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Feminist Poetry

Lyric and Short Poetic Forms

Feminist poetry is poetry inspired by, promoting or elaborating on feminist principles and ideas, sometimes written with the conscious aim of expressing those principles and sometimes identified as feminist only later by critics. It typically foregrounds women's experiences as valid and worthy of attention, often intersecting with other forms of oppression tied to race, sexuality, gender presentation, disability or immigration status, and though scholar Kim Whitehead notes the genre has no identifiable birth date, Sappho is often credited as its first practitioner for her writing on female homosexuality in ancient Greece.

Facts
Place of Origin
Ancient Greece 1
Notable Example
"Power" by Audre Lorde 1
Defining Trait
Foregrounds women's experiences as valid and worthy of attention, often highlighting the lived experiences of minorities and other less privileged subjects 1
Sources
1. Feminist poetry - Wikipedia
  • Introduction section, Sappho sentence
    The title of first feminist poet is often given to Sappho, at least in part because she seems to write about female homosexuality in Ancient Greece, a culture and time when lesbian sexuality was usually ignored or erased.
  • Post-1960 North American feminist poets section
    A policeman who shot down a ten year old in Queens / stood over the boy with his cop shoes in childish blood
  • Introduction section, definition sentence
    It usually foregrounds women's experiences as valid and worthy of attention, and it also highlights the lived experiences of minorities and other less privileged subjects.
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