African American Literature Spotlight - Frances Harper's "A Double Standard"

Throughout her career as a writer, Frances Harper placed herself in the middle of many political and social movements. She tirelessly fought for and spoke on behalf of slaves and women. Ironically, she did so despite the fact that she was never a slave and the fact that black women were never fully accepted into the early women's movements. However, Harper did not let wither of these ideas stop her from fulfilling her destiny.In her poem "A Double Standard," Harper shifts her focus to a problem between the sexes. Written in 1895, 30 years after the emancipation of the slaves, Harper uses her poetry to address the woman issue. In the poem, the speaker is a woman who finds herself in love with a man. However, the relationship falls apart and the woman finds herself portrayed as a villain. Harper begins the poem with a series of accusatory questions for the reader. She questions whether she should bear the blame for loving and trusting the man in question. She also questions whether the man or the world should face the blame, but it is ultimately the woman who suffers. In her poetic thesis, the speaker states: "Crime has no sex and yet to-day/ I wear the brand of shame/ Whilst he amid the gay and proud/ Still bears an honored name" (24-27). It is this type double standard that causes Harper to write and fight for the rights of women.

In the poem, the speaker accuses the community for around her for their hand in her "downward course" (330). She admonished them to "remember well/ Within your homes you press the hand/ That led me down to hell" (38-40). As a writer and lecturer, Harper knew the power of the community at large in the perpetuation of social ills. As with slavery, the rights of women would only be enhanced if the greater community took a stand to rectify the situation. The end to the double standard could only occur if all accepted responsibility and decided to make a change. Harper and the speaker reject the hypocrisy and find solace in the non judgmental love of God.

Perhaps what makes "A Double Standard" so effective is that Harper does not seek to blame men in the poem. The speaker accepts her part in her own situation and accepts that both the man and woman shall "reap as we have sown" (50). However, the speaker and Harper as the writer are seeking equality. In the final stanza Harper gives the solution to the speaker's problem and the problem of women in general by stating: No golden weights can turn the scale/ Of justice in His sight; / And what is wrong in woman's life/ In man's cannot be right" (53-56). Harper's declaration is bold and fearless. Although it applies to women in this poem, it represents Harper's fight for blacks as well. "A Double Standard" is another example of Harper's continual spirit of protest in her poetics works.

Harper wholeheartedly believed that she could make a difference using both her words and actions. As stated by Henry Louis Gates, Harper once wrote "It is not enough to express our sympathy by words, we should be ready to crystallize it into actions" (492). Harper followed this belief and used her words and actions to protest against the mistreatment blacks and woman. She led the way for and laid the foundation for the protest literature of the 1960's. For a 19^th century black woman, that is indeed something to marvel at. Works Cited

Harper, Frances E.W. "A Double Standard" The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, 2^nd Ed. 502-03.