"You men" Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Analysis

YOU MEN

Silly, you men - so very adept

at wrongly faulting womankind,
not seeing you're alone to blame
for faults you plant in woman's mind.

After you've won by urgent plea
the right to tarnish her good name,
you still expect her to behave—
you, that coaxed her into shame.

You batter her resistance down
and then, all righteousness, proclaim
that feminine frivolity,
not your persistence, is to blame.

When it comes to bravely posturing,
your witlessness must take the prize:
you're the child that makes a bogeyman,
and then recoils in fear and cries.

Presumptuous beyond belief,
you'd have the woman you pursue
be Thais when you're courting her,
Lucretia once she falls to you.

For plain default of common sense,
could any action be so queer
as oneself to cloud the mirror,
then complain that it's not clear?

Whether you're favored or disdained,
nothing can leave you satisfied.
You whimper if you're turned away,
you sneer if you've been gratified.

With you, no woman can hope to score;
whichever way, she's bound to lose;
spurning you, she's ungrateful—
succumbing, you call her lewd.

Your folly is always the same:
you apply a single rule
to the one you accuse of looseness
and the one you brand as cruel.

What happy mean could there be
for the woman who catches your eye,
if, unresponsive, she offends,
yet whose complaisance you decry?

Still, whether it's torment or anger—
and both ways you've yourselves to blame—
God bless the woman who won't have you,
no matter how loud you complain.

It's your persistent entreaties
that change her from timid to bold.
Having made her thereby naughty,
you would have her good as gold.

So where does the greater guilt lie
for a passion that should not be:
with the man who pleads out of baseness
or the woman debased by his plea?

Or which is more to be blamed—
though both will have cause for chagrin:
the woman who sins for money
or the man who pays money to sin?

So why are you men all so stunned
at the thought you're all guilty alike?
Either like them for what you've made them
or make of them what you can like.

If you'd give up pursuing them,
you'd discover, without a doubt,
you've a stronger case to make
against those who seek you out.

I well know what powerful arms
you wield in pressing for evil:
your arrogance is allied
with the world, the flesh, and the devil!

-- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

translated by Alan S. Trueblood

Sor juana Ines de la cruz was brave for being one of the first women to criticize society. Coming from a nun, we are able to see a different perspective of women's social oppression. This sonnet was wrote by a women who did not have much interaction with society and still then is able to find the social injustices of mankind, especially those of men against women.
Her main argument is that men always criticize and oppress women, that being physically or mentally. She is not only referring to the act of men being "superior" to women, but also the way in which society was managed. During that time women that to be in their best behavior. Always formal and respectful to their husbands. The chain of oppression could not be
broken because the consequences could be worst.  Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz invites us to reflect on the way we look at each other. I believe that this sonnet not only applies to women's oppression, but can also be applicable to social structures. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was famous for speaking out towards injustices. She saw the way in which Spaniards, who at the time
had control over Mexico, treated the Mexican natives as well as the social class structure that they had brought from the European society. "We are a reflection of our own actions," (Ines de la cruz, 1) wrote Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in one of her diaries. I believe that that quote can also be applied to this sonnet. Men who want women to be the best, finniest, and  the most loyal,
have created a "monster." By monster, in men's view, I mean to say that men at the time saw women as inferior humans who were only useful for having kids and taking care of the household while making their husband look good. This was not only true in Mexico but also in many other parts of the world, this could have even been seen in America at the time, of course under
different circumstances.