Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th century Mexican nun and poet of the Spanish Baroque school. A celebrated intellectual, much of her work deals with the struggle for self-expression, respect, intellectual freedom and creative fulfillment, particularly for women. Some of her most famous poems are pointed critiques of patriarchial culture and its double standards, including this one.
You Men
Silly, you men—so very adept
at wrongly faulting womankind,
not seeing you’re alone to blame
for faults you plant in woman’s mind.After you’ve won by urgent plea
the right to tarnish her good name,
you still expect her to behave—
you, that coaxed her into shame.You batter her resistance down
and then, all righteousness, proclaim
that feminine frivolity,
not your persistence, is to blame.When it comes to bravely posturing,
your witlessness must take the prize:
you’re the child that makes a bogeyman,
and then recoils in fear and cries.Presumptuous beyond belief,
you’d have the woman you pursue
be Thais when you’re courting her,
Lucretia once she falls to you.For plain default of common sense,
could any action be so queer
as oneself to cloud the mirror,
then complain that it’s not clear?Whether you’re favored or disdained,
nothing can leave you satisfied.
You whimper if you’re turned away,
you sneer if you’ve been gratified.With you, no woman can hope to score;
whichever way, she’s bound to lose;
spurning you, she’s ungrateful—
succumbing, you call her lewd.Your folly is always the same:
you apply a single rule
to the one you accuse of looseness
and the one you brand as cruel.What happy mean could there be
for the woman who catches your eye,
if, unresponsive, she offends,
yet whose complaisance you decry?Still, whether it’s torment or anger—
and both ways you’ve yourselves to blame—
God bless the woman who won’t have you,
no matter how loud you complain.It’s your persistent entreaties
that change her from timid to bold.
Having made her thereby naughty,
you would have her good as gold.So where does the greater guilt lie
for a passion that should not be:
with the man who pleads out of baseness
or the woman debased by his plea?Or which is more to be blamed—
though both will have cause for chagrin:
the woman who sins for money
or the man who pays money to sin?So why are you men all so stunned
at the thought you’re all guilty alike?
Either like them for what you’ve made them
or make of them what you can like.If you’d give up pursuing them,
you’d discover, without a doubt,
you’ve a stronger case to make
against those who seek you out.I well know what powerful arms
you wield in pressing for evil:
your arrogance is allied
with the world, the flesh, and the devil!
*standing ovation*
I would love to know this woman – especially her experience and background in life to make her write such truth.
That shit is fucking awesome. How amazing is
“Or which is more to be blamed—
though both will have cause for chagrin:
the woman who sins for money
or the man who pays money to sin?”
SO AMAZING.
And now that I’m done exclaiming at the brilliance, I want to weep. Because that shit could have been written by a woman in 2011 just as easily as by one in the 17th century.
I learned about Sor Juana from a college roommate who was reading her poetry and plays for a Spanish minor.
She was apparently the first female playwright in the “New World.” She was obviously awesome.
Okay, I’ve been mostly ignoring the poetry posts until now, but clearly I’ve been missing out, if this poem is any indication.
This needs to be required reading in schools. A copy needs to be sent to every MRA that dares to enter the internet. And I will definitely be reading the poetry posts from now on.
It’s amazing sometimes how something can be timeless – it’s unfortunate that it describes womens’ oppression..
As Cimorene said – ‘…that shit could have been written by a woman in 2011 just as easily as by one in the 17th century’
Woah… She’s got their number. Like the others, feeling a bit sad that this rings so true today.
I love Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz! We read La Respuesta and several of her poems in the first-year seminar I took in college. We also read A Room of One’s Own and The Book of the City of Ladies. Yay! for women’s colleges and not treating women like an afterthought.
Cimorene, that’s one of my favorite lines (stanzas?) as well. It’s even more lovely in the original Spanish bc “money” and “pays money” is actually the same word (spelled the same?) so it’s even more wonderfully, elegantly symmetrical.
I’d love to do a voice recording about this poem. Can I use it and link it back to you as the source? Thanks!
@Naoko: Sure!
[...] The original, kick ass, no-holds barred poem can be found here. [...]