Noah Blaker
Professor Katie Peele
English 230- 001
10/19/2018
Overlooked
Nikita Gill is an English-Indian poet that is fighting for women’s rights and equality by restructuring the roles of women in society through poetry and retelling traditional fairytale stories to strengthen the roles of women.
Gill began her poetry with common experiences that her readers could relate to. She wrote about anxiety, depression, loneliness, and heartbreak. The short poems about anxiety and depression opened up conversations between readers in the comments and fans were able to understand that they weren’t alone in their struggles. Gill even took to twitter to give her followers a message that “Depression is real. Anxiety is real. PTSD is real. All mental illnesses are real.” (qtd. Nikita Gill, twitter.com/nktgill). Anxiety and depression have not always been topics that people discuss openly. For most of the human existence, mental health issues have been avoided in conversations because they were uncomfortable topics. The poems that underlined anxiety and depression by Gill, were a way for readers to feel more comfortable with what they felt, and it sparked much needed conversations between her followers. Gill was revolutionizing poetry by offering her poems on a free website for all to see. The access to her poems is what made her poems about important topics popular, because they were for all to see.
The topics she began with could relate to both men and women, but as Gill continued to write, she began to focus more on the struggles of women in society. Gill began writing about some of the oppressions that women face in the common world. As she increasingly wrote more about feminism, her following of women grew. Gill is now seen as a progressive poet and a feminist. Gill’s poems began to shift and she wrote about “a little red riding hood who knew exactly what she was doing when she let the wild in.” (Girls of the Wild, Nikita Gill). Gill also writes poems directed towards mothers, encouraging them to tell their daughters to “never listen when bodies are critiqued. Tell them every woman’s body is beautiful, because every woman’s soul is unique.” (Tell Your Daughters, Nikita Gill). Along with addressing mothers, she also addresses fathers, advising them that if their sons “ever call a woman weak, remind them of the strength of their mother who pulled her whole body apart to give theirs a home.” (Fathers, Do Not Let Your Sons Forget, Nikita Gill). In Gill’s most recent book Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul, Gill rewrites the most well-known fairytales to strengthen the part played by the women. Gill does this to change the perception of women that people in the world have come to accept mainly that women need men. Gill is encouraging women to “Take back Your Fairytale” (Take Back Your Fairytale, Nikita Gill). Instead of having a princess that needs saving by a prince, the princess saves herself. In Gill’s recreation of old fairytales, women don’t need a man to save them, they don’t accidentally get into poor situations in which they are helpless but instead they choose to go on adventures, and when they get into trouble, they can save themselves. Gill’s new book is advertised to “a new generation of women” (Barnes and Noble overview of Fierce Fairytales: Poems and Stories to Stir Your Soul). The “new generation of women” that Gill is sending her messages to are the women that are fighting to bring back power in the term “girl.” Gill is empowering a “new generation” to fight for their rights and show the world that women are equally as strong as men, equally as powerful as men, and equally as capable as men.
Gill’s rewriting of fairytales to make women stronger figures will change the way that children grow up. Little girls will no longer pray for their prince charming but rather pray for their own strength. Gill wants parents to “raise girls who don’t just wait to be rescued, but take destiny in their own hands and chare to battle dragons and their enemies.” (Fairytales, Nikita Gill). Children will grow up to hear fairytales about how women can be strong and men can be weak. Fairytales won’t have the gender roles that set the foundation of gender expectations in society. Women will no longer feel as though they need a man in their lives because women will be seen as powerful and independent. The way that Gill recreated fairytales with a twist will lead to women finding strength and hope within themselves. Women who know what they are capable of will break through past stereotypes of being weak and will shock the world with their knowledge and power.
As I go into the medical field, I will fight for women’s rights with Gill’s poems in my mind. Many women around the world, especially in third world countries, don’t have access to the medical care that they need. In many countries still to this day, women do not have control over their own bodies or their health. Even here in America, under the Trump administration there have been threats of defunding Planned Parenthood, “a nonprofit organization that provides sexual health care in the United States and globally,” (www.plannedparenthood.org/). Many women seek medical help and confide in their doctors on the topic of rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence. As a healthcare professional, I will be responsible for listening and providing women with help if it is needed. I think it is very important for all healthcare professionals to study and read about the oppression of women and ways to fight for equality. I am excited to get into the field of medicine and help women care for themselves and fight for their health and well being. Nikita inspires me to change the way that I look at providing healthcare for women, and instead of working strictly medically, I would like to also help women emotionally. It is very important that women not only have good physical health, but also strong mental health. I would like to help women who have dealt with past traumas in their womanhood. Helping women to find strength in themselves will Nikita Gill is changing the way that the world views traditional stereotypes, and will hopefully the world will eventually bring equality to women. Until then, women such as Nikita and I will fight for women’s rights and take back the meaning of “being a woman.”
A recovery project is the research and reporting of a person or event that is not widely known to the public. Recovery projects are published by researchers who have done extensive work to find out information on an unknown person or event. The goal of recovery projects is to bring light to something that may have been forgotten, and to raise awareness. Nikita Gill should not be overlooked during her life time. Alongside recovery projects, I believe there should be illumination project. Light should also be shed on women that are currently working to make a difference in society and fighting against gender norms. It is important to recognize the women that are changing the world while they are still alive, so that they won’t be forgotten or oppressed in the first place. With a combination of recovery projects and illumination projects, the world will begin to be aware of the incredible contributions women have brought and continue to bring to society.