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The speaker of “Phenomenal Woman” doesn’t make any references to a particular physical setting. However, we can infer from her passing reference to “fashion models” (line 2) that the speaker lives in the modern era, and that she is addressing herself to a twentieth-century audience. With this inference in mind, we can better understand the significance of the speaker’s desire to speak about her own body and about matters related to feminine beauty, behavior, and well-being. In the United States, the matter of women’s liberation occupied a major place in the national conversation, particularly in the mid to late twentieth century. The speaker of “Phenomenal Woman” is clearly taking part in this conversation, expressing her own sense of self-worth in the face of otherwise limiting ideas about women’s role in society. Understood in this way, the poem’s setting is modern U.S. society, where the project of women’s liberation is an ongoing and hence yet to be fully realized.

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