Jon Corelis wrote:
>A contemporary example is Jenny Joseph's
>poem of which "When I am an old woman I will wear purple," "I will wear
>purple," or "When I am old shall I wear purple?" are not the title or first
>line. This poem was voted the best of all contemporary English poems by a
>popular newspaper poll, and is the only single poem I know that actually has
>its own web site (www.wheniamanoldwoman.com/). She probably rues the day she
>wrote it.
>
I'd never read this poem before. Not bad at all. But (curious personal
sidelight) the mention of the red hat, and the whole Jenny Joseph
aftermarket of stuff like red hats...ouch. "You too can own a block of
stone from Tintern Abbey." Something called the Red Hat Society has
sprung up, and I have to think it's related to the poem. It seems to be
a social/networking group for women who wish to make contacts with each
other, simply form friendships, be of mutual assistance. My S.O., who
turned 50 last February, was interested and inquired around. It turns
out that the Red Hat Society chapters in our area have their meetings
and gatherings at various points weekday afternoons only, and are
predicated on the idea that women don't have to work or have no other
obligation. Or as my S.O. puts it with true class envy, "A bunch of
rich bitches from Rumson" instead of single women with jobs, or married
women who cannot afford hire an illegal immigrant for when their
children get home from school. So an interesting way of expressing
difference--the red hat--starts to work its way toward another form of
elitism.
At least in my neighborhood.
This somewhat skews how I read the poem: a symbol of rebellious
flashiness, of breaking loose from The Expected, turns in practice into
an exclusion of women who literally cannot afford flash or breakout
except on the Red Hat Society's terms.
Ken
--
Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538
|