Belly Dancer Poem Analysis

The poem that I found the most relatable this week was Diane Wakoski’s “Belly Dancer”. This poem explores femininity and female empowerment. I like how it is from the perspective of the belly dancer, since usually we hear people’s opinions on belly dancers. It was interesting to see how the belly dancer in this poem thought of other women. In the discussion, someone pointed out that this poem is supposed to show how women are not in competition with each other, but that is not true. I also noticed that someone talked about how the narrator herself is being judgmental of other women, who she thinks are too uptight to please their husbands.
I can relate to this poem because it shows how judgmental other women can be. For example, I love wearing makeup and watching makeup tutorials online. However, all the comments on these videos are extremely mean and judgmental. There is always someone who thinks that someone else is “wearing way too much/too little makeup” or being “too revealing/not revealing enough”. A lot of people say men are telling women these things, which is true, but women are also culprits of this. In fact, most of the …show more content…
I think this might stem from thinking about their husbands/significant others watching the belly dancers. This makes them feel insecure, so they feel the need to tear down the belly dancer. The author writes about how she does not dance for men, but for women. However, she probably does dance for men who have significant others. Even though it is technically the significant others’ fault for making the choice to watch, the women will blame the belly dancer for leading their significant other astray. In my opinion, belly dancing at a club is dancing for money in front of an audience that is probably men, and not about female empowerment. However, private belly dancing classes for women are more about female empowerment and allowing women to be comfortable in their own