Feminist in The Flesh

 When you hear the word “feminist”, chances are you have the image in your mind of a “Scary Feminist”: A wild haired, dungaree-wearing, aggressive and generally scary woman. Going to hear such a woman speak is not a prospect to look forward to for most people. When Carol Ann Duffy, the British Poet Laureate and raging feminist was booked for a local literature festival, I naturally couldn’t wait! When Duffy did arrive, late from an event at Buckingham Palace (something making even more threatening), she was a stark contrast to the strident woman you’d expect to be glaring down from the stage. Whilst the hair was indeed wild, the shy and softly spoken woman before us was worryingly human, portraying none of the characteristics of a man-hater. She was simply not “feminist” enough. Instead the real Duffy entered brandishing her weekly M&S shop and, rather than barking into the mike, as any harridan should, she was quite difficult to hear. Indeed, the real Duffy insisted upon “mingling” with the audience at the end rather than a straightforward “Q&A” as she found it “more intimate”.Duffy read a number of her poems from the collection “The World’s Wife”, which gives modern voices to the wives of famous men throughout history. She explained that one couple “Mr and Mrs Faust”, she had first imagined as having an “on- off relationship” at the local Birmingham University (she grew up herself nearby). A lot of her poems, she went on to
explain, had a personal and private meaning to them, often connected to her own childhood in the Midlands. She gave the example of weaving her mother’s made up phrases like “what like it is” into her poetry. Duffy even said that she enjoys deceiving literature teachers and experts: she named “from Mrs Tiresias” such so that the “from” would inspire a vain search for a larger poem.
Duffy read a number of her love poems and in particular a love poem for her mother, “When You Were Mine”, in which she talks about meeting her younger mother long before children were considered. Duffy described sonnets as the “little black dress of love” and she certainly favours that poetic form. Her poem about motherhood, “Demeter”, she admitted had a particular emotional connection. Listening to the poems about her mother, we felt her desire to immortalise or resurrect through poetry, and we weren’t surprised by her answer when she was asked why she writes poetry; Duffy said it was “to tell the truth”.