Spencer Wood
Y'all just thought I got the chauvinist pig award.
Let's talk about toxic masculinity. Later we'll talk about common decency.
This whole poem is just gross, and so much of it makes me feel slimy and dirty. The way that Pope writes (as all writers) displays who he is. And this man is gross. The majority of the first canto alone is solely about Belinda's appearance and nothing more. [I understand that this is satirical, and Belinda represents vanity but it seems a little like the kettle calling the pot black, you know.] Women are so much more than their appearance. And this poem doesn't show that Pope gets that. Even when Belinda wakes up the words that Pope chooses like "Th' inferior Priestess, at her altar's side, Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride." To say that Belinda (women) worship themselves through pride and appearance is hypocritical of men (or Pope in this case) who care about nothing other than appearance. And to say that she is trembling (as a weak being or small flower) is just degrading.
Also, the Baron is disgusting. The little stanza where he's looking at her hair and decides that he'll do whatever just to get some hair, "fraud or force attain'd his ends." One: thats wrong, just in general. Two: thats not love. That's not what Christ has envisioned or exemplified as love. Love is NOT coercive or fraudulent. The end.
Gary AnnaKate
Y'all just thought I got the chauvinist pig award.
Let's talk about toxic masculinity. Later we'll talk about common decency.
This whole poem is just gross, and so much of it makes me feel slimy and dirty. The way that Pope writes (as all writers) displays who he is. And this man is gross. The majority of the first canto alone is solely about Belinda's appearance and nothing more. [I understand that this is satirical, and Belinda represents vanity but it seems a little like the kettle calling the pot black, you know.] Women are so much more than their appearance. And this poem doesn't show that Pope gets that. Even when Belinda wakes up the words that Pope chooses like "Th' inferior Priestess, at her altar's side, Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride." To say that Belinda (women) worship themselves through pride and appearance is hypocritical of men (or Pope in this case) who care about nothing other than appearance. And to say that she is trembling (as a weak being or small flower) is just degrading.
Also, the Baron is disgusting. The little stanza where he's looking at her hair and decides that he'll do whatever just to get some hair, "fraud or force attain'd his ends." One: thats wrong, just in general. Two: thats not love. That's not what Christ has envisioned or exemplified as love. Love is NOT coercive or fraudulent. The end.
Gary AnnaKate
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