Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Is Carol Ann Duffy sexist?

Benny Babes

I know what I think but I was just wondering about you guys... :smile:

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

AspiringGenius

Of course. :lol:

but of course me expressing this opinion is 'oppression of femininity' in Duffy's eyes.

For the record, femininism =/= female supremacy.

Reply 2

KingMessi

Original post by Benny Babes

I know what I think but I was just wondering about you guys... :smile:

From what I can remember, of course Carol Ann Duffy is sexist. I was at a Poetry Live event, and we had the opportunity to ask questions to Duffy. I asked her whether she was a feminist, and she said that, of course she was a feminist. Of course, because she's a sexist in the feminist kind of sexist, it's not as struck upon.

In answer to your question, I think she is indeed a sexist.

EDIT: Anyone fancy debating with me as opposed to just negging me?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3

lukas1051

The first thing that struck me when reading her poems was how much of a feminazi she is. I can't stand her or her poems.

Reply 4

KingMessi

Original post by lukas1051

The first thing that struck me when reading her poems was how much of a feminazi she is. I can't stand her or her poems.

She's also a very dull person when seen in the flesh. Give me Simon Armitage any day.

Reply 5

MJOwen

Yes. If a man were to write about women in the same manner as she does about men collectively he would undoubtedly be called a misogynist! She quite unabashedly presents an ideology of female supremacy. She doesn't do much else than moan really. I found her poems quite tedious and overly-didactic.

Reply 6

the bear

is she that woman whom Gordon Brown called "bigoted" ?

Reply 7

Ra Ra Ra

Oh, God, HER POEMS. Has anyone read that one addressed to the teacher that complained about her poem being on the syllabus? What, couldn't a letter or phone call have sufficed?

Every teacher I've ever had complains about her, though. It's quite fun to get them into 'rant mode' about her. Whenever I have to analyze one of her poems, it's like she's right there, screaming into my face, "I HATE MEN!!!' Even when I came across that poem about WWI she wrote for Harry Patch's funeral, I could still hear her. 'Psst...isn't war such a horrific manifestation of evil? And, by evil, I mean men'.

Reply 8

jinalp1

I think she has strong opinions on female supremacy and is a feminist. And there are certainly times during her poems when she's blatantly sexist- sometimes her poems try to empower women, and sometimes they just insult and degrade men. So yeh I guess she is quite sexist.

Reply 9

The Lyceum

If "sexist" is some sort of synonym for "talentless" then yes.

Also, she is a crazy sexist. :colonhash:

Reading her "poetry" the one emotion that really grips me is a feeling of mourning for English poetry. English as a language has actually produced some truly phenomenal poetry over the past few years but Duffy is basically symptomatic of its effectively dumbed down, impotent, modern state. Both on a technical level (I've rarely heard her poetry described as "technical" tbf, she really has a poor grasp of metrics and technique compared to many just 50/60 years ago) and in terms of content and context.

It really is god awful stuff. Tell me, is this the language that so served Donne and Blake and Milton? It's also a joke that she is/was our poet laureate, wth? Compare her to some of the poetry one finds in Italian, Hindi, Arabic etc and truly balk.

Not at all a fan to be honest. I think its basically aimed at pseudo-intellectual teenage A level students (probably female?) thinking that they're expressive and edgy :tongue:

Reply 10

issyconnor

Original post by KingMessi

She's also a very dull person when seen in the flesh. Give me Simon Armitage any day.

I agree. I saw her at poetry live last year and she bored me to tears. Simon Armitage was lovely, though.

She's irritating. I can't stand her poetry either. She makes Andrew Motion sound like a genius.

Reply 11

chickenonsteroids

She's not a great poet but I have to do a presentation on her poems lol

my teacher loves her though

Reply 12

whatsername2009

I studied The World's Wife at AS-level and quite enjoyed it. Not because I necessarily agreed with all the views expressed in Duffy's poetry (which do not have to be Duffy's own views - remember that a lot of her poems are dramatic monologues, so the speaker is someone other than the poet herself) but because I like the way she writes.

Take the poem 'Circe', for example. Its speaker is undoubtedly sexist and wants to take revenge on all men, whom she refers to as 'pigs'. I find Circe's attitudes repellent, but she speaks with such relish that as a persona she is oddly compelling. It's a clever and witty take on Greek mythology, but at no point does Duffy expect her readers to agree with Circe's feelings, and it becomes clear as the poem progresses that Circe is deeply unhinged. Her breezy, TV-chef voice begins to break down into pure rage and bitterness.

If anything, I read this poem as a warning against the kind of radical, man-hating feminism so often attributed to Duffy. Of course, an alternative reading is possible, but Duffy would not be the first poet to write a dramatic monologue in the voice of a very unpleasant speaker whose views are not the poet's own. For example, in the GCSE Anthology there are also two Robert Browning poems, 'My Last Duchess' and 'The Laboratory', in both of which the speaker is a murderer or would-be murderer. But no one reads these poems and claims that Browning was a murderer himself.

Just my two cents - feel free to disagree with me if you want.

Reply 13

Cake Faced Kid.

Her poem 'valentine' made me want to rip it out of every poem book ever published so others can be saved from the misery.
In a nutshell it was 'I hate men, men are useless, women on the other hand are brilliant, enough said, I'm right.'

Gah.

Reply 14

ironandwine

Carol Ann Duffy is a ******* **** psycho obsessed with making cringing sexual references if you ever have the misfortune to see her live.

Reply 15

HangThe DJ

She is incredibly sexist, and I had to study her for GCSE, and unfortunately will have to for the remaining (almost) 2 years of A Level. I hate her poetry.

Reply 16

Schemilix

So it's not just me who thinks this. I went to an all girls' school and was stuck studying feminism because I'm a girl and I must thus have an immense interest in it (I do, but I'm selective; I hate sexists or either sex). Angela Carter, Carol Ann Duffy. Men are rapists pigs, rah rah rah! The only time they can step down off their high horse and stop hating men they're representing them as at the mercy of their impulses oh pity them, which is just patronising. :facepalm:

Also her skills as a poet are overrated in my opinion. 'Accessible'? Simplistic, more like. Some of her stuff is excellent but the majority is derivative. That may be why I don't agree with what she's saying either, it just isn't appealing to me.

Basically yes. But we're not allowed to say that, are we. :P I did multiple times point this out to my Lit teacher, though, and we had some discussions about sexism within feminism undermining the central facets leading to equality and respect. You don't give, you don't get. You apply stereotypes you go BY stereotypes, you are held to them.