Pocket-Sized Feminism
Blythe Baird’s poem “Pocket-Sized Feminism” was posted by Button Poetry on February 16, 2016. I related so much with her performance and I’m sure many others can as well. The beginning of the poem sets the stage at a party where the men are gawking at the only other girl who is “ranting about feminism”. Baird admits to wanting to speak up with the girl, but satirically replies, “This house is for wallpaper women. What good is wallpaper that speaks? I want to stand up, but if I do, whose coffee table silence will these boys rest their feet on?”. She is playing on the idea that wallpaper and coffee tables are the things that women should care about: not the F word. She’s afraid of the men grouping her in with a feminist. While she is afraid of not being accepted by the men for speaking about women’s issues, she’s also afraid that women won’t accept her because she acts as a bystander in situations where she might be ridiculed for being a feminist. She states, “I am ashamed...
