Feminist theory in Storni's poetry

So earlier this week, we discussed feminist theories and ideas that shaped the works of Virginia Woolf and Alfonsina Storni, but I found Storni's poems much easier to read and relate to. I found her life story more fascinating than that of woolf's, and I found myself admiring her for being the first female writer accepted into the predominantly male Latin American literary world. Storni was not afraid to speak out against the hypocrisy of the male dominated world even if it meant making enemies along the way. The very fact that she became financially independent at a young age, supporting herself with a variety of odd jobs is the driving force behind all of her works. Storni remarked that being forced to be financially independent at a young age taught her to live more like a man, rather than a pampered woman. Storni became intellectually and emotionally independent as a result of her succession of jobs. I thought the most dramatic aspect of her life was her pregnancy resulting from an affair with a married man when she taught at a rural elementary school. After the birth of her son, Alejandro, Storni did not settle down complacently as most women do in her time period, but kept on working and published her first book of poetry, The Restlessness of the Rosebush.

I love Storni's poems You Want Me White, Little-Bitty Man, and Departure because they were about her feminist beliefs and her life experiences. You Want Me White is a backlash against the hypocritical double standards of the male dominated society where males expects her to be "white as dawn...made of foam", virtuous and chaste while he made toasts to the God of wine and to leave his soul "entangled in all the bedrooms". She challenges men to go away into nature in order to reclaim themselves and purify their soul, and then ask the same of her.

I really loved the Spanish reading of Little-Bitty Man in class today, and it made me realize how much I miss reading poems in Spanish. Storni rebels against societal conventions which keeps her caged like a canary when she wants to be set free. At first, I interpreted the poem to mean that the man is of regular height but is diminished in stature (physical or moral) by the way he treats her. Then again, the "man" within the poem doesn't have to be a physical being, it can also be societal and cultural expectations which traps women into cages.

 In 1935, Alfonsina was diagnosed with cancer and underwent treatment which left her both physically and mentally drained. After the cancer recurred and spread in 1938, she refused to do further treatment, which was seen by some as a way of rejecting the oppressive male dominated medical community who has control over her health. As a way to take control of her life, she committed suicide on October 25 by walking into the sea at Mar del Plata, Argentina. She was such a strong woman throughout her life and she lived her life in such a way that even her death was an echo of the way she lived and what she believed in.