FREE ESSAY ON WOMEN'S LIB: ARGUMENTS AGAINST FEMALE INFERIORITY IN DIANE WAKOSKI'S BELLY DANCER

WOMEN'S LIB: ARGUMENTS AGAINST FEMALE INFERIORITY IN DIANE WAKOSKI'S BELLY DANCER

In Belly Dancer, Diane Wakoski is endorsing the Women's Liberation Movement in an effort
to rouse repressed women into supporting the Movement. The Women's Lib strives for equal
rights and female freedom (Vanauken). The belly dancer in her poem is a member of the
movement and seeks the awakening of the restrained women who have been raised as proper
women. Wakoski satirizes the women who do not support the movement by portraying them as
uptight and ignorant people. She disagrees with their sentiments and lifestyle but knows
that the women could be efficient members in a more egalitarian society. 
In the first stanza of the poem the poet emphasizes the word movement by repeating its
root word, move, twice. The word movement implies the Women's Liberation Movement, and
that it moves itself is her statement that the process is natural and expected, the next
logical step in society. It places the movement out of her hands as just a poet and gives
it a deeper power, as if it was a thing itself with a need for advancement. The thin
green silk that is worn by the belly dancer is very sensual image and is alluring as silk
clings to the skin and is often extremely sheer. The green is the colour of envy, which
may be felt on a subconscious level by the women seeing the grace and sex appeal of the
dancer. Also it is the colour of nature, again suggesting that the wearer is only
performing a natural act. In the conclusion of the stanza the dancer expresses her belief
that women feel a natural sensuality and therefore any woman wearing such fabrics/ would
move her body just to feel them touching every part of her.
The second stanza has the women in the audience displaying their disgust with the belly
dancer, as they try to cover up and they act falsely, not seeing what the performer is
doing, for that would be below them. The fear they show is of being tempted away from
their perfection, which is one they have created based on Victorian beliefs. The manner
of the belly dancer, carefree and confident, is an alien principle to some women in the
sixties. The psychologists that these women would have seen would almost certainly be
male and the somehow (line 8) would represent Diane Wakoski's belief that a male most
likely would be unable to comprehend the Women's Liberation Movement. The awakening (line
9) in themselves that the women fear is suggested by Wakoski that all women have an
inborn desire that has the potential to be extremely powerful. The fact that it is the
men who would be incapable is a strong statement that she is making against the
inferiority of women. The women have sexual pent up energy because they are restrained by
their beliefs in Sigmund Freud's incorrect conclusions about women's sexuality. Freud
stated that women have two types of orgasms, bad immature clitoral orgasms and good
mature vaginal orgasms. This stated that a female was totally dependent on the penis to
experience normal pleasure (Freeman).
In stanza three Wakoski strongly satirizes the women not supporting the movement by
portraying them as uptight, unfeeling and weak. She says that the women fear liberation,
and not being repressed, so they protect themselves by hiding behind their clothes and
show no skin or sexuality. The framework (line 12) that they hope will support them is a
system of society set up in the past, one that places women in an inferior position. They
hope they will not feel all of the emotions that they know the belly dancer feels, out of
fear that they will lose their treasured self-control. 
The fourth stanza notes the temptation felt by the women in the audience. This is
depicted as a snake, which is a biblical reference representing temptation. It is the
snake that lured Eve into sin and brought it upon Adam as well. The snake tempted Eve
into eating an apple from the Garden of Eden against God's will, and her actions resulted
in the banishment of humankind from paradise. The parallel to this poem is that women do
not want to be drawn into sin, like the belly dancer is. They do not want to be sexual
beings, but desire the power of the dancer. The snake that is viewed by the dancer is
seen as the way a woman can be: graceful, smooth and calm. The presence of a snake in the
room would cause no physical damage to the women, but dainty, weak behavior is expected
of them and they have developed a conditioned reflex to make them act more womanly.
Wakoski uses a double meaning in line eighteen when she states Yet that movement could be
their own ['that' meaning the snake's]. She says that the women could be movement girls,
members of the Women's Liberation Movement, and also that they could be graceful
creatures like the snake, or a belly dancer, that seem to glide around the earth. The
smooth movement has the ability to awaken instincts in the women that encompass them and
have been existent in women all around the world. 
In the final stanza the dancer reveals her feelings toward the audience. She knows her
scantily clad body offends the women but she is proud of herself and has high
self-esteem. She says the women have old-young bodies (line 24) in the manner that they
are physically young, but treat their bodies like they are old by being protective and
unwilling to take risks. Like the old, they seem to be out of date of the fashions and
ideas of the time. The men, the oppressors, are revealed as she sees them, weak people
whom she is able to control with her sexual appeal. There are no comments deriding them
as male chauvinists or sexists, as many contemporary movements dubbed them. She snubs the
men and their beliefs but it is the women who are her central focus. They are the ones
who can change, for they are molded to the men's liking and need to be broken out. It is
to them she dances. The women do not realize their potential for life. They are afraid of
the unknown, new, to go against what they were taught. The belly dancer has no dislike
for the women, for they are innocent creatures who are ignorant and afraid. 
Diane Wakoski focuses on the women throughout the poem, reinforcing her belief that it is
the women who allow this treatment and that they are the ones who can end it. The male
oppressors don't get mentioned until the final stanza, and even then they are not accused
or the target of anger, but merely ignorant, minor players who do not deserve much
respect. The belly dancer, representing the Women's Liberation Movement, is a much
stronger character than the group of women. She maintains that the women are not
realizing their full potential and that they could be so much more.
Bibliography
Freeman, Jo. The Women's Liberation Movement: Its Origin, Structures and Ideals. 
Pittsburgh: Know, Inc., c.1971. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/womlib/.
Vanauken. Freedom for Movement Girls - Now.
Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Student Organizing Committee, 1969.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/vanauken/.