post 9- Saba

Homage to my hips
By Lucille Clifton


these hips are big hips. 
they need space to 
move around in. 
they don't fit into little 
petty places. these hips 
are free hips. 
they don't like to be held back. 
these hips have never been enslaved, 
they go where they want to go 
they do what they want to do. 
these hips are mighty hips. 
these hips are magic hips. 
i have known them 
to put a spell on a man and 
spin him like a top

While many (especially the media) think of "big hips" as unappealing, Lucille Clifton owns up to the fact that she has big hips; and she's quite proud of them. Instead of portraying them as something she is ashamed of, she personifies them as being "free". Stating that her hips have never "been enslaved". She even goes as far as degrading small hips capable of fitting into "petty places". This makes her "big hips" seem superior to the small ones that most people want. 

She's rebelling against what people tell her she should look like and instead glorifies what she really looks like as sort of a "ha!". This poem allows women to open their eyes to the fact that big hips are not a bad thing. In fact according to the author they are so much better than what society tells those women to look like.


Just because it made me laugh:

http://m.poemhunter.com/poem/homage-to-my-hips/