Unfamiliar Texts - English

They Ask Why I Don't Wear Makeup - Harriet Carter

This poem explores the way that men justify sexual harassment against women, and how women are are effected by this. The author uses simile to get her point across, for example, "private school brotherhoods wear ignorance like lynx." This language features compares ignorance to lynx, which is a brand of antiperspirant which teenage boys tend to use excessive amounts of. So this line is saying that private school boys are extremely ignorant, and by looking at the context of the rest of the rest of this poem I can assume that she is talking about their ignorance to the feelings of girls and women when they cat call, or give unnecessary compliments to. This poem has negative connotations, specifically because of words and phrases such as; bleed, shame burns my chest, caterwauling, male ears shouldn't have to listen, ignorance, only desperate liars lie here and crying.
We also see the use of a couplet in this poem, which helps to show what the author is referring to in this poem. The author writes, "they cherish both uniform/ and red church dresses." This line is referring to the way that men objectify and sexualise women, no matter what they are wearing, where they are going, or how old they are. If a girl is going to school or church she probably isn't trying to sexualise herself, however that doesn't stop men passing her from doing so, and in fact school uniforms are incredibly sexualised, as are girls who do attend church. The couplet in this line helps to break up the sentence, and adds to the rhythm of the poem.