Meaning of Feet why do I want them if I have wings to fly

What does Feet mean, why do I want them if I have wings to fly:

“Feet why do I want them if I have wings to fly” is a famous phrase by the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, written in 1953, a year before her death. It means that although sometimes we do not have the basics to achieve our objectives, we will always have within us an immense potential to exploit.

It is a quote from her personal diary. She appears in the lower part of a watercolor, in which a severed foot is represented that is superimposed on another foot. From the first, which in the upper part of the calf is transformed into a flowerpot, what appears to be the twigs of a withered plant protrudes.

The phrase is very inspiring and popular. People identify with the phrase to such an extent that they use it as an epigraph or title for their writings, or dedicate interpretations to it. graphics, with illustrations, drawings and paintings that seek to translate the meaning of the phrase, as a tribute or recognition to Frida Kahlo.

In fact, the phrase itself has been given multiple interpretations from different fields of knowledge, such as psychology, psychoanalysis, medicine, literature, etc.

Phrase analysis

From a point of view literary, the phrase "feet why do I want them, if I have wings to fly" is posed as a rhetorical question that invites us to go or see beyond. In it, two images are contrasted: the feet, as a symbol of the earthly, of the ordinary, and the wings, which are a metaphor of the air, of the celestial, and evoke the idea of ​​flight, the feeling that there are no limits, that with our imagination everything is possible.

In the field of motivational psychology, the phrase has also become very popular. It is interpreted as an expression that invites us to overcome adversity, to value the resources we have over those we have lost.

Adversities can sometimes distort our perception of reality. We think that what we need is exactly what we cannot have, when the truth is that in us there is a lot of potential yet to be exploited. Thus, the phrase is a great metaphor for life: sometimes what we have within us is exactly what we need to achieve our purposes.

The psychoanalysisOn her side, an event from Frida's early childhood is rescued to explain the meaning of this phrase. Frida, at the age of six, contracted polio, for which she was forced to spend nine months in bed. During that time, she had an imaginary friend, a girl the same age as hers who played with her and was able to move and run like she couldn't.

Psychoanalysis believes it recognizes in this experience, recounted by Frida herself years later in her personal diary, the use of imagination as a defense mechanism against reality. Thus, the phrase "feet why do I want them if I have wings to fly" seems to be inscribed in this mode of thought, where imagination serves as an escape route to a better ideal world.

From a perspective medical-scientific, the notation "feet why do I want them if I have wings to fly", has been interpreted as an expression resulting from the pain that Frida felt in her right leg. Her leg, whose condition worsened, exacerbating her pain, had to be amputated in 1953.

However, it is speculated whether the phrase was written after the amputation, alluding to the symptoms that reminded Frida the pain of the phantom limb, or if, on the contrary, it was written in a previous way, as a kind of resignation, of resignation to lose its leg.

About Frida Kahlo

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón, better known as Frida Kahlo, was a famous Mexican painter, born in Mexico City in 1907. She developed a very personal pictorial work, full of metaphors and symbols through which she tried to portray her complex relationship with reality. A considerable part of her paintings are self-portraits. She was married to the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. She had a very long life, marked by multiple ailments and surgical interventions. The rise of her fame would only come after her death in the 1970s. She died in 1954, just 47 years old.

See also:

• Frida Kahlo: biography, paintings, style and phrases.
• Box The two Fridas by Frida Kahlo.

Literature professional, graduated from the Universidad de Los Andes. Passionate about literature, history and philosophy. She has worked creating, writing and proofreading in publishing, advertising, journalism and digital content since 2008.