Somtirtha Sinha

Professor Shuhita Bhattacharya

Economics Department, Roll no. 217
ENGL0431, 4th Semester
21.04.2016
Topic (2): Expressions of gender hierarchy and sexual oppression in An Introduction
In the poem, An Introduction, by Kamala Das, the poet severely critiques the hegemony of
male dominance which is quite prevalent, even today, in the Indian society. There are a
number of instances in the text, where this fact is highlighted. Firstly, we note, while
describing her encounter with a man, she doesnt attribute him with a name, that is, a proper
noun but, she refers to him as every man. This goes to show the universality of a man
residing in a patriarchal society such as ours. The man feels, that it is a given fact, that he
belongs to the so called stronger sex, as a result of which, he has every right to exploit the
weaker sex in any way he deems fit. When the poet attains puberty the society compels her
to believe, that she was no longer a girl. She was now a woman. In this expression she
criticizes the fact that in our society, girls are typically thought to be more mature than boys.
Even though there is no scientific evidence which shows that, a sixteen year old boy is a kid,
but a sixteen year old girl is a grown up. At this stage, her encounter with the man take
place. Irrespective of what the society imposed on her, deep inside her heart, she was still a
child. Hence, she asks for love from her soul-mate, not knowing what else to ask for. In
response to this, he takes her to the bedroom. This is a strong criticism of child marriage,
which pushes children into such a predicament. Even today, child marriage is quite prevalent
in our society. She describes herself as being completely beaten up, which again goes to
show, how unprepared the body is, of a sixteen year old, to sustain an assault like this. This

incident leaves a long lasting impact on the poets mind. She shrank pitifully and even feels
ashamed of her feminity, of her being weak. This proves that in a patriarchal society, it is
again the woman who carries the burden of such an incident. It is she who feels ashamed,
whereas the man walks away freely. Thereafter, she tries to overcome her humiliation, by
being tomboyish, and opting to wear male outfits. By this, she tries to hide her feminity.
However, at this point the societal guardians step in and force her to take up the traditionally
determined gender role assigned to a woman. She was instructed to become a wife and a
mother and get confined to the domestic routine. Quite ironically, it was the society because
of which, the poet lost faith in her feminity, and when she tried to find solace, by trying to be
a man, she was forced to try and get back her feminity, by that same society. The poet calls
these guardians, categorizers, since they tend to categorize every person on the basis of
points that are purely whimsical. She is threatened to stay within the four walls of her
feminine space, and when she tries to disobey them, she is termed as a manic. This expression
shows, how, in a discursive framework, a person who tries to break the norm, is easily
classified as insane. The poet states that she remembers the name of all the politicians who
have been in positions of power (e.g. Nehru) by heart. The fact that she is not interested in
politics and yet she remembers those names, brings to light two very important facts. Firstly,
these people have been in power for repetitive periods. Secondly, most of these politicians
were predominantly men. It shatters the popular mirage, which was created by these
politicians, of India being a democracy, since politics here was a game of a few chosen elite
and also shows the all-encompassing nature of patriarchy in the Indian society.
In the initial part of the poem, the poet says that, the man defines himself with the
term I. This term symbolises the supreme male ego. However, towards the end of the poem,
she uses the same term to refer to herself. She says that there are no joys or aches which are

not his, and hence in some sense she becomes that I, reaching the pinnacle of selfassertion.