Mina Loy’s poetry was a polemic against women’s inequality, including their segregation in cultural practices and social norms. ‘Feminist Manifesto’ and ‘Songs to Joannes’ offer an original and deeply personal take on the mounting pressure Loy felt to conform to her gender norms. She encouraged women to be honest with their sexuality, as Loy believed this led to a higher perception of social and cultural issues. To understand Loy’s liberation of female predispositions it is crucial to look at how her work mirrored that of other avant-garde works, a movement known at this point as futurism. Loy urges for an evolution into a ‘modern-woman’ through liberating sexuality and encouraging learning. For feminism, self-perception and acceptance was the key to breaking from the binding social normative for women during the latter 19th century and early 20th century. As Loy progresses through her timeline of works, her persistent nature grows as she calls for the awakening of feminism within women. Loy’s work was a turning point for experimentation with poetic devices as well as for the unveiling of the desire and potential of women.
Loy brings into the light a new attitude surrounding feminine attraction and love. A shift from idealised women, to an empowerment of passion for women. Loy also attempts to break down the barriers between a woman’s private life and public life: the restrictions women had placed on them and the standards they were forced to meet to be considered a ‘woman’. Paul Peppis refers to Michel Foucault in describing Loy’s work as ‘instrumental’ in ‘transforming sex into discourse’ (2002, pg. 562). Peppis highlights how Loy’s work moved social dialogue ‘beyond the polarized arguments of British feminism’ due to the way Loy focussed on internalised acceptance women have on their sexuality and the rights they deserve (2002, pg. 565). By ‘altering the languages’ of her writing, Loy reforms the way ‘these arguments [were originally] framed’ (Peppis 2002, pg. 566). For women, the opportunity to be heard, and placed on the same pedestal as men would be monumental for feminism. The representation and motivation that Loy provided led to an age of emotional and sexual awakening for women.
Ellen McWhorter highlights how Loy’s clinical observations of ‘purely rational…human experience’ underlies the core of Loy’s feminist poetry (2015, para. 19). In ‘Songs to Joannes’ Loy writes;
Voices break on the confines of passion
Desire Suspicion Man Woman
Solve in the humid carnage
Flesh from flesh
Draws the inseparable delight
Kissing at gasps to catch it (section 6, lines 1-6)
The ‘voices’ Loy mentions refer back to the inner monologue and discussions an individual has with themselves. McWhorter writes that this reinforces the sentiment of Loy’s ability to think beyond the behaviours of the current period and display the ‘embodiment [of] knowledge’ (2015, para. 45). The exploration by Loy of language and rationality gives readers a chance to be able to comprehend ‘complicated experiences’ (McWorter 2015, para. 46). Parmar explains through quoting Burke, that ‘Songs to Joannes’ and its inclusion of the complexities of ‘marriage and family’ allow Loy to relate to her readers, and show that she is not ‘exempt from such [female] concerns’ (Parmar 2008, pg. 48).
Mina Loy uses the structure and history of love poems to contradict the treatment of women in ‘Songs to Joannes’. Lucia Re comments on the noticeable links between Loy’s poetry and past poets who also wrote of love and the man/women dynamic. Loy has managed to transform the traditions of this genre of poetry to show a female perspective, therefore giving a voice to a previously dismissed and hidden group of people (Re 2009, pg. 806). Re draws from Alfred Kreymborg when explaining the social response to Loy’s ‘audacious spacing of…lines’ and ‘scandalous…montage-like juxtapositions’(Re 2009, pg. 806) reflecting the way early 20th century culture felt towards women who strayed from normative social behaviours. At this time audiences were ‘outraged that a woman should do this’ (Re 2009, pg. 806): which amplifies the motivation for Loy to act in a way which was regarded as shameful when it should not have been. Re connects ‘Songs to Joannes’ to the suffragette challenge in the way her poetic nature ‘challenged’ and broke free from what was expected for women at that time.
The emergence of the first round of feminism in the 19th and early 20th century was an outcry for democratic equality in the modern world. Through the articulation of female desire and importance, Mina Loy brought into a generation of ‘masculine enterprise[s]’ the perception of ‘autonomous women’(Lusty 2008, pg. 245). The significance of Loy’s poetic work is shown through the impact she had on the social movement of futurism, in particular ‘futuristic women’. The futuristic avant-garde movement interplays and is encompassed by, the concept of modernism (Parmar 2008, pg. 37). To look at Loy’s impact on women’s equality it is important to also consider the progression of modernism and people’s acceptance of becoming accustomed to a changing social and political world. Loy’s credentials for modernism, which can also be considered in the scope of futurism, come from her ‘free verse’ and ‘modern way of life’; which as mentioned before, touched on the cohesion between a woman’s ‘intellect’ and ability to recognise sexual modernism (Parmar 2008, pg. 43). But futurism, to Loy, still relied on a certain ‘chaotic nature’ (Lusty 2008, pg. 250) which the poet tried to distance herself from. The ever changing contradictive nature had moments of involvement which could be classified as an attack on feminism and on the progress of suffragettes. It was from her irritation due to the lack of foundation regarding feminism and futurism that the ‘Feminist Manifesto’ was born.
‘Feminist Manifesto’ was an unprecedented work that gave insight and inspiration into the re-evaluation of women’s self-perception. Loy turned sexuality, a core part of any human being, into an instrument for women to transcend into an honoured part of their individuality. Christina Walter views ‘Feminist Manifesto’ as an outcry of Loy’s ‘explicit anxiety’ (n.d., pg. 665) regarding gender roles. For Loy, the current progression of women’s rights was ‘inadequate’ (1914, line 2), as she vibrates with exhaustion, on the verge of ‘demolition’ herself. This poem was written in a time where Loy felt women were settling for less than they deserved – ‘is that all you want?’ (line 14). The manifesto plays on the differences between man and woman;
be Brave & deny at the outset—that pa-
thetic clap-trap war cry Woman is the
equal of man—
for
She is NOT! (lines 15-18)
As Loy pivots the discussion to femininity and the uniqueness of maternity (which is mentioned multiple times throughout the manifesto) Zelazo notes that it is through the ‘demolition and destruction of patriarchal conceptions’ that ‘women achieve liberation’ (Zelazo n.d., pg. 64). Similar to ‘Songs for Joannes’, this poem asks women to ‘seek within yourselves’ and illustrates a women’s awareness of ‘sexual desire’ (line 27-28) as Loy stimulated women’s acceptance of themselves. Loy knew how women were seen as a ‘relative impersonality’ (Walter n.d., pg. 665), their worth measured in their individual significance to men. Loy ties in together her perception of impersonality with feminist ideology, as well as ‘the older Victorian notion of character’ (Walter n.d., pg. 666). This ‘female selfhood’ (Walter n.d., pg. 666) grew into what became a political movement, referred to today as the ‘first-wave’ of feminism. Loy devastates the customary structure of love poetry that had stood strongly up until this point. By providing the female perspective to heterosexual love it ‘subjectively reform[s]’ women’s importance in love, desire and the balance between men and women (Parmar 2008, pg. 47).
Walter notes of how Loy ‘chafes’ (n.d., pg. 667) at women who do find ‘Paratisim, & Prostitution – or Negation’ (Loy 1914, line 154) a meaningful compound of their social life as women. Loy argues that women should ‘deny at the outset’ (1914, line 153), and to be more than, what males, past and present, have deemed them worthy of. If a woman rejects a life free of ‘restrictions’ (Loy 1914, line 166), she has not yet reached ‘a definite period of psychic development in her life’(line 201), and is not deemed a ‘superior woman’ (line 202). Loy in this instance denies the idea that women can be emotional and psychological independent whilst still remaining in the public eye and married. Parmar notes on how Loy felt a distinction between a woman’s capability to be ‘modern’ whilst adhering to the limitations placed on women during the late 19th century: these ‘qualifying’ features that were ‘imposed’ on women restricted ‘evolving’ (2008, pg. 44). Furthermore, Natalya Lusty critiques Loy’s ‘Feminist Manifesto’ for the way the poem brings focus to feminine politics only through the ‘masculine polemical mode’ (Lusty 2008, pg. 246). Lusty still notes this as Loy’s first steps into the beginning of her journey exploring the feminist perspective, as ‘Songs to Joannes’ evaluates through personal experience ‘women’s sexual and emotional resistance and complicity’ (2008, pg. 246).
After connecting ‘Songs to Joannes’ and ‘Feminist Manifesto’ it becomes clear Mina Loy’s dedication to bring light onto female experience and desire. The conversation regarding feminism during this time was largely hijacked by waves of futurism and modernism. Loy’s experimentation with punctuation and language lead to it popularity as a distinctive new and unique form of poetry. Loy used poetry as a means to transmit her own personal endeavours and new ideas; she experimented with poetic devices and social taboos to critique dominant social standards. Her poetry commented on the liberation of individuality and sexual enlightenment, which Loy believed were the results of deeper self-perception. The new attitude Loy brought to her time had an overwhelming impact on women’s rights and became a turning point in courtly love forms of poetry by providing a twist on the female perspective. The feminist undertones of Loy’s work will remain an important awakening for feminist social and political progression.
References
- Loy, M 1914, “Feminist Manifesto” The Last Lunar Baedeker. Ed. Roger L. Conover. Highlands, NJ: Jargon Society, 1982. 153-56.
- Loy, M 1917, “Songs to Joannes” (pdf) OR ‘Songs to Joannes’ The Last Lunar Baedeker. Ed. Roger L. Conover. Highlands, NJ: Jargon Society, 1982. 51-68.
- Lusty, N 2008, ‘Sexing the manifesto: Mina Loy, feminism and futurism’, Women: A Cultural Review, 3, p. 245, General OneFile, EBSCOhost, viewed 5 April 2017.
- McWhorter, E 2015, ‘Body Matters: Mina Loy and the Art of Intuition’, European Journal Of American Studies, 10, 2, MLA International Bibliography, EBSCOhost, viewed 4 April 2017.
- Parmar, S 2008, ‘Mina Loy and the myth of the modern woman’, British Library EThOS, EBSCOhost, viewed 3 April 2017.
- Peppis, P 2002, ‘Rewriting Sex: Mina Loy, Marie Stopes, and sexology’, Modernism/Modernity, 4, p. 561, General OneFile, EBSCOhost, viewed 3 April 2017.
- Re, L 2009, ‘Mina Loy and the Quest for a Futurist Feminist Woman’, European Legacy-Toward New Paradigms, 14, 7, pp. 799-819, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, EBSCOhost, viewed 5 April 2017.
- Walter, C n.d., ‘GETTING IMPERSONAL: MINA LOY’S BODY POLITICS FROM “FEMINIST MANIFESTO” TO INSEL’, Mfs-Modern Fiction Studies, 55, 4, pp. 663-692, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, EBSCOhost, viewed 5 April 2017.
- Zelazo, S n.d., ‘”Altered Observation of Modern Eyes”: Mina Loy’s Collages, and Multisensual Aesthetics’, Senses & Society, 4, 1, pp. 47-73, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, EBSCOhost, viewed 5 April 2017.