Picture your ideal lady. What does she look like? What characteristics about her appeal to you? Sure, we all picture this perfect lady, but are we being realistic? The pickier we get, the more we take away from human nature. Nickole Brown’s “Fanny Says How To Be A Lady” is a poem describing how a lady should act. In the ten stanzas she writes about not telling your age, watching your reputation, taking it easy, steer clear of places where common people go, don’t fool with bad boys, don’t be taken for granted, being careful with your words, not letting folks think you’re trash, and fighting for what you believe. These are all powerful traits in a woman, but do they align with the twenty-first-century man? “Fanny Says How To Be A Lady” describes
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In the second stanza, it says “remember if you lie down with dogs, you’ll come up with fleas, and no man will buy a cow if he gets the milk for free” (5-6). Meaning guys don’t want a dirty girl if they know they can get someone else that isn’t with any “fleas” meaning sexual diseases. Society targets dirty girls harsher than dirty guys. Oftentimes, girls make one bad mistake and from that moment, later on, they are called hoes, sluts or easy to get. However, for dirty guys, it’s not seen as bad and forgiven in a much linear way. It is interesting because as people we should emotionally support women more than guys. However, why do gender roles switch in this case? Do we expect more from women than men, or we just see girls as too fragile and not overcoming these situations? Almost as if we like to pick on the little guy except, in this case, it’s picking on the little …show more content…
We’ve heard about how important first impressions are, but do we actually work on them? What do you think is the first impression people have when they meet you? Whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, nice, funny, the way you present yourself is the way others will see you. “Now if you’ve got a crooked nose, let them know and / that will be all they notice.” (37-38). We can relate to this line from Nickole Brown because we’ve experienced this at one point in our life. The day you had that pimple or bad hair day and you feel as if everyone was staring at you. Truth is, they will take a look and then move on with their day. You are not all they think about and one flaw should not destroy your confidence completely. Confidence is the key here, once a pimple or hair is brought up; people put more notice to it and any of your other flaws.
“Be mean and fight for it” (50). Sounds cliché to say fight for what’s yours, but why doesn’t everyone follow this philosophy? Standing for what you believe in is your right, which brings power and self-confidence. “People will take only what you let them” (51). Giving a person the answers to a test or responding to that late message at night comes with a price. Once the other person gets it one time, they won’t shy away from doing it again. We set up our own boundaries of how we want to be
In the second stanza, it says “remember if you lie down with dogs, you’ll come up with fleas, and no man will buy a cow if he gets the milk for free” (5-6). Meaning guys don’t want a dirty girl if they know they can get someone else that isn’t with any “fleas” meaning sexual diseases. Society targets dirty girls harsher than dirty guys. Oftentimes, girls make one bad mistake and from that moment, later on, they are called hoes, sluts or easy to get. However, for dirty guys, it’s not seen as bad and forgiven in a much linear way. It is interesting because as people we should emotionally support women more than guys. However, why do gender roles switch in this case? Do we expect more from women than men, or we just see girls as too fragile and not overcoming these situations? Almost as if we like to pick on the little guy except, in this case, it’s picking on the little …show more content…
We’ve heard about how important first impressions are, but do we actually work on them? What do you think is the first impression people have when they meet you? Whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, nice, funny, the way you present yourself is the way others will see you. “Now if you’ve got a crooked nose, let them know and / that will be all they notice.” (37-38). We can relate to this line from Nickole Brown because we’ve experienced this at one point in our life. The day you had that pimple or bad hair day and you feel as if everyone was staring at you. Truth is, they will take a look and then move on with their day. You are not all they think about and one flaw should not destroy your confidence completely. Confidence is the key here, once a pimple or hair is brought up; people put more notice to it and any of your other flaws.
“Be mean and fight for it” (50). Sounds cliché to say fight for what’s yours, but why doesn’t everyone follow this philosophy? Standing for what you believe in is your right, which brings power and self-confidence. “People will take only what you let them” (51). Giving a person the answers to a test or responding to that late message at night comes with a price. Once the other person gets it one time, they won’t shy away from doing it again. We set up our own boundaries of how we want to be