Like many of Shakespeare's sonnets, this poem is an expressionof love. In order to express your love, you have to talk about it,define it, examine it. In telling his mistress that he lovesher,In Sonnet 130, the theme "Women and Femininity" is connected tothe idea of appearances. This poem is all about female beauty andour expectations and stereotypes about the way women ought to look.You know how in magazines women pretty much tend to look the same?They all fit into a very narrow definition of what is beautiful.Essentially, the speaker in this poem is pointing out that lovepoetry does the same thing. It makes women into goddesses, not realhuman beings. He insists that his idea of beautiful femininitydoesn't depend on fitting an abstract, unrealistic fantasy."Appearances" is a major theme in Sonnet 130, since our speakerspends a lot of the poem talking about what's wrong with hismistress's looks. He does a pretty complete dissection of her face,her body, and her smell. He doesn't say anything at all about herpersonality, but instead sticks to his laundry list of problemswith her appearance. This gives Shakespeare a chance to poke fun atour obsession with looks and to show how ridiculous it is to askany person to live up to some ideal of perfect beauty.