Is Robbie Clark correct in asserting that men and women write categorically different poetry?

Question

In the movie "I'm Not There," Robbie Clark (Heath Ledger) asserts that men and women have access to different kinds of pain, and thus that "chicks can't be poets." I don't agree with that, but men and women most certainly do have access to different kinds of pain. Does it not logically follow, then, that the expression of that pain is categorically different? In other words, do poems written by men have inherent differences from poems written by women?

Answer 1

I googled 'Bob Dylan lyrics' and 'Patti Smith lyrics' and chose the first lyrics from both of the first websites I found. This is from Uncle Bob's '10 000 men':

"Ten thousand men on a hill,

Ten thousand men on a hill,

Some of 'm goin' down, some of 'm gonna get killed.

.....  Ooh, baby, thank you for my tea!

Baby, thank you for my tea!

It's so sweet of you to be so nice to me".

This is from Patti Smith's 'About a boy'

"about a boy

beyond it all

about a boy

beyond it all

[ ]

I stood among them

I stood alone

boy boy

just a boy

just a little boy

[ ]

just a little boy

who will never grow".

Interesting that both address gender, and both certainly seem to express different concerns. I like the form of Smith's effort better - Dylan's is a bit simplistic though probably this is intentional - but I prefer the content of Dylan's as it is generally more uplifting. Re gender issues: both seem to be ambivalent about gender roles, though Smith is ambivalent about male sexuality and Dylan about the requirement for men to be soldiers etc (or so it seems to me).

Edit

Btw  both of these artists are considered poets by many.

Answer 2

Never thought along those lines.

I suppose its possible that they may. But I dont thnk it would be that different. If it were it would render the works near enough inaccessible to an entire gender, meaning that poetry would end up being divded so much by a lack of being able to grasp anything much of what was being conveyed.

--And to the dumb woman above that seems to think that all things in soceity are male dominated, and that a woman sending her work for publication is somehow developing a complex because of it. Do men do the same thing? Or did they finish growing up first, unlike all the women you seem to insist that find daddy in any man with power over thier ability to publish or not?

Perhaps you need to finish your growing up or seek help with that little problem you have.

Answer 3

No scientific evidence for this.

Answer 4

No, I don't think the expression would be inherently different. The tone of said poetry could follow any sort of emotion.

Answer 5

I don't know if this relates to poetry or not however I'm sure you must be aware that the English literary canon is dominated by male writers. Sure we have some great female writers, however most great classics are written by men because women were essentially throttled.

According to Harold Bloom in his Anxiety of Influence, male writers suffer from anxiety of influence through which there is a constant conflict of oedipal dimensions between the male writer and his literary forefathers. Bloom pretty much focused his writing on male writers, however Gilbert and Gubar argued that women suffer from Anxiety of Authorship.

Through the anixiety of authorship, the female writer is expected to succumb to the patriarchal hierarchy, or in this case, the Oedipus complex, as a consequence of which she surrenders herself to the male representation of the female within the male literary canon (desire of the father), and essentially rejects the pre-Oedipal desire of the mother, ultimately leading to a renunciation of a female literary tradition.

The female writer must begin to "resocialise" on her own terms and must begin to define her own existence without succumbing to any patriarchal definition of her existence.

EDIT

Grow up Andy although I admit that I don't expect a member of the male species to comprehend anything complex.

Answer 6

What 'different pains' are these? Pain is pain whatever the cause; physical pain is unversal which is probably why we have only one word for it, with various adjectives attached to add effect: excruciating, terrible etc.

Emotional pain, as a result of death, loss, divorce, shame. How do these differ, except perhaps for the responses? And no evidence that it it is s*x divided.

The differences in poetry are nothing to do with pain. Rather they arise from apprehending the world from the position of a man or woman and the different experiences each s*x has. For the most part, it is hard to distinguish between male and female poetry unless it explicitly references a particular s*x. Most experiences are shared.