The Speaker's Hips

The speaker's hips symbolize her own self-love. Because this part of the body is often associated with womanhood, the speaker's hips also resonate with resistance because she loves her body in the context of a world that seeks to oppress her. The hips' size only lends to their power, as shown through the repetition of positive attributes and the image of the hips casting a spell on a man.

Largeness

Largeness symbolizes nonconformity in the poem as the speaker claims space for her "big hips" to "move around in" (1 and 3). The speaker does not attempt to squeeze herself into the "little / petty places" that society deems acceptable. In other words, the speaker refuses to be marginalized for not conforming to society's definition of a 'good' body. This definition is built along lines of race, gender, and size, among other factors of identity.

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