What it means to be a lady

Lizmarie Delacruz  

Department of English, The City College of New York   

Writing for the Social Sciences (ENGL 2100)   

 Professor Crystal Rodwell

May 7, 2025

Misogyny which is written in lies 

Preaching how girls can’t be happy without tiny feet 

Keeping them immobilized 

As women were not prioritized 

And poor health was more then just normalized

See in the Shang Dynasty women were like cattle 

Using ill health as a status of wealth 

With the tiniest feet became the biggest treat 

Broken toes at the age of four 

With only snow to use to help with the sore 

Is this what beauty means? 

Discomfort and pain with nothing to gain but the “words you’re pretty”?

Let’s step back from this culture and look at the 20th century 

Where women were still seen as an accessory 

Or something complimentary 

Using heals as something that appeals 

And corsets with a waist it reveals 

This is what it is to be a lady

Women wearing pants being foreign

And heals which make our feet swollen 

What is it to be a lady 

Is it the heels we wear 

Or the corsets so tight we forget to breath air

Should it be the size of my feet 

God forbid my shoe size does not stay petite 

Or is it the fact I wore pants

Because come one being a lady can’t be more than that 

It’s about the looks and the figure 

Who cares about the health which it disfigures 

Treated like trophies and treasure 

When our body is just tethered 

With the corsets that were so normalized and tight 

Left us not putting up a fight until we realized it wasn’t right

Our body is not a trend 

Its is something we need to defend 

Our health is impacted by the opinions of others and for what?

As being healthy should be the main goal

Not the fame of possibly fitting one mold