Homage to Sharon Stone, by Lynn Emanuel

In "Homage to Sharon Stone," Emanuel touches on many things: Sharon Stone, poetry writing, roleplaying, interior decorating, and gender roles, to name a few. While I could chose any one of those topics, today I'm going to focus on the gender roles. In the beginning, she talks about how her neighbors "hitch themselves to the roles" that they are expected to play, and they are unhappy about it. The term "hitching" implies that they don't have a choice in the matter, that they are shunted into the role. Later she explores the way that she, as an author, can be a man or a woman in her writing; when she is "I", the speaker, she is free from gender prejudices and constraints. However, she says, as a woman, the only way to get yourself out of your set "role" in society is to "gnaw your foot out of the trap." She says that nothing good comes without a consequence, but at the same time, every cloud has a silver lining. While every bite may become a wound, each wound becomes a door, an opportunity. Society is wicked, and closes you in and tries with all its might to lock you into your role. But if you gnaw your foot out of the trap, each red wound may became a red door, and every door something beautiful.