examples

Mirror As discussed in class, a mirror holds much more than a mere reflection of

light. No one captures this sentiment as expertly or gracefully as Poet Sylvia

Plath in her poem, “Mirror” where her words reveal the idea that of the

mirror as the receptacle in which we recognize ourselves as subjects.

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful,

The eye of a little god, four-cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.

It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long

I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,

Searching my reaches for what she really is.

Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.

I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.

She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

I am important to her. She comes and goes.

Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.

In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman

Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Sylvia Plath, “Mirror” 1963.

Although this poem is about the subject interpellating the meaning of her

aging, I think it serves as a wonderful extension to the “Gender and Sexuality

Mirror”. The mirror itself reflects an exact image, but any thoughts, values,

or any other forms of feedback that ensue are the result of interpellation.

However what I find most compelling about Plath’s poem is its tone—it’s of

fear and confrontation. In full honesty, this prompt gave me a good dose of

anxiety, and for a while, I didn’t realize why. I mean, I am open about being

gay and I strive to be educated on and accepting of all ways in which people

express their inner selves. So why did I find it so scary to “look into the

gender and sexuality mirror” so to speak? “​I am silver and exact, … I am not

cruel, only truthful,” (Plath, 1963).​ I find it scary because when I look in the

mirror, I see a reflection that doesn’t entirely match what I feel inside.

Why is that?

I spent much of my life hiding who I was. I hid my identity out of fear

because I understood too well how our culture valued the LGBT+

community. I remember that as a kid I used to be more flamboyant,

effeminate, performative, and unapologetically me. As I grew up though, the

bullying I experienced (mostly) in school made me retreat into myself. This

persisted through to the middle of high school, despite me even having

supportive family and friends. For a large portion of my life, I was so

self-conscious of how I presented, spoke, gestured—constantly policing

yourself is not only exhausting and saddening, but it’s impossible.

It wasn’t until I began dating my now longterm boyfriend that I began to

come out of my shell in public. However, I feel like the many years I led

living like this mean that I wasn’t able to explore the things I would have

liked to have explored to express myself better, like more feminine clothing

for example. I feel like this is a big issue amongst many men in our

society—the male identity is constructed and confined by toxic masculinity.

Men aren’t allowed to cry. Little boys aren’t allowed to enjoy the beauty of

flowers, the beauty of nature, to explore performance, and dress-up. Could

there be a better example of cultural hegemony? The fact that so many

parents are uncomfortable with the idea that their boys like flowers, dresses,

female characters, etc is proof of cultural hegemony at work. Boys are made

to be soldiers of the patriarchy. Essentially what we are doing when we

shame boys for embracing traditionally feminine roles or is that we are

enforcing the ideology that being a man is superior to being a woman, that

women should not be idolized in the minds of young boys, that if he is to

admire and idolize women that he is less of a man. As a result young boys

don’t have female heroes, because they are made to feel like women are not

to be respected or admired. All of this said I realize that it’s harder to be a

woman in our society, this is something I would never argue with. However,

in my experience, I feel that like in many ways being a man in our culture can

be much more of a rigid, and confining role—men are groomed to be the

soldiers​ of the patriarchy.