Audre Lorde

In the essay “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”, from the Sister Outsider (a book of essays and speeches), Audre Lorde (feminist writer) re-interprets the use of the word ‘erotic’ and highlights the importance that it has in empowering women; living within a male dominated world. By directing her analysis towards women, Lorde is able to build a commonality amongst herself and the audience. Furthermore, by stating including her personal identity and experience with eroticism, she can effectively delineate/express her claims. Which influences the reader, male or female, to question their perception of the erotic and how it goes unnoticed as a source of power. Within Lorde’s socio-theoretical analysis of the ‘erotic’, the article itself…

In “Coal,” Audre Lorde discusses the empowerment of African Americans through the metaphor of the physical earth. Lorde specifically uses the comparison between coal and diamonds to represent how something as seemingly worthless as coal can be just as valuable as diamond (Dhairyam); the coal also symbolizes the darkness of Lorde’s skin, something she takes pride of in her writing (Dhairyam). Lorde discusses two categories of words: those that are “open like a diamond on glass windows,” and…

In this essay, I will analyze Audre Lorde’s discussion on the importance of acknowledging the differences that exist between women in order to effectively move forward with positive social change for the feminist movement. I will begin by explaining Lorde’s position. Next, I will outline where I agree with Lorde, as well as two critiques. The setback for feminism, as outlined by Lorde, is not the vast diversity that exists within the female gender such as class, age, race, and sexual preference.…

Lorde and Butler Society has a strange fixation with placing anything and everything into one category or another. Talking to any person today can show just how different and similar one can be to another. For instance, when you think of a writer, how many varying faces and personalities’ rushes through your head? Audre Lorde and Judith Butler are two such writers that share a connection through their craft and their meaning. Though they may have these general similarities, they have their…

Is destruction a human quality or is destruction based on gender? The texts Pinhook written by Janisse Ray and the poem “The Bees” by Audre Lorde offer interesting commentaries on this thought. Through the creation of specific power hierarchies and using the binary of submission versus domination in the context of human interactions with nature and interpersonally, the authors provide criticism of inequalities they see in the society around them. Based on the both of the authors’ backgrounds in…

independence from Great Britain, discrimination and lack of equal rights still exist among the people . As shown in the article “The Fourth of July” by Audre Lorde contains about discrimination which occurred on the independence day in Washington D.C. Audre Lorde visits Washington, D.C. with her family where she comes across many things that she wasn’t aware of. Her family couldn’t stand up for themselves which made Lorde get frustrated about the situation. In the story Lorde was not allowed to…

against anyone in the process of building this society” (Bayard Rustin). In the 1940s, discrimination was a problem for America and today there is still much to be done. During the 1940s, Audre Lorde was a black child who lived a sheltered life from the problem of discrimination until her trip to Washington D.C. for the Fourth of July. On their trip, Audre learned many things about the reality of life for the colored compared to the whites. In the narrative essay, Fourth of July, Audre Lorde…

According to Audre Lorde. The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action: She was born in 1934-19992. She was the Author of numerous collections of poetry and prose, Lord was deeply concerned with issues of class, race, age, gender, culture and health, particularly as they related to the experiences of women. In the 1960. A librarian, writer poet, teacher, feminist and lesbian, Lorde won numerous awards including a National Endowment for the arts grant and the American Library…

As we hear, we are white privilege people who get to do things maybe others don’t get to do. There are things that I, as a white person, have never even thought of that people of other races view as privileges to whites. A few examples of these privileges are dealing with cops more easily, can talk and teach race without it causing huge problems, higher chance of getting a job, English is the main language, the majority of people are white, band aids are flesh color to, and biggest thing overall…

post-modern post structuralism fiction. It is an elegant, however strange, mixture with metaphorical, mythic and fictional story lines. As a black author, Audre Lorde presents the story as a semi self-reflection of the inception of black lesbianism in the modern era. Although the vivid depiction of hetero-sexual and homo-sexual encounters is border-lined with exotics, this book is not intentioned to promote either promiscuity or hedonism. Rather, the major theme of this book is her mythic…