Is destruction a human quality or is destruction based on gender? The texts Pinhook written by Janisse Ray and the poem “The Bees” by Audre Lorde offer interesting commentaries on this thought. Through the creation of specific power hierarchies and using the binary of submission versus domination in the context of human interactions with nature and interpersonally, the authors provide criticism of inequalities they see in the society around them. Based on the both of the authors’ backgrounds in writing on intersectionality of different movements and societal expressions, the connections to society that seem to be apparent are validated. Specifically, Audre Lorde’s outward definition of herself as a “‘black, lesbian, mother, warrior, and poet,’”
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An example of this that I see in “The Bees,” is the power hierarchy founded on divisions between genders and the manifestations of how these conflicts cause the people in the poem to feel differing degrees of desire to destroy. Through the lens of destruction and who perpetrates it and how do they do this, the boys in the poem are described as “yell[ing] as they stone a flock of bees” that was “trying to swarm” around them (Lorde lines 4-5). The boys’ attack on the bees and the demolition they create is further depicted with language like “little boy feet becoming expert in destruction” (lines 20-21). Ultimately all of these themes of destroying as well as the medieval language of “ston[ing]” the bees implies a destruction founded in dangerous, barbaric, and savage ways (line 4). In the context of a power hierarchy, this control, albeit negative and dangerous, causes the boys, along with the school guards, to be at the top of the power control hierarchy. The school guards are also perpetrators of violence toward the bees in the poem when they are “beating” and “mashing” the bees nests with their “broomsticks” (lines 15-16, 18). Similarly to the depictions of medieval language, the use of the word broomsticks implies an idea of evil and supernatural powers. Medieval and evil, along …show more content…
Even a thing as insubstantial as a fence or a footpath serves to partition the landscape and significantly alter the abundance and behavior of certain species. Inholdings (developed tracts) within a natural area diminish the forest from within. Industrial and urban development destroy, modify, or degrade natural habitat. (Ray 17)
The dominance of the humans that pushes nature into a submissive role parallels the experiences of the bees in “The Bees.” They are being taken advantage of by the humans who are choosing to destroy them for their own sense of “security” in the poem, that is said by the girls to not actually exist, and for the financial and political gains of the legislators and capitalist regime in Pinhook. Ultimately, the gender dynamics that contribute to a conflict-rich and inequality based power hierarchy in “The Bees” by Audre Lorde and Pinhook by Janisse Ray are an interesting and important commentary on society. The texts both contribute ideas about masculinity having distinct traits of violence and destruction, and how these characteristics manifest themselves in different sectors of life including the industrial, legislative, and even in the lives of children. Our society is conclusively founded on inequalities and tendencies for and desire of power and
An example of this that I see in “The Bees,” is the power hierarchy founded on divisions between genders and the manifestations of how these conflicts cause the people in the poem to feel differing degrees of desire to destroy. Through the lens of destruction and who perpetrates it and how do they do this, the boys in the poem are described as “yell[ing] as they stone a flock of bees” that was “trying to swarm” around them (Lorde lines 4-5). The boys’ attack on the bees and the demolition they create is further depicted with language like “little boy feet becoming expert in destruction” (lines 20-21). Ultimately all of these themes of destroying as well as the medieval language of “ston[ing]” the bees implies a destruction founded in dangerous, barbaric, and savage ways (line 4). In the context of a power hierarchy, this control, albeit negative and dangerous, causes the boys, along with the school guards, to be at the top of the power control hierarchy. The school guards are also perpetrators of violence toward the bees in the poem when they are “beating” and “mashing” the bees nests with their “broomsticks” (lines 15-16, 18). Similarly to the depictions of medieval language, the use of the word broomsticks implies an idea of evil and supernatural powers. Medieval and evil, along …show more content…
Even a thing as insubstantial as a fence or a footpath serves to partition the landscape and significantly alter the abundance and behavior of certain species. Inholdings (developed tracts) within a natural area diminish the forest from within. Industrial and urban development destroy, modify, or degrade natural habitat. (Ray 17)
The dominance of the humans that pushes nature into a submissive role parallels the experiences of the bees in “The Bees.” They are being taken advantage of by the humans who are choosing to destroy them for their own sense of “security” in the poem, that is said by the girls to not actually exist, and for the financial and political gains of the legislators and capitalist regime in Pinhook. Ultimately, the gender dynamics that contribute to a conflict-rich and inequality based power hierarchy in “The Bees” by Audre Lorde and Pinhook by Janisse Ray are an interesting and important commentary on society. The texts both contribute ideas about masculinity having distinct traits of violence and destruction, and how these characteristics manifest themselves in different sectors of life including the industrial, legislative, and even in the lives of children. Our society is conclusively founded on inequalities and tendencies for and desire of power and