Rupi Kaur's Milk and Honey

Before this year, I had never dedicated a lot of time to reading poetry. To be honest, my only knowledge of poetry existed from in class readings. However, over the summer, I was sitting in on a workshop about intersectional feminism and one of Rupi Kaur’s poems in her collection Milk and Honey was included in the presentation. I scribbled down the name and ordered it that night. I instantly fell in love with it and read the entire collection during a long road trip. Subsequently, I have gone back and reread the collection several times, focusing on small portions as I read. One of the poems that resonated with me in particular speaks about how discussing the biology of a women’s body is taboo in American society, yet objectifying that body is completely fine. The last stanza is particularly powerful. Rupi Kaur writes, “the recreational use of/ this body is seen as/beautiful while/its nature is/seen as ugly.” I think with everything that is happening today, especially in the presidential race within the last few weeks, this poem is incredibly relevant. There is a double standard in society. Presidential candidates are allowed to make vulgar and sickening comments about women’s bodies and his actions towards those bodies, and it is justified as “locker room talk” while women are forbidden to speak about their own bodies. This so called “locker room talk” is at the root of the sexism problem in America. Making a sexist comment behind a closed door and not in the presence of woman doesn’t mean that sexism doesn’t exist in today’s society or that you aren’t sexist. It means that the problem of sexism towards women in today’s society is that much harder to fight because so many that are only contributing the issue believe they aren’t part of the problem. Rupi Kaur forced me to open my eyes and ask myself why I am so uncomfortable with the natural workings of my body, yet I am so used to being catcalled while running in downtown Annapolis that it no longer phases me. I think every teenage girl and boy should read this poem. As uncomfortable and even inappropriate that many would find it, I believe we would all be better off for having experienced and recognized this discomfort that society has forced upon us all.