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“My Body Is a Temple/I Am the God It Was Built For”: An Examination of the Confrontation of Male Entitlement in the Spoken Word Poetry of Savannah Brown and Hollie McNish Cover

“My Body Is a Temple/I Am the God It Was Built For”: An Examination of the Confrontation of Male Entitlement in the Spoken Word Poetry of Savannah Brown and Hollie McNish

By: Claire McCann  
Open Access
|Apr 2020

Abstract

Alternative forms of expression, like spoken word and slam poetry, manifest themselves when conventional representations silence certain groups. These alternative forms, however, also hold the capacity to exclude certain individuals as is illustrated by the objectification of women in many contemporary spoken word forms. While the rising popularity of this genre of poetry reinforces the male gaze, certain female spoken word artists refuse to allow this form to erase their own experiences. This essay therefore brings to the forefront the voices of those who have emerged to confront this silencing and assert a female identity not determined by male fantasies. A strategic focus on the poems ‘hi, i’m a slut’ by Savannah Brown and ‘A Poem on Flo Rida’s Blow My Whistle’ by Hollie McNish, explores the effectiveness of the techniques used by female spoken word poets to subvert and even ridicule this male-dominated form, which in turn creates a liberating space in which the voices of women are brought to centre stage.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/glo.20 | Journal eISSN: 2059-2949
Language: English
Published on: Apr 9, 2020
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2020 Claire McCann, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.