‘Feminine Gospels is an interrogati on of contemporary culture.’
Discuss. 24
Poetry has historically represented an intellectual’s inquisition into the norms and deviances of
society. Often taking the form of political, religious, feminist propaganda, poetry has criticised and
analysed acts of sexuality, religion, and subjugation – a medium which Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy
chooses to equally address society. Presenting the ‘Gospel truth’ of the female experience, her
narrative poems aim to reveal intimate details of women’s lives, giving a voice to those who have
been typically ‘voiceless’, and entailing discussion on the most sensitive, prevalent, and ignored
topics. Equally criticising the objectification and passivity of women, Duffy interrogates the norms
and naiveties of contemporary society, but also returns to age-old tales to comment on the
excruciating pressures that women have historically experienced.
The scathing tone of ‘Beautiful’, the central poem of the collection, perhaps most accurately
embodies Duffy’s feelings towards society. Passionately questioning society’s obsessive and
objective agenda, she vocalises her disgust at the damaging stereotypes women are marginalised to.
Duffy utilises vulgar and severe language to depict the cruel and apathetic demands of society that
ruthlessly reduce dynamic and empowered women with harsh imperatives to submit to the whims
and desires of onlookers: ‘give us a smile cunt’, ‘act like a fucking princess’, ‘put on the mink’, ‘get in
the studio car’. Her perception of their treatment of women is exemplified in her retellings of the
stories of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, presenting the media as deliberately cruel,
disregardful, and dehumanising. A seething frustration underlies each line in which these women are
depicted as the objects and possessions of the public, something they are entitled to witness,
control, ‘stare and stare and stare’, and fantasise. The wilful ignorance that society adopts when
unconsensually editing Marilyn Monroe’s image to a pornographic doll (‘filmed her famous, filmed
her beautiful’) carries Duffy’s loud disgust, condemning the primitive lust of the global audience that
‘whooped’, ‘swooned’, and ‘drooled’. Over-sexualisation exudes from each image Duffy creates, a
perverted version of femininity created by the ‘greased-up lens’ and male gaze to gratify and satisfy
the salivating public. As such sensuality is achieved, Marilyn Monroe’s identity is erased under
‘painted’ beauty ‘in beige, pinks, blues’, irreversibly commodified to her own detriment. Female
suffering is powerfully demonstrated through the heavy alliteration of the consonant ‘d’ (‘deep,
dumped’), her identity and stability splintering, as paralleled by language fractured by frequent
caesuras (‘filmed more, quiet please, action, cut, quiet please, action, cut…’) as she is edited and
preened, until all that remains are ‘the dark roots of her pubic hair’.
Yet Duffy’s interrogation does not limit itself to the damaging pressures of contemporary society,
addressing also in ‘Beautiful’ the regressive depictions of women as either virtuous goddesses or
cunning whores through the retelling of the stories of mythological figure Helen of Troy and
historical queen Cleopatra. Ideas of chaste beauty are first introduced in ‘Beautiful’ when Helen is
distanced from the bloody and base reproductive acts of humans; divinely ‘born from an egg’, she
represents an idolised fragility, innocence, and purity, as reinforced by the pale symbols of ‘pearly’,
and ‘fair’ that connote a virginal, untouched freshness – a sanctified ‘peach’, ripe to be claimed by a
man. These unrealistic images that shun the female sexuality demonstrate the condescending
patriarchal demand for virginity and chastity in young women that echoes values that are even
beyond medieval. Equally, Cleopatra’s reputation as a seductive temptress, a woman who
corruptibly overpowers, emasculates, and humiliates men (‘made him fuck her as a lad), presents an
alternative version of womanhood, one that is condemned for the power she wields. Able to have
‘him gibbering in bed by twelve’, Cleopatra embodies a distortion of femininity, in which she
performs false acts of female delicacy to ensnare her victims (‘she’d tumbled…at Caesar’s feet’).
Discuss. 24
Poetry has historically represented an intellectual’s inquisition into the norms and deviances of
society. Often taking the form of political, religious, feminist propaganda, poetry has criticised and
analysed acts of sexuality, religion, and subjugation – a medium which Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy
chooses to equally address society. Presenting the ‘Gospel truth’ of the female experience, her
narrative poems aim to reveal intimate details of women’s lives, giving a voice to those who have
been typically ‘voiceless’, and entailing discussion on the most sensitive, prevalent, and ignored
topics. Equally criticising the objectification and passivity of women, Duffy interrogates the norms
and naiveties of contemporary society, but also returns to age-old tales to comment on the
excruciating pressures that women have historically experienced.
The scathing tone of ‘Beautiful’, the central poem of the collection, perhaps most accurately
embodies Duffy’s feelings towards society. Passionately questioning society’s obsessive and
objective agenda, she vocalises her disgust at the damaging stereotypes women are marginalised to.
Duffy utilises vulgar and severe language to depict the cruel and apathetic demands of society that
ruthlessly reduce dynamic and empowered women with harsh imperatives to submit to the whims
and desires of onlookers: ‘give us a smile cunt’, ‘act like a fucking princess’, ‘put on the mink’, ‘get in
the studio car’. Her perception of their treatment of women is exemplified in her retellings of the
stories of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, presenting the media as deliberately cruel,
disregardful, and dehumanising. A seething frustration underlies each line in which these women are
depicted as the objects and possessions of the public, something they are entitled to witness,
control, ‘stare and stare and stare’, and fantasise. The wilful ignorance that society adopts when
unconsensually editing Marilyn Monroe’s image to a pornographic doll (‘filmed her famous, filmed
her beautiful’) carries Duffy’s loud disgust, condemning the primitive lust of the global audience that
‘whooped’, ‘swooned’, and ‘drooled’. Over-sexualisation exudes from each image Duffy creates, a
perverted version of femininity created by the ‘greased-up lens’ and male gaze to gratify and satisfy
the salivating public. As such sensuality is achieved, Marilyn Monroe’s identity is erased under
‘painted’ beauty ‘in beige, pinks, blues’, irreversibly commodified to her own detriment. Female
suffering is powerfully demonstrated through the heavy alliteration of the consonant ‘d’ (‘deep,
dumped’), her identity and stability splintering, as paralleled by language fractured by frequent
caesuras (‘filmed more, quiet please, action, cut, quiet please, action, cut…’) as she is edited and
preened, until all that remains are ‘the dark roots of her pubic hair’.
Yet Duffy’s interrogation does not limit itself to the damaging pressures of contemporary society,
addressing also in ‘Beautiful’ the regressive depictions of women as either virtuous goddesses or
cunning whores through the retelling of the stories of mythological figure Helen of Troy and
historical queen Cleopatra. Ideas of chaste beauty are first introduced in ‘Beautiful’ when Helen is
distanced from the bloody and base reproductive acts of humans; divinely ‘born from an egg’, she
represents an idolised fragility, innocence, and purity, as reinforced by the pale symbols of ‘pearly’,
and ‘fair’ that connote a virginal, untouched freshness – a sanctified ‘peach’, ripe to be claimed by a
man. These unrealistic images that shun the female sexuality demonstrate the condescending
patriarchal demand for virginity and chastity in young women that echoes values that are even
beyond medieval. Equally, Cleopatra’s reputation as a seductive temptress, a woman who
corruptibly overpowers, emasculates, and humiliates men (‘made him fuck her as a lad), presents an
alternative version of womanhood, one that is condemned for the power she wields. Able to have
‘him gibbering in bed by twelve’, Cleopatra embodies a distortion of femininity, in which she
performs false acts of female delicacy to ensnare her victims (‘she’d tumbled…at Caesar’s feet’).
