Feminist Lens - Responding and Reflecting (SOS)

Through the relationships between the book’s main focus character, Milkman Dead, and the female figures in his life, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison serves as a reminder that issues of sexism and misogyny are quite evident even within a completely separate issue, such as the black struggle in the post-slavery society that Song of Solomon is based. Morrison’s main focus regarding gender inequality in society in regards to her book was that men receive special treatment simply on the basis of being a man. Between Lena’s rant to Milkman and Macon’s weekly car rides with him family, the men in the Dead family in particular feel entitled to things, and treat the rest of the family as property to show off, and put to maid-work without any gratitude for their service. In fact, where Milkman and his father Macon are concerned, their unfaltering hatred for the women in their households and the over-prioritization of material wealth rather than love only elevates the illusion of respect from white counterparts, and affects their strive for equality that much further. 

What the inequality between the races and the sexes have in common is they are both still almost just as great an issue today as they were in the context that the Toni Morrison described them in Song of Solomon. Today, some family units are not so far off from what was described in the book. Women and African Americans alike are still fighting for their equality and respect in our white-male dominated society today, and while progress has been made in terms of laws since the context of the books, individual opinions are hard to change with the simple sign of a bill, and are each are still huge topics of debate.