I recently read The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. This amazing book opened my eyes to a lot of things, but in particular there was a portion of a poem by Anne Sexton called “The Red Shoes.” This moving poem about what its like to be a feminist in a hostile patriarchy really touched me. They connected this poem to the death-dance Snow White’s Stepmother performed in her red-hot iron shoes. These women “danced their deadly tarantella” by living their lives according to what they felt was right, even when it meant dying. They lived lives of action instead of accepting the passivity of the glass coffin the hegemony tried to make them accept. I don’t mean that we should all try to kill our stepdaughters, but I really liked the image of the red shoes.
As it would happen about this time the shoes I had been wearing wore out, so I went on-line and bought a pair of red canvas shoes. I wear them almost all the time, no matter what else I’m wearing. I love these shoes because they remind me to dance my deadly tarantella. I can either play Snow White and wait patiently inside my glass coffin for life to happen, or I can take initiative and do something active, dangerous, and counter cultural. I can live for my God and against the injustices I see in this world, even if it means being ridiculed, ostracized, or worse.
I know this is kind of a morbid idea, but we’re all going to die, so why not turn our lives into one amazing, shocking death dance? The people who live without fear or timidity are the ones who make a difference. Their death dances are recorded in history. Why not live before we die?
athenasbeauty 