Strip (Salt Modern Poets) - Hardcover

Readman, Angela

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1844713032 ISBN 13: 9781844713035

Publisher: Salt Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

Sugar and Spice and All things nice?
Is that what little girls are made of?
Magazines, lippy and a push-up bra?

Porn star, sex symbol, victim or whore? What does it mean to be a woman in the 21st century? Are we born girls? Or are we the products of what has gone before?

Strip reveals the lives of 50's pin-up Bettie Page, hardcore porn stars and the little girl left behind on the way with stunning beauty and poignancy. The poet is not afraid to go beyond the boundaries of taste, and ask what lies beneath images we both admire and demonise. The strong voice of these sensitive and powerful narratives manages to find a sad beauty within lives. These cinematic poems are political in the most subtle sense as they explore the intimacy of power relations, gender, and unpick notions of glamour to find the tale behind the glossy centrefold. The work is a tapestry of how femininity is created, culturally and individually, exposing how the girl on stage stitches together her personae, and then strips her down layer by layer.

Poems that refuse to shy away from the dark, the grotesque and the taboo, but lead us, through an interplay of beautifully crafted, sensuous language, striking visuals, voice and often devastating observation to bring us face to face with the ‘other’ in ourselves. The true shock in these haunting narratives is that these lives speak to all of us about family, sex, power and love.

About this title

About the Author

Angela Readman has worked as a cleaner, a painter, a copywriter for radio, an editor, and lectured at The University of Northubria. She won the Biscuit poetry competition in 2004, and has been published by Diamond Twig, Iron Press, Biscuit. Her work has had work translated into Finnish by Ek Zuban. She currently lives in Newcastle.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

What the Agent Said

How were we supposed to know?
She walked in here like butter wouldn’t melt
on those double D’s, all handbag and a decent ID.
Exploitation? It was her who exploited me;
never saw a fifteen year old with more balls.
A real Lolita, you know the type,
dollar signs in her eyes, anything to be a star.
Now there’s guys who fucked her in all innocence
I feel sorry for, treated like perverts,
never work again. No one asks how they feel.
Yeah, I’ve read the book, well, half.
So you made movies and national news?
Boo-fucking-hoo. She loved it, the attention,
the sex too. In between takes she’d swim naked,
get it on with Sunrise in front of the crew.
Course I know why she lied, she had to.
Shit like that won’t get you on Oprah man.
Only in America dude, in Japan
a girl that age could be married by now.

Edition details

• Publisher: Salt Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844713032
• ISBN 13: 9781844713035
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 80