As I've said before, I'm very much on Geraldine's wavelength re this
topic and I agree with her that women only anthologies have done the
opposite of integrate. I know this is a very iffy issue but I would
say that WO anthologies etc have done much to benefit certain
individual women, but at the expense of women's poetry in general.
Why? Wow, there's a question.
Even more iffy to counter, Carrie said
"Every day I have experiences that are informed by stereotyped
perceptions of my identity as a woman..."
I've two questions regarding this.
1. How can you tell a stereotyped perception from a non-stereotyped
perception?
2. Can I, as a male, even consider, in the complex interactions of
reality, the notion of being perceived stereotypically by women, let
alone complain about such a possibility?
Poetry, like anything else, should be judged/read/taken in/criticized/
enjoyed/praised for what it is, not because of the gender, colour,
class, profession, nationality, politics, character etc of the person
who wrote it.
And that's it.
All the best
Tim A.
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