyn’s body, is the one thing that is going to destroy them. She is also making fun of these people again by using a common catcall for the time (“hubba”). These people wanted so desperately to have Monroe when she was alive, and they only saw her as a body to be claimed.
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Warning: Talk of suicide (suicide prevention hotline: 1-800-273-8255) Talking about people being envious of someone who is dead or wanting to die is not a topic that can be brought up in an everyday conversation, especially in the 1960s. That is why I was truly surprised to read Anne Sexton’s poem “Sylvia's Death” where we see many occasions where Sexton can be seen as being envious towards her friend Sylvia Path who committed suicide in 1963. The first example I will use is Sexton writing, “Thief -- /how did you crawl into, /crawl down alone /into the death I wanted so badly and for so long” In these two stanzas, Sexton kind of insults Sylvia and then tries to calm death for herself. Sexton calls Sylvia a “thief” for committing suicide before Sexton can. The way she says this makes me think she is thinking that Sylvia stole that idea from Sexton, like Sexton was the only one how was allowed to do it. We can understand Sexton as taking death for herself when she says, “into the death I wanted so badly and for so long” I get the feeling again that Sexton is saying that death is something that was hers and that she was the one that was going to accomplish it first and that she is getting jealous that Sylvia died first. Another example of Sexton being jealous is when she writes, “And now, Sylvia, /you again /with death again, /that ride home /with our boy” In these lines, Sexton calls death “our boy” referencing her and Sylvia. When I read this, I put emphasis on the “our” like Sexton is in disbelief that Sylvia would “go” with death without her or that she would go at all. It feels like Sylvia took their “boy” for herself. The next and last example is the lines “what is your death /but an old belonging, /a mole that fell out /of one of your poems” This definitely felt like a final jab towards Sylvia, since Sylvia had written many poems on death and suicide. Sexton seems to be calling Sylvia’s death something imagined up in one of her poems. To me, it seems like Sexton is saying Sylvia could not have done this and I do not know if that is because she is in disbelief or if Sexton is envious of her. Disclaimer: This poem for me was very are to understand, so in no way am I saying that this is a completely right analysis of the poem. This is just what I got from reading it. |
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