Marxism and Feminism view

Sharon Olds, "The One Girl at the Boys Party" (1983)

When I take my girl to the swimming party
I set her down among the boys. They tower and
bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek,
her math scores unfolding in the air around her.
They will strip to their suits, her body hard and
indivisible as a prime number,
they'll plunge in the deep end, she'll subtract
her height from ten feet, divide it into
hundreds of gallons of water, the numbers
bouncing in her mind like molecules of chlorine
in the bright blue pool. When they climb out,
her ponytail will hang its pencil lead
down her back, her narrow silk suit
with hamburgers and french fries printed on it
will glisten in the brilliant air, and they will
see her sweet face, solemn and
sealed, a factor of one, and she will
see their eyes, two each,
their legs, two each, and the curves of their sexes,
one each, and in her head she'll be doing her
sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand from her body.

The Feminist View on the peom

Feminist will argue that the poem portray the girl as a sex object because the whole poem is about the girl's body and her sexual thoughts . The numbers in the poem are used metaphorically to show how the girl is struggling her sexual thoughts and how her body looks like. Example of it is the line that says "They will strip to their suits, her body hard and indivisible as a prime number" and when the girl looks at the boys the poem says that "She will see their eyes, two each, their legs, two each, and the curves of their sexes, one each, and in her head shel'll be doing her sparkle and fall to the power of a thousand from her body" so feminist will say that the girl is portrayed as wild and horny, and they will argue that girls can control their mind, and sex isn't the only thing that they think about all the time because girls are strong and intelligent.

The Marxist will blame capitalism and will argue that the poem shows the inequality between men and women, and how women are oppressed under capitalist system. they will say that this peom is prove that capitalsm disrespects women becuase the peom talks about boys too but it's the girl that has to struggle her sexual thoughts and can't control it, which means that women are weaker then men. Marxist will also argue that if anyone wants to sell peoms, songs or any othet products under capitalst system, they have to talk about the women's sexuality, and not her intelleigence. they beleive that capitalst will do anything to sell products even if it means manipulating and playing the people's emotions.