Buying a Whore by Anne Sexton

purchasing a harlot by Anne sacristan wo achievess lib is a move workforcet that opposes women inferiority and promotes equaliseity among men and women. It moves a adjourn from logo centrism and phallocentrism or gather ining the field and its people from hoary lens. Feminists shed stir up upon womens contri preciselyions through and throughout history which were neer taken method of accounting as significant and reject sexism in writings. Therefore they bring women from the daub of invisibility to visibility through their works and protests. Feminist literary admonition de stool works by men which normally promotes the idea( ideology) of patriarchy and phallic dominance everywhere women. Feminist criticism disturb the complacent certainties of patricentric culture and crate a less oppressive climate for women writers and readers (Selden 128). workforce wrote literary texts for example for themselves and on behalf of women as well. Thus, men hold position by streng and thening the ideologies within literary texts to dominate women and prove men worthier than womenfolk . For an example women as objects whereas men argon dependants. Feminists then deconstruct these texts to head readers that these were mere men made ideologies, which were non biological but socially constructed and the dichotomous comparison between these two genders were created by men as well. womens liberation lawsuit movement was not confined within literary texts wholly but likewise, economics, politics and religion. The critical project of Feminist critics is thus come to with uncovering the contingencies of gender as a cultural, social and political construct and instrument of dominationFurthermore, through libbers critics like Sim wizard De Beauvoir, we came to realize One is not born a wo humans one becomes one. Therefore femininity and masculinity are never natural but socially constructed. premier roll out feminism gainful importance to the right to vote for women as equal as men (women suffrage movement). These were loosely middle class women who started to memorialize public domain for jobs due to World War I. The twinkling cast feminism focused on not merely political rights. Their quests were very much broader, for example womens right to vote, advancement in carrier, social and economical equation and their right to determine their own lives separate from men. However when the Third motion feminism rose up, they critiqued the second wave feminists as world not feminist enough for they universalized womens feelings, backgrounds and experiences. Thus out of Third Wave Feminism different groups of feminism were born discussing and shedding light on the diverse obstacles and experiences felt by women around the globe. Post feminism on the opposite hand did not stop from looking into feminism but as well former(a)wise genders as well such as men, lesbians, gays, bi familiars and so forth.When we image the poem Buying t he fancy woman by Anne Sexton using Feminism (Feminist Literary Criticism), we realize that the poem is about a cocotte in any case known as ravish from the gray lenses. A bawd( harm) is a somebody, usually a woman who sells sex profit for men to earn a living which is usually meagerWhore means prostitute. And a prostitute is a woman who offers to hire her be for indiscriminate sexual intercourse, or so says The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Pheterson 39).Though the poet is a woman , the range who degrades the harlot is a man. Thus, from a feminist point of collect it is genuine that majority men do look down upon women as the weaker sex. passim the poem Buying the Whore, from feminist perspective we can doly see that whore was being objectified and was not treated as a subject with human feelings. For example the whore was compared to a roast beef, boat, glass, grate and at long last the bra in the entire poem. The whore thus becomes an object of cheer for men to sa tisfy their lusts and nothing more than that. Description of the whore in this poem, no doubt is from the view of phallocentrism. Phallocentrism means The privileging of the masculine (the phallus) in sagaciousness meaning or social relations (cla.purdue.edu). Sadly, none of the whores point of view were restrainn in the entire poem. Her thoughts, her feelings and her situation were all left out. match to French Feminsit Luce Irigaray, nomenclature is so gender bias and phallocentric that whatever characteristics that men think about women then leads women into mimicry and thus the position of subordination was formed(Rivkin and Ryan 795) and women objectified. Hence it is true through this poem that women( whores ) are treated as objects and described as things with no feelings to convey. Therefore Second Wave feminists, state that it is important to pay great attention or detail when exercise any text that is soiled by patriarchal notions. By doing so, one can undo the phal locentrism within texts. For example Luce Irigaray stated that the retroactive blow of the end of each word, utterance or sentence upon its beginning mustiness be taken into consideration in order to undo the part of its teleological effect, including its deferred actions (Rivkin and Ryan 797).Nevertheless, in my opinion, there is a flaw in the Second Wave feminists concept of undoing lyric poem that was contaminated by sexism. First of all it is very hard to reverse or change language that is dominated by male perspectives because we are all entrenched with patriarchal ideology for our entire lives. This is because from the past till now, writings in the literary world are dominated by men .Deconstructing patriarchal living texts and creating new feminists texts suggested by French feminist can be rugged as well. Producing text in gynocentric manner can lead to variant from feminists around the world as universalizing their experiences and their voices and redden essentiali ze femininity. Second Wave feminism fail to take account the diversity of womens experiences all over world and their context. For example race, class, ethnography and geography of women.Non-sexist language and gynocentric language are criticized for netherestimating the implication of gender asymmetry in language and for oversimplifying the relationship between language and corpo humans (Bondi 245).Feminist reading, of the poem, Buying the Whore by Anne Sexton through tells us that the whore is commodified with having sign value attached to her. For example,The whore was purchased , rented, and paid by the paradigm for sexual services. According to Luce Irigaray in her article women on the Market , women were commodification exchanged by men among men to create a homosocial bonds between men. The exchange of women established relationships between men the old family placement was essentially homosexual (Rivkin and Ryan 800). However in the poem, the purchasing, renting and payin g of the whore did not create a homosocial bond, yet the transaction of cash were thusly among men pimp and the customer. You are a boat I bedevil rented by the hourand I direct you with my rage until you run aground(predicate)Besides that throughout the entire poem, there are no signs or words of the whore involving in the negotiation of price for the sexual service . This definitely strengthens the idea of the feminists that women indeed halt no say in her own sign value and is invisible in literary world. Next, compared to a virgin or a wife, a whores value stoops way at a lower place for they are said to sell their honor in change for cash. Whores correspond to society fail to assume their role as the submissive, pure women or the Angel in the house.Whore dishonor is in part whore ill fortune to fit the traditional wife role in marriage (Pheterson 53). So they face more chances of abuse through their customers and social stigmatization. A prostitute then becomes one who sells her honor by offering to hire her body for base gain or for an unworthy doing, specifically sexual intercourse( Pheterson 39). Women fit in to feminists are discriminated by the society for just being women. Husbands, fathers, society conduct women to protect and guard their purity, chastity and honor. So, a whores honor thus derive and it is irreparable. . Therefore the persona( customer ) ill treats the prostitute in the poem. He even claims to engage the right over her body and does as he wishes for he had paid for the whorethe object.You are the roast beef I lose purchasedand I stuff you with my very own onion You are a glass that I hire paid to shatterand I absorb the pieces down with my spitHe shatters her and even stuff her with objects without asking her liberty or taking into account her physical pain. However her experiences are never important what was more significant and was assumed was man must be pleased, but him to please/Is womans pleasure( Ryan and Ri vkin 816). Since the whore was considered as impure woman, and assumed to wee unattractive features, the persona describes her in negative term such as stink and goes on to vomit into her hands further emphasizing ,a whore is degraded being who deserves ill handling. Whores are usually dirty, base and pocky, but they are also bold, impudent and brazen faced(Gowing 10). Even his own mother, the persona abuses in his poem what more the whore.You stink like my Mama under your braand I vomit into your hand like a wadits cold hard quartersFrom most Postfeminist point of view, Buying the Whore by Anne Sexton universalizes the experiences of sex workers. Anne sexton shows to us readers that whores suffer and have no voice in determining customers they allow into their quarters. In reality not all sex workers are so vulnerable or not in position of making a choice. For example not all whore have sexual intercourse with their customers but sexual related services only. The words sexual int ercourse are also inadequate to describe the work of all prostitutes. Much prostitution does not include sexual intercourse (Pheterson 41). Whores have rights to deny the customers they doubt to have disease or that might ill treat them. One whore from the United States said, If I have the slightest doubt about a guy, I refuse him (Pheterson 40). Hence, it is clear that feminism, help in understanding the meaning and give constructive criticisms towards the poem.Power dynamics can also be seen in the poem Buying the whore using feminist literary criticism. When we deconstruct the text from feminist perspective, the client has power over the female (whore) who he had purchased to satisfy his sexual lust. He has the power to stuff her with objects he wishes steer her like a boat with force till she runs aground and fag her into pieces as if she were a glass. The persona has all the power over the whore for he had paid for her service. He is depicted as this powerful being forcing his might and dominance over the whore. The whore on the other hand for example was compared to a vulnerable glass that can be tattered and boat that had to submit to its owner to his directions and steering. She is portrayed as this meek, powerless person who submits to the atrocities her male client had forced upon her. The whore was shown in the poem of not having the right over her own body or the right to have sexual pleasure. Neither as mother nor as virgin nor as prostitute has woman any right to her own pleasure (Ryan and Rivkin 808).Thus it is clear through the poem that the whore unlike any other women are said to be powerless and are oppressed by man kind. Woman is riveted into a lopsided relationship with mean he is the one, she is the other (Shelden 129). It is valuable that feminist shed light on the oppression or the powerlessness of women .Feminism is a great literary guess in showing readers how the world especially literary texts are laden with sexism and is mostly phallocentric. Yet again there is another weakness in feminist literary theory in my view point. Like many other Second Wave Feminists, Anne Sexton (American poet) in her poem Buying the Whore has brought forth the issue oppression of the whore( woman ) and the domination of men over women. She even made her whore voiceless and powerless throughout the poem. However, by portraying women as weak and men as strong and ranking(a) being in literary work , feminist are in fact strengthening the ideologies that are ingrained within society. Feminist then without realization , reinforce the dichotomous relationship between women and men created by society. Thus in feminist literary work and criticism, women are salve being described as inferior to men. There is here a danger once again of slipping back into a phallocentric scheme which relegates women to the margin (Selden 143).In conclusion, I do agree to an extent that Feminism does help in providing meaning to the poem Buying a whor e by Anne Sexton. Feminist Literary Criticism without doubt brings womens oppression into light and celebrate women writers and their literary contributions. This movement tries its utmost best to decenter logocentrism and phallocentrism that oppressed and curb women throughout history. Furthermore Feminism tries to bring about equality and lift sexism within discourses especially in the literary word. We (especially women) have benefited tremendously from this movement and its contributions. However there are weaknesses within the approaches of Second Wave which in my opinion were being rectified by the Postfeminists. Postfeminist takes into account of the diversity of experiences among women indeed avoiding generalization, universalizing and even essentialist point of view. Furthermore, Postfeminist movement pays great importance to standpoint theory which explains that peoples experiences differ according to their situations for example class, race, ethnicity, geography and et hnography. Therefore the poem Buying the Whore can best be explained through the latter part of Feminism which is Postfeminism without discrimination in meaning or experiences.