I attended the Phoenix Reading Series by Elizabeth Bradfield on January 23, in the Wilson School of Commerce in the Ballroom. The young lady that introduced her, read her own piece called “Pie Safe.” After Elizabeth Bradfield was introduced, she started reading from “Toward Antarctica.” She had previously written poems about Antarctica but she had never actually been. She ended up doing two contracts, which is equivalent to three months, that concluded her trips. After her trips, she has begun writing about her own experiences. One of her comments really stuck out to me, which was that she was told to purchase a dress and heels in order to work on the boat. I immediately related it to our class discussion about women’s attire and how women can be just as powerful in pants and a shirt as they can be in a dress and heels. This statement infuriated me because she is literally working on boat that is traveling to Antarctica in the freezing temperatures. I’m sure the boat had heat, but she had to pack a completely different outfit just to satisfy her employer.
Bradfield openly stated that she was a naturalist, meaning that she loved being outside, seeing different types of species, and anything dealing with the history of nature. In one of her pieces about a glacier, she talks about “being used how I actually want to be used” and I’m not quite sure what she meant by this quote since she was talking about a glacier; however, when she said that, it immediately made me think of the evolution of women. This is because women haven’t always had a choice in how they are treated or what they do, but over time women’s rights have evolved to be better than what they used to be. They have begun to have a choice in what they want to do and how they do it.
Antarctica is not meant to be a home for humans because of the harsh weather conditions. Currently, no humans reside in Antarctica, however, “1,000 to 5,000 people live there throughout the year doing research in the science stations.” The species in Antarctica can be vulnerable to these travelers. One specific animal she mentioned, were penguins and how they can contract diseases from the travelers. However, humans haven’t been the only invasive species in Antarctica; for example, reindeer had to be removed because they were causing to much damage to the continent.
She made a crucial, subtle comment, “the guy that is about to get his last continent.” I believe that she was trying to get the idea across that only men have ever conquered new lands and that it is going to be the same for Antarctica. This creates the idea that women are incapable of conquering new lands.
While reading her poem “Elephant Island” she stated that she often uses a lot of footnotes in her poems because she thinks it’s very important to explain the stories behind her stories. This relates to our class because we are experiencing how women write and why they write they write that way.
All of her poems relate back to this class because they are all about global issues that are happening right in front of her eyes. While working on the ship, she dealt with people from all around the world. This allowed her to experience different cultures and relate it back to her own life.
She mentioned how all penguins look the same, meaning you can’t tell a male penguin from a female penguin; so they all share the same duties. This comment made me think about how penguins have gender equality, yet in the United States, and many other places globally, women haven’t come close to experiencing anything of this nature. Lastly, this allowed me more exposure from a female author.
http://worldpopulationreview.com/continents/antarctica-population/
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