Manic Pixie Dream Girl by Olivia Gatwood is a spoken word poem that dives into the topic of sexism in the United States. Gatwood focus’ in on the idealistic image of women in today's society, and names these unrealistic characteristics as Manic Pixie Dream Girl. This Dream Girl is everything society wants her to be and nothing more. She saves those needing saved, wears a convincing fake smile at all times, and always does what's asked of her. Gatwood paints a picture of this “girl” with her vocal cords, intentively allowing the audience to understand how unreachable these expectations are. To surrender yourself in such a way is to hand over your humanity and diversity. Gatwood spends a great amount of the beginning of the poem on allowing the audience to understand gender roles in today's society. We, as a community, often turn our heads at statistics of wage pay, sexual assault, and beauty culture because we have grown so accustomed to injustice. When Gatwood directly tells/shows us what is right in front of out face, we are forced to listen. While Manic Pixie Dream Girl is what everyone wants her to be, it is also a figment of
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Punishment, however large or small, is a huge factor in parenting in the United States. If you do something wrong, a time-out, revoked privileges, or grounding is most likely in your near future. The idea behind it is that the child will associate punishment with the action he/she did wrong, and refrain from doing it in the future. However, what if the child is expressing themselves? Say a young boy is painting on the walls, and is caught by his mom. As a result, she takes away his tv time. From now on, this boy will associate painting and expressing himself, with punishment. However, if privileges were not revoked, the painting would most likely continue. It is conversation like this, that makes the story so important as it raises important questions and creates peer
Punishment, however large or small, is a huge factor in parenting in the United States. If you do something wrong, a time-out, revoked privileges, or grounding is most likely in your near future. The idea behind it is that the child will associate punishment with the action he/she did wrong, and refrain from doing it in the future. However, what if the child is expressing themselves? Say a young boy is painting on the walls, and is caught by his mom. As a result, she takes away his tv time. From now on, this boy will associate painting and expressing himself, with punishment. However, if privileges were not revoked, the painting would most likely continue. It is conversation like this, that makes the story so important as it raises important questions and creates peer