How is sexuality portrayed in selected poems by Sylvia Plath and in Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith?
Sexuality is an incredibly broad subject, so this essay will be examining how sexuality is portrayed from a female perspective, in relation to the contrast between oppression and empowerment that stems from female sexuality; the portrayal of female homosexuality and the dichotomy of purity and sin in association with feelings of latent homosexuality. This essay will aim to show the overall universality of love and sexuality as fundamentally it is the same for everyone and just play out in different ways for each person. The texts focused on will be Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith and selected poems from Ariel by Sylvia Plath.
The contrast between oppression and empowerment of female sexuality is a running theme throughout all of the texts. Male sexuality always takes the more dominant side, oppressing the female and often is shown through forceful rape metaphors. This is extremely prevalent in ‘Fever 103º’ through the lines ‘your body/hurts me’[1] and ‘lecher’s kiss’[2]. The use of this emotive language clearly shows how unwanted the advances are and seems to draw a strong parallel between the male figure and pain. Later in the poem Plath seems to show the saint/whore dichotomy of women’s sexuality through the line ‘whore petticoats’[3]. This is because petticoats embody the contrast, both hiding and suggesting the existence of sexual longing.[4] Plath may be using this to act as a broader social commentary about how it is completely natural for women to have this but that it must be concealed as it is not socially correct to show it. Furthermore, this line could be taken to be oppressive in that the woman can only escape these outdated views in death and must leave behind the physical representation of her sexuality as that is all that was relevant to wider society; or it could be seen as empowering as if she is throwing off the stereotypes and instead rising anew and embracing her sexuality, thus reaching ‘Paradise’[5]. In ‘Girl Meets Boy’, Smith uses scenes highly suggestive of rape to show the suppression and lack of consideration for female sexuality. The line ‘he stands there with his hands on the arms and leans over me so I can’t get out of the chair’[6] shows how Midge’s character is literally being forced to submit to the male’s wishes without any regard for her own feelings. However, there is a large contrast as all of the texts empower women and their sexuality too. In Fever 103º the line ‘does not my heat astound you.’[7] is very assertive and shows that the heat created from her ‘sin’[8] (we can assume this means her sexual desires) is shining out and empowering her to go against her husband due to the full stop used making an interrogative into an imperative; however, it also shows how clearly the male desire has shaped the female identity up to this point. The ‘moon’ is a running theme throughout Plath’s poetry from this time frame as it is often strongly linked to female sexuality and passivity- as the moon relies on the sun to give it light, so women rely on men. In Edge Plath creates a sense of female sexual empowerment through the use of ‘accomplishment’[9] to describe the woman’s suicide. This creates a sense of pride in what has been done, which could be taken to show the woman taking control of her sexuality finally, although tragically this can only be done through death. There is a huge sense of female sexual empowerment in Girl Meets Boy especially when describing the relationship between the characters of Anthea and Robin. The line ‘we live together happily ever after, which is impossible, both in story and in life, actually. But we get to’[10] shows how when female sexuality is accepted and embraced it can overcome any obstacle and do the impossible.
The portrayal of homosexuality is very interesting, as within both Plath and Smith’s writing only lesbianism is explored and male homosexuality is not even mentioned, which could be due to the female gender of the authors. Fever 103º uses the ‘camellia’[11] as a metaphor for female sexuality and links it to the colour ‘pink’[12]. This is often used to show tenderness, equality, innocent love and as such clearly aims to portray homosexuality in a positive and tender light. The repetition of ‘nor him’[13] could be a further allusion to homosexuality as it could be read as rejecting all males in favour of female love. In Girl Meets Boy the universality of love is shown whilst the character is in the midst of questioning her sexuality through the metaphor of taste, ‘what if we all taste things differently? What if each bit of toast tastes completely different?’[14]. The ‘toast’ is clearly a metaphor for sexuality itself and how that it is fundamentally the same for everyone, but the different tastes could be showing how between people this sexuality can vary widely. Smith makes a point of using genderless pronouns within her novel, often referring to ‘I and you’[15] which helps to create a sense of ambiguity which could be in order to apply this sense to people of all different sexualities in contrast to the more socially accepted heterosexuality. Interestingly, Smith tells the novel through the perspective of two sisters, which allows her to explore a more negative approach to homosexuality from a more sexually repressed standpoint. Her line ‘(Oh my God my sister is A GAY)’[16] is so suggestive of social views on homosexuality at this time. The capitalisation emphasises the panic and sense of abnormality and the lack of punctuation within the sentence furthers this as the thought appears rushed. As the sentence is encased within brackets this lends a tone of secrecy, as if even being thought it is dangerous to explicitly mention. Smith’s repetition of ‘(normal)’17 shows how foreign the thought is as it mirrors the earlier repetition of ‘good’[17], thus suggesting that homosexuality is bad as it deviates from the social norm.
Finally, there is a clear link between purity and sin in association with sexual thoughts and desires. In Edge Plath contrasts uses colours to show this contrast, ‘white serpent’[18] and ‘her blacks crackle and drag’[19]. The first is especially interesting as ‘serpents’ are usually likened to evil but here they are associated with the colour of purity; Plath may be using this to show the innocence of children but the threat that they pose to the liberation of women and their sexuality due to the social pressure to procreate due to the use of the word ‘coiled’18 which implies predation and being ready to attack. The personification of the ‘moon’ as having ‘blacks [which] crackle and drag’ is likely in reference to the legend of the virgin goddess Artemis who saw sexuality in women as a sin as it tarnished her image. The ‘blacks’ could either be in reference to death due to her sinning, whereas the word ‘drag’ could show a sense of resignation to her fate. In Girl Meets Boy there is a clear sense of sin associated with homosexuality, ‘You’ve made me wrong!’[20](to God). The use of the strongly emotive word ‘wrong’ implies a feeling of being incorrect, abnormal and being lacking. However, the female sexuality is more often seen as a pure, life giving force such as just after Anthea has accepted it, ‘was I gold?…was I the force of water through stone?’[21]. The reference to precious metals show how truly perfect the love is, whilst the references to nature show that it is an innate feeling, almost as if it was destined to be right from the moment she was born. This is then furthered by the line ‘arrows fired by a god’[22]. A more subtle way that Smith portrays the purity of their sexuality and love is the line ‘I loved butter’[23] straight after discussing the relationship. The only true happiness that Anthea has felt is eating buttered toast at her grandparents’ house and so this draws parallels with the purity of childhood emotions and familial love in the context of romantic love, and implies intimacy as this is a strong emotion from her past that she is linking with her present and future with Robin.
In conclusion, sexuality is a broad and diverse topic, of which this essay only discusses a small area. The female gender of both authors may well have had an impact on the reason they decided to focus primarily on female homosexuality within their works. However, both Plath and Smith show a diverse range of opinions and attitudes on this topic drawing on both emotions and social attitudes towards lesbianism. In both cases, female sexuality is portrayed as being an ultimately empowering force despite men trying to take advantage of this. The homosexuality is also shown as being just as valid as heterosexuality, but in a softer, more tender and equal way. It is worth considering how difficult a topic sexuality can be to deal with on a personal level, as I feel that both Plath and Smith have shown how it is often hard to accept and you have to reach a level of peace within yourself and your sexuality in order for anything that is not heterosexuality to turn from being a ‘sin’ to the pure love that it truly is and that is universal.
Bibliography
Anon, Edge (2017) <http://genius.com/Sylvia-plath-edge-annotated> [accessed 10 January 2017].
Anon, Fever 103º (2017) < http://genius.com/4947997> [accessed 10 January 2017].
Balbi, Alita, Gender and Sexuality in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath (Unknown) <http://www.periodicos.letras.ufmg.br/index.php/emtese/article/viewFile/3733/3697> [accessed 10 January 2017].
Plath, Sylvia, Edge, Course Reader II (Cardiff: Cardiff University, 2016), p. 42.
Plath, Sylvia, Fever 103º, Course Reader II (Cardiff: Cardiff University, 2016), p. 40
Smith, Ali, Girl Meets Boy (Edinburgh: Canongate Books Ltd, 2007).
References
[1] Plath, Sylvia, Fever 103º, Course Reader II (Cardiff: Cardiff University, 2016), p. 40, line 35-36
[2] Plath, Fever 103º, line 30.
[3] Plath, Fever 103º, line 53.
[4] Anon, Fever 103º (2017) < http://genius.com/4947997> [accessed 10 January 2017].
[5] Plath, Fever 103º, line 54.
[6] Smith, Ali, Girl Meets Boy (Edinburgh: Canongate Books Ltd, 2007), p. 125.
[7] Plath, Fever 103º, line 40.
[8] Plath, Fever 103º, line 7.
[9] Plath, Sylvia, Edge, Course Reader II (Cardiff: Cardiff University, 2016), p. 42, line 3.
[10] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 86.
[11] Plath, Fever 103º, line 41.
[12] Plath, Fever 103º, line 50.
[13] Plath, Fever 103º, line 51-52.
[14] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 5.
[15] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 53.
[16] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 49.
[17] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 40.
[18] Plath, Edge, line 9.
[19] Plath, Edge, line 20.
[20] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 95.
[21] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 102.
[22] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 103.
[23] Smith, Girl Meets Boy, p. 104.