At first glance, I read \u201cis not so gd\u201d as \u201cg-o-d\u201d vs. \u201cg-o-o-d\u201d. I wonder if the abbreviation is supposed to make us think of god\/ the idea of god at all. Does god exist from the moment a girl is born? Or is god a kind of love women must find within themselves? I thought about these questions as I read \u201cis not so gd to be born a girl\u201d closely.<\/p>\n
For the first time, I read the slashes as the word \u201cslash\u201d. The imagery of violence in this choreoessay is more potent than any other I\u2019ve read thus far that verbalizing the word \u201cslash\u201d felt relevant. Shange\u2019s pen feels visceral\u2014the slashes like machetes\u2014carving a rhythm of violent protest. Her word choice\u2014abominable, cutting, glass, scissors\u2014conjure images of a war on the \u201cgirl-child\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nat least women cd carry things & cook\/ but to be born a girl is not good sometimes<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At the start, Shange makes a striking comparison between women and girls. Women can \u201ccarry things\u201d (they have physical strength) and \u201ccook\u201d (they know how to care for\/sustain themselves), while girls cannot; they are old enough to be taken advantage of but too young to fathom how to carry the weight of their experiences. Instead of writing \u201csex\u201d and\/or \u201crape\u201d, Shange chooses the juvenile \u201cyou know what\u201d to invoke a child\u2019s perspective; it can be difficult for a girl\/child to imagine a concept too mature for her age even if she has experienced it.<\/p>\n
As violent as the choreoessay is, Shange does not sensationalize the physical threats of being born a girl. She defines words, like \u2018infibulation\u2019, and works out an equation, \u201cvirginity insurance = infibulation\u201d to be matter-of-fact about the reality. Scientific descriptions of the way female genitals are maimed feel akin in tone to ingredients\/ steps in a recipe, a recipe for a \u201cgirl-child\u201d born to have the \u2018child\u2019 murdered. Her delivery is raw and compact. The paragraphs are long, and without any blank spaces Shange sometimes crafts; only the last few lines relieve some space.<\/p>\n
we are born girls & live to be women who live our own lives\/ to<\/p>\n
live our lives\/<\/p>\n
to have\/<\/p>\n
our lives\/<\/p>\n
to live.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
We\u2019ve talked a lot in class about how her work often finds magic in the mundane. In this choreoessay, I\u2019m curious whether the structure suggests that the mundane can also be suffocating and painful for a \u201cgirl-child\u201d who has no control. Hope seems to live in the future of womanhood\u00a0 (\u201cwe are born girls & live to be women who live our own lives\u201d), a time when girls will have grown able to respond to the threat of their destinies. I\u2019m struck by the slash between \u201cto have\u201d and \u201cour lives\u201d. I think back to Shange\u2019s title\/phrase \u201cmy pen is a machete\u201d. My interpretation of the ending is that women have the tool to write the connection between having\/owning their own lives.<\/p>\n
Some questions I still have\u2026in the choreoessay, Shange writes \u201cfor some of us & we go crazy\/ or never go anyplace\u201d\u2026is crazy juxtaposed with anyplace? Can crazy be a place a person goes to? What does it mean to go crazy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At first glance, I read \u201cis not so gd\u201d as \u201cg-o-d\u201d vs. \u201cg-o-o-d\u201d. I wonder if the abbreviation is supposed to make us think of god\/ the idea of god at all. Does god exist from the moment a girl is born? Or is god a kind of love women must find within themselves? I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[113,189,188,153,112,37,190],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogposts","tag-black-sexism-debate","tag-girl-child","tag-is-not-so-gd-to-be-born-a-girl","tag-my-pen-is-a-machete","tag-the-black-scholar","tag-violence-against-women","tag-womanhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcrw.barnard.edu\/digitalshange\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}