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these hips are big hips
they need space to move around in. they don't fit into little petty places. these hips are free hips. they don't like to be held back. these hips have never been enslaved, they go where they want to go they do what they want to do. these hips are mighty hips. these hips are magic hips. i have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top! |
In the opening lines of "homage to my hips," Clifton describes how her hips are big and how "they don't fit into little petty places." This line explains how the size and shape of her hips do not fit into the socially accepted beauty ideal of thinness but this is a "homage" to her hips so they are to be celebrated. She then talks about her hips being free and how "these hips have never been enslaved." This line sounds symbolic of the author's belief that women are held to certain standards, especially when it comes to appearance and body type. In this sense, the author uses this statement about her hips to allude to the fact that some women are enslaved by social norms and expectations if they are unable to accept their body as it is. Clifton ends the poem by stating, "these hips are magic hips.... I have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top." Clifton is then expressing how she is empowered, with her "magic" and "mighty" hips, and "like a top" the man is SPINNING with her seduction.