It is often said that image is everything. According to the U.S. Government's Office on Women's Health, a positive body image is linked to better physical and mental health. The reverse is also true, with research indicating that negative associations with one's body places them at greater risk of developing mental health conditions like eating disorders and depression ("Body image"). Complications arise when one considers the impact of race on beauty standards, particularly in America. However, for Lucille Clifton, the Black female body is a magnificent force, one deserving of the spotlight. Through her poetry, Clifton exalts the Black female body as a source of beauty, power, and resilience.

Herself a woman of size, Clifton frees her writing from the constraints of conventional beauty standards inviting readers to explore all the human body has to offer. In "Fat Liberation in the First World: Lucille Clifton and the New Body," Henneberg connects Clifton to the notion of the New Body, the belief that bodies outside the normal standards of beauty can be "agents of resistance" (63), and that individuals have the right to "exist in whatever shape, color, and age" they assume (63). There is freedom in this New Body, and "one of [its] greatest expressions of resistance is to embrace fat" (63). Clifton's work defiantly displays the "fat black body as a force of resistance against the oppressive effects of racism, sexism, ageism, ableism and classism" (63-64). According to Henneberg, "Clifton rejects a worldview saturated with fat prejudice demanding that every fat body must be changed or else disciplined. She dismisses key notions that help buttress fat bias; for instance, that fat people are incapable of controlling their own flesh" (64). Clifton's works depict plus-sized Black bodies as sources of power and rebellion. By "[making] room for fat, she creates a space for black womanhood that makes her and women like her visible, desirable, and powerful" (64). Embracing fatness also "represents a form of rebellion against white patriarchal rule" (73). According to "Authority, History, and Everyday Mysticism in the Poetry of Lucille Clifton," the generations of ills inflicted upon the Black community were nothing "to be ashamed of or diminished by" (Harding 38), rather they were a source of power and resistance (38). That power and resistance can be found in Clifton's depictions of the Black female body.

In "homage to my hips," Clifton reclaims the narrative of the big, Black woman. The speaker challenges the conventional standards of white beauty. In the lines: "they don't fit into little / petty places." (Clifton, lines 4-5), she calls out the narrow parameters with which female attractiveness is gauged, deeming them "petty" and thus unworthy of serious consideration. Clifton goes on to equate the size of her hips with power and freedom. She writes, "these hips are big hips / they need space to / move around in." (lines 1-3). This is in contrast to the aforementioned "little / petty places" (lines 4-5). By her very nature, the speaker defies convention and thus must create a place for herself in the world. This is further exemplified by the subsequent lines: "they go where they want to go / they do what they want to do." (lines 9-10). More mass means more freedom. Unlike her smaller counterparts, Clifton's speaker is not resigned to the spaces that have been carved out for her by the white patriarchy.

There's also a mystical quality to her body. Clifton writes: "these hips are magic hips. / i have known them / to put a spell on a man and / spin him like a top!" (lines 12-15). Here, Clifton embraces her sexuality as a source of power, which women are often discouraged from doing. According to Cunningham, "[t]he size of her hips contributes to the power she holds over this man...the dominant pattern of presenting black female characters as round and white figures as thin has profound symbolic significance in linking size, race, and desire" (Cunningham 37). Her words also speak to the countless women who preceded her, those who were not allowed to sit in their power. According to Harding, "the power of her female ancestors, the power of her own black-womanness in the world, and the power of the divine are linked" (Harding 45). In celebrating her own body, the speaker connects herself to a larger legacy of power.

Clifton also presents the female form as a source of resilience: "these hips / are free hips. / they don't like to be held back. / these hips have never been enslaved," (Clifton, lines 5-8). Here the speaker refuses to be disheartened by society's past sins or their current ignorance. They are not concerned with appeasing the desires of others. They refuse to be defined or restricted to a singular role. Unlike so many who have come before her, she has freedom and control over her body.

In "what the mirror said," Clifton highlights the uniqueness of the Black female body. She writes: "you got a geography / of your own." (Clifton, lines 5-6). This is a powerful statement of self-love as it contradicts the assumption that Black women need to conform to be beautiful and accepted. Yet, simultaneously, Clifton acknowledges that Black beauty is not for everyone: "somebody need directions / to move around you." (lines 8-9). These lines reflect the otherness imposed upon Black women, how so little is known about their bodies and their needs, as little effort has been made to explore them. Yet, this notion is not all bad. According to Cunningham, "Needing a map to be understood connotes complication in character, intellect, and personality. It also shows that the black woman’s size enhances her stature" (Cunningham 38). Again, for Clifton, size equals power.

Power and resilience also appear as themes in "what the mirror said," as Clifton once again uses the notion of taking up space as a symbol of female prowess. She writes: "listen, / you a wonder. / you a city / of a woman." (Clifton, lines 1-4). The speaker equates the addressee as a "wonder" and a "city." Wonders exist to be beheld, whereas cities exist to serve a purpose. Here, Clifton declares that Black bodies are worthy of taking up space. But that is not all. Clifton also calls upon Black women to reclaim their space, writing: "woman, / you not a noplace / anonymous / girl;" (lines 13-16). Notice how Clifton uses both the words "woman" and "girl", reminding the addressee that with age comes agency over one's body and the ability to decide who and what you are, instead of existing as some anonymous thing waiting to be named.

It is said that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.  According to Derricotte, "like no other poet, Lucille Clifton gives permission to be ourselves, to trust ourselves. She teaches us how to be open, to suffer, to be joyful, to take pleasure, to give ourselves totally over to our gifts, which is our purpose" (Derricotte 377). Through her unapologetic use of language, Clifton reminds the reader that beauty takes on numerous forms, none more beautiful than those daring to be vulnerable and different.

Works Cited

"Body image." OASH Office on Women's Health, womenshealth.gov/mental-health/body-image-and-mental-health/body-image. Accessed 23 Jan. 2025.

Clifton, Lucille. "homage to my hips." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49487/homage-to-my-hips. Accessed 19 Jan. 2025.

---. "what the mirror said." Vandal Poem of the Day,  https://poetry.lib.uidaho.edu/lucille-clifton/what-the-mirror-said/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2025.

Cunningham, Scarlett. "The Limits of Celebration in Lucille Clifton's Poetry: Writing the Aging Woman's Body." Frontiers, vol. 35, no. 2, 2014, pp. 30-58,179. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.apus.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Flimits-celebration-lucille-cliftons-poetry%2Fdocview%2F1552694827%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8289.

Derricotte, Toi. "WON'T YOU CELEBRATE WITH ME: Remembering Lucille Clifton." Callaloo, vol. 33, no. 2, 2010, pp. 374-379,582-583. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.apus.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fwont-you-celebrate-with-me-remembering-lucille%2Fdocview%2F756206547%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8289.

Harding, Rachel E. "Authority, History, and Everyday Mysticism in the Poetry of Lucille Clifton: A Womanist View: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism." Meridians, vol. 12, no. 1, 2014, pp. 36-57,234. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.apus.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fauthority-history-everyday-mysticism-poetry%2Fdocview%2F1513212217%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8289, doi:https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.12.1.36.

Henneberg, Sylvia. “Fat Liberation in the First World: Lucille Clifton and the New Body.” Women’s Studies, vol. 47, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 60–79. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy1.apus.edu/10.1080/00497878.2017.1406354.