Adrienne Rich Helps Further Feminist Rights

Experience is the true teacher of life. However, not all are awake during the lessons. Of those trying to pass on a new lesson are feminists. Trapped in a patriarchal society, women are subject to male domination aided by a capitalist economy. Nevertheless, women are gradually becoming active teachers in the hopes of obtaining an equal existence. As feminism develops, so do the women involved. Of the most influenced are writers. Prominently, Adrienne Rich is merely one out of hundreds of women straining for justice. The issues brought up by feminism affects its supporters throughout their lifetimes. The development of feminism inspired the literary leader Adrienne Rich continuously and shaped her poetic messages.

The fight of feminists was to establish an equilibrium between women and men. Many mistakenly concur that all feminists are alike. However, there are several different groups. First, Liberal Feminism is centrally concerned with equal rights. This group is reformist in character, attempting to create equality and justice. Marxist Feminism stresses the oppression of women in the sociological, political, and economical structures of capitalism. It also focuses on the division of labor as a reason for inequality. Next, Radical Feminism is a response to Liberal Feminism. One central argument of this group is that women's oppression is a result of patriarchy. It tends to pay greater attention to culture as belittling women's bodies and devaluing the feminine, as well as celebrating the distinctiveness and cultural superiority of some female ways. These three feminisms are the most recognized and universal of all the forms.

During the 1970s, according to Adrienne Rich, the personal narrative became valued as the "true coin" of feminist expression(2). The feminist movement was an attempt for women to obtain sociological and economical equality with her male counterpart. However, there was never an indomitable force of feminism strong enough to overpower traditionally held conventions. Each endeavor feminists aspired was overshadowed by some other radical movement. Rich calls second wave feminism as a "splinter off the radical movements" in history(5). During the 30s and 40s, the Great Depression drove politics. In the 50s, women and all female characteristics were repressed and patterned into a housewife mold. Later, in the 60s, feminism resurged in new forms, yet in diluted strength. Soon afterward, feminism was again deliberately diffused and isolated by the 1970s(5). More currently, throughout the 90s, feminism has been countered by capitalism and corporate America at its best. Adrienne Rich explains the capitalistic defense wonderfully: "a feminism that sought to engage race and colonialism, the global monoculture of United States corporate and military interests, the specific locations and agencies of women within all this was being countered by the marketing of a U.S. model of female-or feminine- self-involvement and self-improvement, devoid of political context or content"(2/3). Feminism was forced into a money market strategy rather than the political stand it had been regarded as before.

Generally, feminists argue that men try to subdue their sexuality and position in society. Overall, this assumption can be viewed as a substantial point. In the book, Sexuality, The Female Gaze, and the Arts : Women, The Arts, and Society, Debra Humphrey's essay "The Discursive Construction of Women's Sexuality and Madness in Mainstream Cinema," argues that women's sexuality, when freely expressed, is most commonly linked to "irrational, unstable societal elements, and must ultimately be suppressed to maintain a stable patriarchal social order"(65). Humphrey assesses that most mainstream cinema film makers show women characters expressing sexuality as defined by their relation to a man when ensconced within marriage. Also, if her sexuality is expressed outside the confines of the domestic sphere, it remains linked to "irrationality, madness, and/or death" (65). Furthermore, women's sexuality expressed in terms of her own desire represents a "threat to the male sexual economy" (65). Through cultural production, this threat is partially diffused. As formerly mentioned, feminism was continually forced into a capitalist market and diluted in order to maintain a strong patriarchal power. Humphrey's argument stating mainstream cinema as a capitalist tool to repress and deplete the grounds feminists held, is a solid illustration of Radical Feminism. As an attempt to fight against the male dominated film industry, women also challenged their traditional roles and language through the literary world with leading poets such as Adrienne Rich.

According to Claire Keyes, feminist literary analysis assumes the value of concentration upon women's art as a "legitimate and essential field of inquiry" (14). Yet, in the face of a monstrosity such as corporate covetousness and technological force, many women felt their work could not make an impact. In her book, Arts of the Possible, Adrienne Rich recognizes this fear and stands against it in favor of the power of language. Beautifully, Rich faces the paltriness of such fear and emphasizes her faith and the lasting good that results from poetry : "We may feel bitterly how little our poems can do in the face of seemingly out-of-control technological power and seemingly limitless corporate greed, yet is has always been true that poetry can break isolation, show us to ourselves when we are outlawed or made invisible, remind us of the beauty when no beauty seems possible, remind us of kinship where all is represented is separation"(111). This statement also supports her belief that under capitalism, there can be no women's liberation(116). Rich's dislike of capitalism was brought about by contemplation of Karl Marx. Throughout her career, Rich conformed to other's societal disregard of Marxist's beliefs. Yet, as she began to study his work, Rich realized the utter profoundness in his ingenuity. In some of her works, Rich indicates a thread of Marxist Feminism. Anyway, women's liberation is a more concrete and expressive term than feminism that will not be brought to life until a "genuine emancipatory movement" as according to Rich's ideology (116). However, without their personal and uninfluenced system, women will continue to be under the thumb of patriarchal culture.

Located in Sexuality, The Female Gaze and the Arts : Women, The Arts, and Society, Karen Elias' essay "The Pain of the Body's World : Women, Poetry, and Society in the Work of Adrienne Rich" identifies women as "muted groups"(19). Only through the structures of the dominate culture (i.e. men), are women allowed to express themselves; unless, women find a way to speak their own personal truths outside of the boundaries through a "wild" area (19). Anthropologist Elaine Showalter defines the female wild zone as the "aspects of the female life style which are outside of and unlike those of men," and as the source for creating original female symbols and metaphors (19). Yet, the path to developing a genuinely female language is assiduous with the obstacles of a patriarchal society desiring to repress such female "wildness," although not impossible.

By the power of individual testimony, Rich believes feminism has depended heavily upon a concrete declaration that was meant to "accumulate toward collective understanding and practice"(2). Beginning in the 1970s, second wave feminism in the United States attempted to repossess language; thus, creating a new dimension in the feminists' fight. Jane Hedley in her essay "Surviving to Speak New Language : Mary Daly and Adrienne Rich" discovered in the book Language and Liberation : Feminism, Philosophy, and Language, declares the he/she battle of equality emphasized how standard usage of language interferes with women's efforts to "hold their own in public life and in the world of work"(100). Because of her desire to show poetry as "liberatory at its core"(116), Rich filled her poetics with the universal voices of friendship, women, and relationships between men and women, as well as women and women. In her essay "Blood, Bread, and Poetry: The Location of the Poet," Rich believes that poetry was more than mere music or images. "It was also a revelation, information, a kind of teaching," which she would use as her tool to educate society on the power of women (43). Adrienne Rich's faith in language is physically evident by the evolution of her career. In the beginning, Rich wrote with the influence of male poets her father proudly presented to her. Works such as those included in her first collective book A Change of World 1951, hint at an earlier fascination of poets like Walt Whitman, Yeats, and Frost. Another turning point included her experiences as a mother and wife during the 50s. In her Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law, Rich expresses the tensions she went through in order to fill those roles. Later on, Rich confessed that the experience of motherhood would radicalize her. Still, Adrienne Rich develops into her own poetess of acclaim and obtains a path in which to fight for feminism.

According to Claire Keyes in The Aesthetics Power : The Poetry of Adrienne Rich, Rich feels that the only way to truly liberate women, is to change the way society thinks. Then, to "reintegrate what has been named the unconscious, the subjective, the emotional with the structural, the intellectual, to connect the prose with the passion, and finally to annihilate those dichotomies" (9). In other words, she wishes to reconfigure the whole of traditional patriarchal society into one of unisexual equality. Radical feminists find it important to stress that the oppressor's language (men), interferes with women's "ability to communicate and bond with one another" as stated by Jane Hedley (100). Rich expressed this sentiment in her poem "The Burning of Paper Instead of Children," in the lines "This is the oppressor's language // yet I need it to talk to you." These two lines show Rich's increasing agitation with the male oppressors. Claire Keyes reports that as a radical experiment, women liberalists began writing to and for women while excluding men to "forge a new conscious" (10).

Adrienne Rich gradually forges "a new definition of woman's power" in her poetry (5). In patriarchal systems, public forms of power are taboo for women. Therefore, only the most extraordinary woman breaks through the "male monopoly of formal overt power" (5). Her best example of the lack of appreciation for women is the poem "Diving Into The Wreck." In this poem, her diver is that one extraordinary woman that emerges through the wall of male domination. Yet, the diver also represents women as a whole. As Rich believed, woman's accomplishments and experiences are omitted from history and misrepresented in literature according to the line "Our names do not appear..." Although, in the end, literally and figuratively, women will become victorious once all are united, as shown through Rich's uses of the inclusive pronouns "We are, I am, you are." Also, Rich defines her growing distaste with patriarchal society and its inherent derision for anything female or of feminine characteristics.

Because she is a poet, Rich is responsible for the choices she makes to create her poetics. Governing the choices over "diction, syntax, imagery, musical values, and prosady" is her womanhood (10). So, as a feminist poet, Adrienne Rich develops a "female aesthetic"(7); in other words, a guiding principle in matters of artistic beauty and taste revolving around women. Rich's development of the "female aesthetic," is sometimes aligned with lesbianism. She approaches this subject in her essays "It Is the Lesbian In Us" and "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Experience." Through controversy, Rich drew attention to feminism. Although there was not a great alteration in the politics of feminism, her attempt to change the patriarchal society did not go unnoticed. And therefore, became a small success.

All in all, women have not taken up their power. Because there is still a gender difference and women continue to be referred to as inferior, it does not appear as if a change will occur any time soon. However, through language women are discovering their power. Feminism is reaching to great minds, societies, and foreign shores via literature. Claire Keyes recognizes that leading the fray, Adrienne Rich has become a sort of "pioneer, witness, and prophet" for women (1). Hopefully, many will continue to follow her inspiration and that of the feminists' beliefs.