Adrienne Rich

Reading about Adrienne Rich and all of her ideas on the oppression that women suffer in a patriarchal society brought me to reminiscing on the days when I would under throw a ball to first base and immediately hear my step dad, from the fence, or one of the coaches yelling at me to stop throwing like a girl. On the other hand, for a rare positive statement, I might hear how I "took it like a man" or "manned up" in case of a good play. As a very young kid I would actually get mad at these outburst demeaning women because, like most young boys, my mom was a girl. I gradually grew out of that though and just understood it as a common saying that held no real meaning. Little did I know that Adrienne Rich had been laying out these feminist views for people such as Roseanne Barr to take hold of and incorporate into her comedy and television show.

Roseanne Barr used these same views as to bring up issues of oppression to women in the home, public, and workplace as well as issues with homosexuality on her long running television show Roseanne. Her personal life was reflected on the show in many different ways. She was able to experience the 50's, 60's, and the 70's and saw the way women were treated and also the way the feminist movement grew throughout those years. She also grew up with a gay brother and a gay sister and has ever since sympathized with the gay and lesbian community and feminist views. She brought these issues to light on her show at a time when it was not being addressed by any other television sitcom. This brings to mind Adrienne Rich's poem Diving into the Wreck. A poem that reads to me as a person that is wanting to discover something. It's about jumping in to where you've never been and finding a new world. This is what people do when they take on political or social issues to the public. They just jump head first in with their beliefs and see where it takes them.

http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/adrienne-rich-1929-2012

http://www.thegavoice.com/aae/books/1910-roseanne-speaks-out-on-gay-family-gay-friends-during-reading-from-new-book