Maya Angelou Was a Great Influence on Accepting My Feminism
To call women the weaker sex is libel.
I have seen a strength in women that has forever changed my view of what I can and cannot handle. I’m not saying it does not exist in a man too, but that of women is different. It spreads through her core and defiantly proclaims, “I’m not going to let this take me down.”
I’m speaking of women who are not afraid of failure and who trust that they can manage their own financial, emotional, mental, and physical well-being.
Women who don’t hold back on expressing their ideas on male topics. They are not ashamed to define their strengths, achieving success in male-dominated industries.
These women are not weak to fight against gender inequality, racism, or nepotism. They remain in marriages where fulfillment seems like a desert oasis out of reach, or their marriage ends because their judgment or belief has been questioned.
Maya Angelou is one of those women that I revere. Time and again, I try to put myself in her shoes and reflect on my challenges compared to hers. In times of unimaginable suffering, I try to imitate what Maya would do. Her courage defiled all odds against her feminism.
As a Black African woman, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy is accompanied by humiliation, shame, and misery. When I got pregnant, I buried my pain deep inside, feeling invisible, ashamed, angry, alone, and unable to speak up on the injustice I felt.
I tried to hide the pain from others and myself, built walls, put on masks to shield myself from mockery.
These qualities of Maya Angelou that I will share below have helped me shape who I am today as a woman. I learned to embrace my fears instead of hiding them.
Being brave is not easy; you have to wear thick skin to stand firm in a world that oppresses women.
“I learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya was courageous.
Because women have been considered physically weak for so long, many women have simply believed this to be true and have not tried to develop their own strength. Learning that you can accomplish more than you ever imagined is incredibly empowering.
After being raped by her mother’s boyfriend when she was eight years old, Maya Angelou did not speak for five years. Then, she decided to turn her body into “an ear” for listening and communicating.
In addition to its impact on the world of literature. Maya Angelou became a civil rights activist who was the Northern Coordinator of the Southern Leadership Conference (a black civil rights organization).
As a civil rights activist, Maya worked with famous people like Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X to give African Americans the rights they deserve.
She is known as a key player in the civil rights movement. She was someone who stood up for the rights of others and fought for equality at all costs. When you read her words, you can see how passionate she was to bring us closer to equality.
She was an inspiration.
Even though Maya Angelou has passed away, her words make her most significant contribution and continue to live on. She was a prolific writer. Many of her words are taken from her writing and turned into inspirational quotes. It is difficult to pass without hearing wise words coming from the mind of Maya Angelou.
Oh, how I still remember my favorite lines from her poem “Still I Rise”:
You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise. Up from a past that’s rooted in pain, I rise.
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide, Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise.
I can never forget this strong woman. She gave me hope when I was hopeless. She gave me a reason to dream again, to fight and remain steadfast.
One of her most famous quotes is on the theme of defeat is known for inspiring people to keep fighting regardless of the challenges they face.
“Joking because you have a defeat does not mean that you are defeated.” — Maya Angelou
Her wise words are ultimately one of her greatest gifts.
Angelou continues to influence generations past and present with the variety of her works. She has taught a lot, especially women, that being confident and comfortable in your own skin can take you far regardless of your background.
She really was an extraordinarily phenomenal woman. Her works remain legendary and are uniquely related to the daily lives of men, women, and children around the world.
She was a hard worker.
After her parent’s divorce when she was three, Maya and her brother, Bailey Jr. moved to Arkansas to live with her paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, and her uncle, Willie, in Stamps. Henderson had a grocery store in the center of the black part of town and raised the children according to the strict Christian values common in the rural South at the time.
The family encountered racial prejudice from white customers at the store and from community leaders in general. In her autobiography, Angelou said that she was upset by the attitude she encountered from people who seemed to condone the limited opportunities for black high school students of the time.
At the age of sixteen, Maya Angelou became pregnant and gave birth to her first child, Clyde Johnson (Guy). She had several unusual jobs, including a Creole cook, a nightclub waitress, a prostitute, and a driver. She had to endure each of these jobs to take care of her son while living in a difficult financial situation.
She was a young mother trying to survive with a lack of wisdom, job training, or higher education. However, she was able to survive through trial and error, while at the same time, she defined herself as a black woman.
She believed in her feminism.
Maya was a phenomenal character, and she made it explicit in her words.
“It’s the fire in my eyes, and the flash of my teeth; the swing in my hips, and joy in my feet. I am a woman, phenomenally.”
This quote shows the power that women have, the intensity and determination in their eyes, and their confidence in the world. Especially in that period, when women were not seen to have power.
In the middle of the 20th century, the idea of feminism did not occur in society. During this time, women’s rights were still trying to be realized and many of those who lived during that period had different views on the matter.
Society often saw that they were housewives and mothers. Even today, women are still looked at differently because they are women. Her voice completely changed that perspective. It shows how women have that power and confidence and that dignity is carried out by bravery.
Angelou brings a tremendous awareness of the idea of feminism and women’s rights at a time when these issues were especially despised. She also shows in her writings the strength and courage of women and their beauty. As one critic put it, “her poem emphasized the beauty and strength of women in the world.”
She was compassionate.
When she was a child, Maya was seduced and raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. Maya was mentally destroyed. She told her brother, who told the rest of her family. Although her rapist was found guilty, he was jailed for only one day. Four days later, Freeman was beaten to death, presumably by Maya’s three uncles.
As a result, Angelou became mute for five years, except when she was with Bailey. Maya believed that her accusation led to his death, and she did not want to kill others.
“I thought my voice killed him; I killed that man because I told his name,” she later said. “And then I thought I would never speak again because my voice would kill anyone.”
She suffered from selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that prevents a child from speaking due to physical and psychological trauma.
In the years that she went through this, her listening, observing, and memory skills improved, and her love of books grew. This helped her later when she began working to be successful in her career.
She was ambitious.
Maya lived a difficult and complicated life. Throughout her life, Maya faced racial discrimination and the effects of the Great Depression. Her early life was also filled with many challenges, jumping from one job to another, homelessness. Maya hated the color of her skin when she lived in America.
“Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my ugly black dream,” she stated.
However, this never stopped her from expressing herself from pursuing her vision in life. Her past and childhood were known to mold her writing style and beliefs.
In 1940, Angelou graduated with honors from the eighth grade at Lafayette Country Training School. The following year, she and her brother moved to San Francisco to live with their mother. She attended California Labor School in the afternoons and gave an early sign of tremendous potential for success by becoming the first black streetcar driver in San Francisco.
The protagonist had to overcome adversity. She discovered a greater sense of herself. By overcoming certain situations, Maya became more aware of her place in the world and society.
During President Clinton’s inauguration, Maya Angelou was the one who read the poem at the ceremony. This was a great honor and made her one of the first African American women to attend a presidential inauguration.
Angelou has received several awards during her career, including two NAACP Image Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by former President Barack Obama.
She became the first African American woman to be on the best-seller list with her book “I Know Why She Sings the Caged Bird,” published in 1970. The success of her book is what led her to become a national figure.
She was also the first African-American woman to be filmed in a role that earned her an Emmy nomination. As she got older, She continued to play different roles in movies such as Poetic Justice, Roots, documentaries, and directed a feature film, “Down in the Delta,” thus achieving her goal as a movie director.
In fact, she helped break down the barriers that existed in the entertainment industry. Maya became a very successful woman. Angelou was not afraid to try something different, and often she was successful when she stepped out of the box.
What sets mentally strong women apart is their ability to bounce back from unpleasant moments. They know how they feel about themselves and will be condemned if they allow others to limit their potential. Don’t let someone else’s opinion stop you.
Give fear the middle finger. Recognize your journey and stay on track. Determine what is needed to achieve your goals and what is preventing you from achieving them. Know when to push yourself, but also know when to walk away. A combination of passion, self-esteem, tact, and timing, along with a healthy dose of courage, is the secret sauce to break away from limiting yourself.