The Twins
Title
The Twins
Creator
Elizabeth Zito
Description
I am a first year student at RVCC. I've always enjoyed creative writing and have written poetry casually over the past several years. I hadn't taken the needed time to develop my work and style until recently, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to do so in my creative writing class at RVCC. I've also played the violin since I was seven, which has given me a valuable emotional outlet throughout these past few turbulent years. I hope to transfer to Rutgers New Brunswick for this upcoming semester after I earn my associates degree here. At Rutgers I plan to major in psychology and hopefully be accepted into their combined Bachelor's/Master's program.
My project is a poem about internalized sexism and how it can be developed during childhood. It is a prose poem, crafted specifically to mimic the inner thoughts and dialogue of a child.
The inspiration for this poem was sparked in my intro to psychology class that I took at RVCC last semester. Psychologically, children are very malleable. Small comments or actions that adults might not think twice about can have a profound impact on a child's mind and how they develop. When my younger siblings were born, a set of boy/girl twins, I remember very clearly the comments that were made about them. The expectation was clear that my brother was meant to grow up to be a big and strong, confident and capable, etc. For my sister, everyone was talking about how the boys would chase her when she was old enough. She was not expected to be big, strong, confident, or capable, she was expected to be attractive to the men who were.
The goal of this specific poem is to make people more aware of the impact that these prejudices and stereotypes can have on young children. Through these offhanded comments, people often inadvertently put a ceiling on a child's potential by making them internalize the idea that they are inferior, whether that is due to their gender, race, or class.
The inspiration for this poem was sparked in my intro to psychology class that I took at RVCC last semester. Psychologically, children are very malleable. Small comments or actions that adults might not think twice about can have a profound impact on a child's mind and how they develop. When my younger siblings were born, a set of boy/girl twins, I remember very clearly the comments that were made about them. The expectation was clear that my brother was meant to grow up to be a big and strong, confident and capable, etc. For my sister, everyone was talking about how the boys would chase her when she was old enough. She was not expected to be big, strong, confident, or capable, she was expected to be attractive to the men who were.
The goal of this specific poem is to make people more aware of the impact that these prejudices and stereotypes can have on young children. Through these offhanded comments, people often inadvertently put a ceiling on a child's potential by making them internalize the idea that they are inferior, whether that is due to their gender, race, or class.
Source
Created for Michael McKeown Bondhus's Creative Writing course.
Date
2023
Rights
Copyright Elizabeth Zito. This item should not be downloaded, copied, or used without permission.
Format
PDF
Type
Text
Original Format
Poem
Files
Collection
Citation
Elizabeth Zito, “The Twins,” RVCC student coursework exhibits, accessed April 29, 2024, https://rvcclibrary.omeka.net/items/show/83.