Eggs and Things
by Maria Zambon
Society sees women as things:
Breasts and eggs.
Meat to tenderize in their hands.
Small stupid creatures
with the purpose
of popping out babies.
Cowards.
We put together
sperm and eggs,
and sometimes
wish we hadn’t.
Because then women are:
Machines to be customized.
Socially scrutinized.
Held to expectations.
Chastised in relations.
Hating themselves.
For my Unessay, I have written a poem called “Eggs and Things” based on “Breasts and Eggs” by Mieko Kawakami. I wanted to do this because I am adept with the medium of poetry and the written word, and writing a poem to converse with this story felt most comfortable to me. I wrote about how society sees women, and what that perception does to them. While reading “Breasts and Eggs” in class, we thought of the comparison between women and chickens, so I wanted to explore that idea in the poem. Then I played off of how Midoriko says “It’s not people’s fault that they have eggs and sperm. I just wish they’d stop putting those eggs and sperm together”. Lastly, I talked about societal expectations of women and how that leads to them hating themselves.
My response to this literature matters because I want to encourage the exploration of the impact toxic stereotypes of women may have on society. We only read an excerpt of a whole novel, but the synopsis of it sounds interesting and deals a lot with societal expectations and how it feels to live against the norm, it sounds. I think I’d like to read it. I want more people to read feminist literature, and I want to myself. As bad as comparing women to chickens is, I am curious about symbolism in feminist literature, and if it’s only okay when a female author does it, or what the overall implications of these things are.
In “Where Super-Thin is Still In: Attitudes to Body Image in Japan” (2017), Kittaka questions what Japanese women and men consider the ideal body and how they try to achieve it. First, she talks about how being underweight is on the rise in Japan, and how this can cause Locomotive syndrome. Then she talks about how young Japanese women strive for slim bodies by dieting, and seniors strive for them by exercising. She also talks about how curvy girls are trying to fight back against the trends.
I think it is interesting that motherhood (along with wanting to be a model) is why Makiko wants a boob job. It is a good comparison to how a big part of the story is Natsuko confronting her anxieties about growing old alone and being childless. This novel is an important part of the dissection of Japanese feminism.
This story brings to mind a similar one we read this semester, “Yotsuya Kaidan”. This story also is about a Japanese woman and her struggles. Oiwa was also under societal pressure, seeing as she was married to a husband she did not love. It is somewhat of a feminist tale as well.
I was inspired by learning about list poems in Poetry Workshop this semester, so I made this poem as a list. I felt that it made each line feel impactful. Despite it being strangely translated into Manchester UK’s dialect, this excerpt was one of my favorite things from the 2nd half of the semester and it made me curious about feminism in other countries.
Works Cited
Academy of American Poets. (2023, November 21). List poem. Poets.org. https://poets.org/glossary/list-poem
Kawakami, Mieko, and David Boyd. Breasts and Eggs. Pan Books Ltd, 2021.
Kittaka, Louise George. “Where Super-Thin Is Still in: Attitudes to Body Image in Japan.” GaijinPot Blog, 14 Feb. 2020, blog.gaijinpot.com/attitudes-to-body-image-japan/.
Sprockets and Springes 