Stereotypes are present in everyday life, including childhood. Sometimes stereotypes get labeled as “normal” and become common in many households. This can often be overlooked, but Mya G. Wolf, a poet, brings light to what it is like to be a woman in society. 

Specifically in the poem below from her book, Being a Woman she looks at the gender roles women are taught to take on from childhood.

See lines from the poem below…

“Being a daughter is helping with dinner while

Your brother plays video games. Being a daughter is healing your mother’s trauma while also healing your own. Being a daughter is forgiving 

your father… over and over again.

Being a daughter is the lifelong burden of carrying 

the heavy weight dumped onto you by your 

elders. 

Like clothes that fit too big.” 

The lines from the poem speak on the unfair burdens females face throughout their life. Wolf acknowledges how brothers are allowed to play around while sisters may be expected to help with chores. These are stereotypes society continues to place on females, and they are not the only challenges they face. 

The next thing Wolf mentions is helping your mother heal her trauma while effectively taking care of your own. This shows how females are expected to deal with an abundance of emotions from themselves and members of their family. This can be a difficult burden to carry and emphasizes the challenges of womanhood. 

Through this poem Mya G. Wolf demonstrates how stereotypes can put unrealistic expectations on women. It also shows how females are expected to handle it all and take on multiple burdens placed upon them by family. Through showing the struggles of being a woman, Wolf is also able to allow readers to realize that it is okay to struggle with an abundance of burdens. As well as showing that as a society we need to break these stereotypes placed on females from a young age.

To read the whole poetry collection click here. 

Image Credits:
Feature Image: Markus Winkler, On Unsplash. Creative Commons