I am My Woman

“It's in the reach of my arms the span of my hips, the stride of my step, the curl of my lips. I'm a woman.”
These lines in the first section of Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman” are recognizable to most. We read the rhymes in high school English class and interpreted them with guidance from the teacher. But, that is the exact opposite of what this poem represents. It is about individual beauty that is known but not vain.
I first read this poem with a new understanding during my first few months here at UW as a freshman. I realized that Ms. Angelou was talking for herself yes, but she was becoming the voice that many disillusioned girls didn’t use. We are taught as young girls not to get dirty in the mud with the boys because it’s not lady-like. We are clothed with modesty that accentuates our femininity. We are squeezed into Society’s ‘average’ size two jeans. No, not this woman.
Maya Angelou is a sturdy, curvy, beautiful woman, and she knows it. And imagine, with all she had to go through as a child, to still be able to recognize herself as stunning! When she wrote this poem I like to imagine that she stood in front of a full length mirror, completely bare to be scrutinized, and saw what she really was: “sunshine” and “fire” and “joy.” She did not see the abusive childhood, or the quiet rapes. She saw herself.
This is what we each need to see in the mirror; ourselves. Not the athlete some might judge us as, not the skinny shy girl, not the big hipped booty mama of criticism. We should present ourselves as we truly see our own image.
The men Angelou speaks of can’t see what we see, because they are them and we are us, just like we can’t see who they are from their perspective. This Phenomenal Woman’s “mystery” and “flash of teeth” will never offer her secret confidence to her suitors. That confidence is hers because she birthed it, bares it, and breathes it.
This is a defiant piece of writing that makes me want to share my dimples, lengthen my stride, crave my curves. This is me, as I see myself. No matter how I am compared to magazine models or my friends. This is me, with every sparkle of my eyes, swing of my hips, and song of my laugh, this is me. Me.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/phenomenal-woman/