“Phenomenal Woman” is Angelou's criticism of patriarchal society and the way it teaches women to belittle themselves: “Beautiful women wonder where my secret. I'm not cute or made to fit a model's size, but when I start telling them that, they think I'm telling lies. I say: it is within the reach of my arms, the breadth of my hips, the stride of my step, the curve of my lips.” We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The poetic voice in this poem speaks to her confidence despite not fitting the traditional standard of beauty for women of the time. The women she is talking to believe she is keeping a "secret" because they cannot conceive or understand how this woman can have such charm without being conventionally attractive, and they also believe she is lying about her answer. Angelou claims that women listening think the narrator is "telling lies" about her secret to confide in, shows the profound psychological effect cultural conditioning has on body image, as women's visceral rejection of the truth means it is It's incredible to them that a woman doesn't meet typical Western standards of beauty, and that rigid patriarchal definitions of beauty are so ingrained in their psyche that they refuse to believe any perspective that doesn't fit the one perpetuated by patriarchy. Angelou further criticizes this by describing the speaker as not "built to fit a model's size". The narrator specifically attacks the fashion industry, an industry that thrives on women's insecurities and that produces and perpetuates ever-changing standards of beauty. Angelou's narrator is not bothered by the fact that she does not conform to the rules of the fashion industry and refuses to change herself to fit this mold. This is demonstrated formally by the length of the line; is the longest line of the poem, showing a visual refutation of the idea that she must diminish herself to match the fashion industry's ideal of beauty. Susan Bordo discusses the power that patriarchy has over women's bodies and the danger this poses: “Through the search for an ever-evolving, homogenizing and elusive ideal of femininity, a never-ending search, which requires women to constantly of minimal and often extravagant changes. in fashion, female bodies become docile bodies, bodies whose forces and energies are accustomed to external regulation, to subjugation, to transformation, to "improvement". Through the demanding and normalizing disciplines of diet, makeup, and clothing, “central organizing principles of time and space in many women's day,” we are made less socially oriented and more centripetally focused on self-modification. Through these disciplines we continue to memorize in our body the sensation and belief of lack, of insufficiency, of never being good enough. At the most extreme extremes, practices of femininity can lead us to total demoralization, debilitation, and death." Angelou's narrator completely refuses to participate in the practices of femininity outlined by Bordo that are perpetuated by patriarchy, and instead displays her self-acceptance. The parallelism in the last nine lines of each stanza furthers the theme of self-acceptance and confidence through repetition, and also suggests the narrator's ability to continue to list attributes about her that make her "phenomenal," meaning she has an abundance of”,.