Fannyism Emilie Zoey Baker

‘Poetry is the art of using words charged with their utmost meaning.’ (Gioia 2002, p. 17). It is about searching for new ways in which an object can be seen and described than its original meaning. The defamiliarization or ‘the distinctive effect achieved by literary works in disrupting our habitual perception of the world, enabling us to ‘see’ things afresh’ (Baldick 2006, p. 62), allows the reader to confront their stereotypical perceptions and challenges them to deconstruct everyday ideas, words and urges the reader to slow their pace and think things through thoroughly. It is a form of literature that has the power to explore various diverse aspects of life, from emotions to objects, ideologies to gender. Fannyism, Imperial Adam and Reflecting on the Male of the Species are some of Australian poems, which explore the issue, and representation of gender. All three poems through techniques and language use of word meanings and order, imagery, figurative language and symbols show different representations and emotions of gender issues. Fannyism, Imperial Adam and Reflecting on the Male of the Species all share a common similarity in spite of the different messages each poem voices; they are classified as lyrical poems where it incorporates the intensity of the emotions of various mind states and ‘expressing the personal mood, feeling, or meditation of a single speaker’ (Baldick 2006, p. 143). The poems incorporate various figurative language techniques such as denotations, connotations, vivid imagery, metaphors, similes and symbolism.

Emilie Zoey Baker’s lyrical poem Fannyism explores the emotional journey and more importantly the expectations that women and teenage girls are assumed to have obtained in the modern world today. The poem incorporates various puns throughout the text to convey the attitude that feminism has been portrayed in the modern unrealistic world of equality between men and women. The use of expressions that ‘achieves emphasis or humour by contriving an ambiguity, two distinct meanings being suggested either by the same word (…) or by two similar-sounding words’ (Baldick 2006, p. 181) in this case the term ‘dick-tater’ (line 7) blurs the line of a male dominant lifestyle in which females are seen as inferior and expected to abide by the wishes of the masculine race. The title of the poem ‘Fannyism’ can also be interpreted as a pun on feminism as the interpretation of feminism is seen as ‘being old, unattractive and slightly insane’ (line 16) but however the representation in this poem is targeted to the demographic of young women. The idea of the ‘big bad wolf whistle’ (line 12-15) puns the big bad wolf as being seen as an antagonistic masculine creature that is seen as predacious and frightening to be around. Baker’s poem also employs the reader’s mind to contemplate the serious issue of the high expectations in regards to women’s bodies and self esteem issues through the incorporation of strong language which creates a strong imagery in the readers mind. ‘Botox injections,’ (line 26) and ‘labia reductions’ (line 27) ‘allows us to see the scene portrayed in a few brief words…that we feel we are there’ (Chace & Collier, pp. 407-408). By allowing the reader to encompass the strongly frowned upon issue of labia reductions and so forth, the reader begins to sympathise with the young women that are faced with these problems due to the high standards placed upon them by the male race.

A. D. Hope’s eleven-quatrain poem ‘Imperial Adam’ explores the sexual encounter between Adam and Eve in the chapter of Genesis in the Bible. From the first few lines of the poem, Hope’s characterization and slightly discriminative view towards the female gender is evident. Throughout the poem while Adam is identified as a male, not once throughout the poem is Eve’s name mentioned even though it is a lyrical quatrain poem that explores the emotions of both humans. By excluding Eve’s name, Hope has distinguished the line between the male and female genders; deeming the women as inferior. They are seen as objects, subject to the male’s wants and priorities and because it is difficult to describe it, Hope has manipulated the idea of a woman as symbolism in ‘Imperial Adam’ because ‘an object, action, or even a situation which stands for something so complex that it would be difficult to deal with it directly’ (Chace & Collier p. 415). Eve is not seen as a human being of the female gender but rather ‘Man’s counterpart’, which subtly hints at the fact of a woman not having her own identity as an individual as her identity is formed by the man. The lack of individual identity in this poem shows the inequality that women have been showered with ever since the start of mankind and therefore raises the question of whether it was God’s intention to establish equality between men and women or whether women are merely seen as ‘plump gourd severed from his virile root’ (line 17). In ‘Imperial Adam’ the concept of woman being represented by Eve is seen as a seductive temptress to man who are being misled down the wrong path. ‘Sly as the snake she loosed the sinuous thighs’ (line 20), Hope indicates that women in general are voluptuous temptresses who are the cause of the mistakes that men make.

Rodney Hall’s ‘Reflecting on the Male of the Species’ represents the idea and concept of manhood in a way not seen before. Through the use of various poetic techniques, Hall explores the perception of the journey of manhood from young boys to mature men and the emotions that they face through their journey. Connotations or ‘suggestive meanings’ (Chace & Collier, p.406) commences the lyrical poem with the statement of ‘a man’s life’ (line 1. The idea of a man’s life is connotative in the sense that it allows the reader to question what a man’s life is composed of and challenges us to think about everything involved in that phrase. The incorporation of metaphors and imagery of the ‘chrysalis’ (line 2) indicates the reader to think about a journey or transformation, as the image of a caterpillar evolving into a butterfly is the immediate thought when thinking of a chrysalis. Powerful adjectives allow the reader to envision the image of a naked boy emerging from the chrysalis as he ‘vulnerably’ (line 1), sets foot in manhood as a fragile, fresh individual. However Hall creates a depiction of harsh and violent emotions that trails this boy as he is ‘eager for brutality to shape him’ (line 3). By doing so, Hall questions the reader’s perception on the idea of manhood and whether the journey of how ‘man grew to be a man at all’ (line 33) was a journey that is seen to be a journey that tests the emotional and mental health of man. The powerful image of the ‘sottish fool’ and his ‘bagged in try-out skin’ paints a vivid mental image in the reader’s mind as the idea of bags of skin indicate a life of being worn out and ruined. It indicates that the sottish’s manhood has been one that has been tested and stretched but it leaves the reader questioning whether that life has been one of success or failure.

Gender is a political issue that has been in existence ever since the dawn of the human existence. The idea of equality between the male and female gender has been known to be based on many different founding concepts but mostly on the notion of power investment. Different poets through their poetry each define their idea of gender equality. Emilie Zoey Baker through her lyrical ‘Fannyism’ comments on the social expectations that women are expected to stand up to in this modern day society such as Botox, and plastic surgery and how women don’t have to live up to society’s expectations of them. A.D Hope’s ‘Imperial Adam’ through the recurring incorporation of symbolism distinguishes the inferiority of woman in comparison to man and raises the question of God’s intention of gender inequality as Eve in ‘Imperial Adam’ is seen as a mere object for Adam’s use. In contrast to these two poems of women inequality, Robert Hall’s ‘Reflection on the Male of the Species’ focuses on the troubled journey of manhood. Through vivid imagery and metaphors, Hall asks the readers to contemplate about the troubling hardships that a man faces as he emerges from the cocoon of boyhood and steps into the world of manhood.
1401 WORDS

REFERENCE LIST

Baker, EZ 2007, ‘Fannyism’, retrieved 30 October 2008,<www.atomicladybomb.blogspot.com> and <http://www.myspace.com/emiliezoeybaker>.
Baldick, C. 2006, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Chace, WM & Collier, P 1985, ‘The words in a poem’, An introduction to literature, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego, pp. 405–17.
Gioia, Dana 2002, Can Poetry Matter? Essays on Poetry and American Culture, Graywolf Press, Saint Paul.
Hall, R 2002, ‘Reflecting on the male of the species’, The owner of my face: new and selected poems, Fine Art Publishing, Sydney, pp. 19–20.
Hope, AD 1972, ‘Imperial Adam’, Collected poems 1930–1970, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, pp. 83–4.