Week 9: Happy International Women's Day!

With this post, I want to discuss a couple more of my favorite Button Poetry poems. The last time I talked about Button Poetry, I juxtaposed two poems expressing two different opinions about the same subject matter. I’ll talk about two poems in this post as well, but instead of comparing contradicting opinions, I’m going to talk about two poems by the same person, Rachel Wiley. Rachel Wiley is an incredible poet. She has her own book of poetry, and there are more than fifteen videos of her spoken-word poetry performances on the Button Poetry YouTube channel. I’m writing this post on March 8^th, 2020, International Woman’s Day. Because both of Wiley’s poems come from a feminist place, it seemed fitting to discuss them today. Wiley’s poems concern some great things: being single, having cats, confidence, and dismantling the patriarchy.

            The first poem I want to discuss is called “A Letter To My Cat Exploring My Impending Spinsterhood”. This amazing title is what initially caught my eye when I was scrolling through my recommended page on YouTube. Wiley lovingly describes everything her cat means to her in this spoken-word performance, which makes me want a cat even more. Her cat—Clementine—behaves in typical cat fashion: sleeps for most of the day, doesn’t come immediately when called, and chooses to have affection for only her owner. This last behavior is expounded upon by Wiley. Wiley states that where she works “there is a terrible man who says that he hates cats because your affection has to be earned, but he says this like it’s a bad thing” (1:17), causing an audible reaction in the audience.

            I’ve heard this argument from dog-lovers like my younger sister Chelsea many times. Just because dogs will immediately love their owners from the beginning, cats are viewed as “evil” or “alien” when their owner has to display affection first in order to receive affection. Wiley relates her relationship with her cat to the relationships she’s had with past lovers by describing a cat’s comfortable position (outstretched on their back, showing their tummy) and the way cats can get separation anxiety when their owners leave for long periods of time. The poem becomes very personal when she says that “the last person I got comfortable enough to lay on my back and show my tummy to” (3:12) was her currently absent boyfriend. She ties a cat’s comfortable position to the comfort she felt with her boyfriend, and she uses the funny concept of a cat’s worry that their owner will be gone forever whenever their owner leaves to explain how she felt when she realized that her boyfriend had left her. Wiley’s emotion is evident in her performance, which lends more power to her words.

            “When We Were Kings”, the second poem of Wiley’s that I’ll discuss is also cat-related. “When We Were Kings” is composed of an extended metaphor that compares feminist women to lions. This performance begins with a heartwarming story about Wiley’s niece roaring like a lion in a Wendy’s. Wiley’s description of her four-year-old niece standing on a chair, mouth covered in ketchup, and growling and roaring to imitate a lion is incredibly sweet, but the sweetness becomes bitter when Wiley tells the audience what happened next: a man in the restaurant told Wiley’s niece to stop growling and smile. Within a couple of short years, Wiley says that her niece went from saying “girls can be kings too” (0:29), and roaring in public restaurants, to hiding her smile, and trying not to take up space.

            The turning point of “When We Were Kings” comes after Wiley talks about her eight-year-old niece’s developing mindset: “All of a sudden she’s worried if she’s thin enough to be a queen, or pretty enough to be someone’s trophy” (1:19). After this heartbreaking line, Wiley’s poem becomes a feminist polemic and she doesn’t hold back in her attack of the patriarchy. Continuing the lion conceit, Wiley talks about women being tamed and hunted down by men who seek to convince women that they can’t rule. Her niece was socialized by patriarchal society within just four years to believe that she can’t be too smart, she can’t be angry, and she has to be pretty.

            I thought “A Letter To My Cat Exploring My Impending Spinsterhood” painted the life of single women in a new and comforting light, and I thought “When We Were Kings” was a beautiful way to condemn the expectations placed on women. But don’t just take my word for it, watch Wiley’s performances of these two poems, and then check out some more! I haven’t found a dud poem by Wiley yet.