Sissy is a derogatory term used to describe someone who is weak or cowardly, or who acts in a stereotypically feminine way. It is often used to insult boys or men who do not conform to traditional gender roles. Sissy can be a harmful word, as it can make someone feel ashamed of who they are. It is important to be aware of the negative connotations of this word and to avoid using it.
The word "sissy" comes from the word "sister," and it is thought to have originated in the late 1800s. It was originally used to describe a boy who was weak or cowardly, but it soon came to be used to describe anyone who did not conform to traditional gender roles.
Sissy can be a hurtful word, as it can make someone feel ashamed of who they are. It is important to be aware of the negative connotations of this word and to avoid using it. If you hear someone using the word sissy, it is important to speak up and let them know that it is not a nice word.
When I reread the first two lines again, "I can't remember my dad calling me a sissy, but / he definitely told me not to be a sissy." I think of the negative connotations of the word rather than judgement on the father. Growing up, my own father probably would have said not to be a sissy, but it's "bakla" in Tagalog. So the poem starts off focusing on redefining the word rather than relive he experience.
I like this technique here "I secretly / (or not so secretly) I liked all the sissy things." Usually, parentheticals understate the text within; however, I feel this usage and further usage of parentheticals in the poem has multiple purposes: to clarify and expose.
"We / had a hunting dog named Sissy. / Really: Sissy."
The colon usage here made me look up colon usage again. Here's "To separate two independent clauses" feels the most applicable to add a sense of disbelief to the naming of the dog. Also, I wonder what type of hunting dog. This further sense of disbelief is compounded by the next couple of lines, "My father nicknamed my sister: Sissy." Still, / he says, 'How's Sissy?" and calls her Sissy when she / goes home to visit him."
The continuous usage of "sissy" as a familial definition allows me to believe Sissy can be anything: a dog, a sister; further more the next couple of lines deconstructs "sissy" into something tough instead of something cowardly:
[...]Belinda (Sissy) is one of the
toughest people I know. My sissy (sister) has kicked
someone's ass, which isn't sissyish, I guess, though I
want to redefine sissy into something fabulous, tough,
tend, "sissytough." [...]
The parenthetical separates another Sissy (Belinda) and the sister, but both have the same trait of tough traits to kick someone's ass. Then the poem spells out what it's about -- redefinition. Taking back a word that has negative connotation and attaching something positive.
"Drag queens are damn tough and / sissies." The poem then sets up a binary of tough sissies, and although it appears oxymoronic, the speaker is trying to make them parallel definitions as anti Drag queens and LGBTQ+ laws are being put in placed around the country. The fight continues.
Then with the last two lines, the couplet of the sonnet, the speaker introduces themselves into the definition: "I'm pretty fucking tough and a big, big sissy, too. / And kind. Tough and kind and happy: a sissy." I think the couplet empowers not only the speaker but also the people and dog as well. The poem reminds me of Harold Norse's "I'm Not A Man"
Looking at the bio of Aaron Smith, Bard brought up this:
Aaron Smith is an American poet. Three of his poetry collections have been finalists for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His poetry often covers "what it means to be a gay man from a rural, working class environment."
Definitely get the sense of rural, working class environment in this poem.
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