{"id":17051,"date":"2013-04-06T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17051"},"modified":"2013-04-06T05:06:36","modified_gmt":"2013-04-06T12:06:36","slug":"a-poem-for-leaving-patriarchal-male-heterosexuality-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17051","title":{"rendered":"A Poem for Leaving Patriarchal Male Heterosexuality Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying a poet too few people read these days, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/bio\/j-v-cunningham\">J. V. Cunningham<\/a>. One day, I will write about why I think he\u2019s worth reading and learning from, even though the kind of poetry he wrote has been out of fashion for a very long time. Today, I\u2019m interested in one of his epigrams. It\u2019s #16 from <a href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books\/about\/Trivial_Vulgar_Exalted.html?id=2bXoNQAACAAJ\"><em>Trivial, Vulgar, and Exalted<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And now you\u2019re ready who while she was here<br \/>\nHung like a flag in a calm. Friend, though you stand<br \/>\nErect and eager, in your eye a tear,<br \/>\nI will not pity you, or lend a hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When I first read these lines, I smiled, as I imagine the poem makes most people with penises smile, but there is also in this poem a deep, deep sadness. Indeed, I don\u2019t think I have ever read a more concise and powerful expression of the self-alienation and self-hatred inherent in seeing penile erection as something one \u201cachieves,\u201d as a kind of test one either passes or fails. The emotional and psychological experience of the speaker in this poem is one of the best and most persuasive reasons I know for leaving the traditional, patriarchal version of male heterosexuality behind.<\/p>\n<p><em>Cross posted on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.richardjnewman.com\" target=\"_blank\">my blog<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been reading and thoroughly enjoying a poet too few people read these days, J. V. Cunningham. One day, I will write about why I think he\u2019s worth reading and learning from, even though the kind of poetry he wrote &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=17051\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender-and-the-body","category-men-and-masculinity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17072,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17051\/revisions\/17072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}