"Song of Myself"

"For me those that have been boys and that love women,

For me the man that is proud and feels how it stings to be slighted"

-Walt Whitman

From the seventh section of "Song of Myself", Whitman states these lines that join all of the feelings that he was trying to express in this section. Sexuality and acceptance was always such an important deal for Whitman. He simply wanted society to accept who people were on the inside, rather than picking apart every small detail about the person. People are shallow and Whitman knows that. Whitman is homosexual and homosexuality was nearly forbidden when Whitman was alive. On these few lines that I stated, Whitman talks about men in general and how they should all be proud and walk around happily, with great confidence. Men should naturally be happy to be men in this world, according to Whitman. However, due to Whitman's homosexuality, he cannot experience the happiness that all other men can experience. He cannot proudly walk around knowing that he likes males and people will just be alright with that, because it was really not like that. Who he was as a person was never fully taken into acceptance. It "stings [Whitman] to be slighted" and that is not entirely fair. Whitman cannot take ownership of pride and confidence, knowing that acceptance of being gay would just never be a thing for him in his life.