Two Equals

Written by: Anna Freire & Mylena Almeida

RGM: 26069768 & 27270084

Subject: Estudos Linguístico-Discursivos em Língua Inglesa IV - Matutino

Poem:

you tell me 

i am not like most girls 

and learn to kiss me with your eyes closed 

something about the phrase—something about 

how i have to be unlike the women 

i call sisters in order to be wanted 

makes me want to spit your tongue out 

like i am supposed to be proud you picked me 

as if i should be relieved you think 

i am better than them 

(KAUR,p. 229, grifo nosso).

Intertext:

The first time that we read Rupi Kaur's poem, we thought about how many times we were taught to compare ourselves and most of the time, with other women. How we should behave like that woman, be more “girly” like this one girl, take care of ourselves like our cousin, be pretty like our friend. We always learn to be more than the other or less than another. Never the same. We are taught to love men and view other women as rivals. Until, the other times we read the poem, with the thought prior to that aforementioned comment, a fragment stood out: “I call sisters”. Sisters, our equals. It was when another text awakened our memory:

“Tentando se equilibrar sobre a dor e o susto, Salinda contemplou-se no espelho. Sabia que ali encontraria a sua igual, bastava o gesto contemplativo de si mesma. E no lugar de sua face, viu a da outra. Do outro lado, como se verdade fosse, o nítido rosto da amiga surgiu para afirmar a força de um amor entre duas iguais. Mulheres, ambas se pareciam. Altas, negras e com dezenas de dreads a lhes enfeitar a cabeça. Ambas aves fêmeas, ousadas mergulhadoras na própria profundeza. E a cada vez que uma mergulhava na outra, o suave encontro de suas fendas-mulheres engravidava as duas de prazer. E o que parecia pouco, muito se tornava. O que finito era, se eternizava. E um leve e fugaz beijo na face, sombra rasurada de uma asa amarela de borboleta, se tornava uma certeza, uma presença incrustada nos poros da pele e da memória.” (EVARISTO, p.35, grifo nosso)

In this part of the short story “Beijo na face”, Conceição Evaristo's narrative voice is dressed in what is perhaps the author's most poetic tale. She uses the sentence “two equals” to unravel, subjectively, the love between two women. In “O suave encontro de suas fendas-mulheres” the compound noun refers to similarity and intimacy. This is the world we want to live in one day. May we see ourselves as similar. May the female rivalry, imposed by misogynistic society from our young age, come to an end. May we see ourselves capable of loving one another, whether in sisterhood or in homoaffectivity.

Thinking about it, one of the authors who writes to you brought a personal production:

I remember the first time I kissed a man and I thought it was normal that I didn't feel anything

I remember the first time a man told me that I was beautiful, but was better I close my mouth so I wouldn't get fat

I remember the first time a man told me I shouldn't have female friends

I remember the first time I felt goosebumps when a man gave me all the gifts I ever wanted, who complimented my entire appearance, who got along super well with my family and how I thought

oh god! What is wrong with me?

Nowadays this is all so gray to me

Because I remember the first time my heart fluttered just saying hello to a woman

Because I remember the first time I kissed a woman and I thought

oh so, that's it!

Because I remember the first time a woman looked me in the eye and said my intelligence was the most beautiful thing that she ever seen

And because I remember the first time a woman showed me that I didn't have to follow an ideal

That's when everything made sense and started to have

 c   o    l   o   r  .

by: Mylena

Reference: 

EVARISTO, Conceição. Olhos d’água Rio de Janeiro: Pallas; Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, 2015.

KAUR, Rupi. Milk and Honey. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2015.