Linda Tirado’s “Hand to Mouth”
I thought the excerpt provided by the class reading was interesting, because it completely contrasted with the image of poverty provided by Pam Fessler’s plenary. Ms. Tirado’s poverty is an angry, bitter kind, with not much to be thankful for, and constant stress and annoyance as an armor against the privileged, uncomfortable world that doesn’t know how lucky they have it. Ms. Fessler, on the other hand, presented to us people that may live in apartments, who may have TVs and other tech, but still had to work a bunch of jobs, and didn’t seem quite so irritated.
I also thought Tirado’s take on men telling women to smile was great, because frankly, no one ever tells men to smile more, and if you’re going to be doing something you don’t like, why not get paid for it? (Though I suppose that’s what media stars do, since women in TV shows and anime and movies are so often these perfectly put-together glamourous girls, bubbly and high-cheekboned and smooth-skinned and always, always smiling, unless they’re crying attractively, designed to appeal to the male audience.)
