What Do Women Want
by Kim Addonizio:
From the perspective of a man who has never seen or
understood the inner workings of the female mind, this poem is both insightful
and frightening, working to confirm many thoughts I've had to try to explain
the workings of the common female psychosis.
This insight is combined with the striking womanly image of the
revealing red dress. The fact that it
was written by a woman and it gives such a sinister tone to the attitude of the
woman speaking in first person adds a dimension of honest self criticism to the
poem that deepens the already profound insight.
So, according to this poem, what do women want? She says she wants a red dress, but following
in the fashion of the female mind, the red dress really isn't what she
wants. Shortly after saying she wants a
red dress, she says she wants to wear it until someone tears it off of
her. What does this mean? Apart from the obvious, it means she does not
want to simply take it off for someone or give herself to someone. She wants to be desired enough by someone for
them to take her, to independently decide they want her without her having to
put effort into seducing them. She wants
to be an object of desire. She describes
being seen by people she presumably knows in a part of town that sounds dirty
and populous wearing her skimpy dress, adding an air of exhibitionism to her wish
to be seen as an object of desire.
But following again in the ever-complicated fashion of
female thought, it isn't that simple.
Near the end this new character, "you" is introduced, and she
wants to confirm his (I assume it's a man) worst fears about her and show him
how little she cares about him. Now,
this character could be an ex or even a current lover. It could be one of her parents or any figure
she has perceived as an figure of authority or influence in her life, but the
specifics don't really matter. The point
is that she has revealed that she wants the red dress to be a sexual object of
desire to spite someone else she feels somehow deserves her scorn. I am inclined to believe it is some kind of
lover or ex-lover situation, evoking some of the symbolism of the scarlet
letter, where she is choosing to be an adulteress.
The ending of this poem turns the symbol of the red dress
into a metaphor. More than just an item
of clothing it becomes a symbol of a choice of identity like "choosing a
body", and that she is, at least in this moment of heated emotion,
determined to maintain this chosen identity until she dies. These last few lines are particularly
revealing. They reveal her association
of an item of clothing with this promiscuous persona, that she is choosing this
persona out of malice rather than genuine desire, and that her thoughts are not
rationally based.
So, ultimately, what do women want? Well... this woman wants a red dress to be a
sexual object to scorn someone and continue scorning them until she dies. This woman wants to cause painful retribution
and fill a gaping hole in her self esteem.
