This has been one of my favourite poems for a long time, and often one I choose for readings, because it sounds great and the ending always gets a good reaction. 

I was a feminist in the eighties

To be a feminist you need to have
a good night’s sleep.

To be a feminist you need to
have your consciousness raised
and have a good night’s sleep.

To be a feminist you need to
have regard for your personal well-being
have your consciousness raised
and have a good night’s sleep.

To be a feminist you need to
have a crack at financial independence
have regard for your personal well-being
have your consciousness raised
and have a good night’s sleep.

To be a feminist you need to
champion women, have a crack at
financial independence, have regard
for your personal well-being
have your consciousness raised and
have a good night’s sleep.

To be a feminist you need to do the
childminding, washing, shopping, cooking and cleaning
while your mind is on higher matters
and champion women, have a crack
at financial independence, have regard
for your personal well-being
have your consciousness raised
and have a good
night’s sleep.

To be a feminist you need to button
your coat thoughtfully, do the childminding
washing, shopping, cooking and cleaning
while your mind is on higher matters
and champion women, have a crack at
financial independence, have regard for
your personal well-being, have your
consciousness raised and have
a good night’s
sleep.

To be a feminist you need to
engage in mature dialogue with
your spouse on matters of domestic
equality, button your coat thoughtfully
do the childminding, washing, shopping, cooking and cleaning
while your mind is on higher matters
and champion women, have a crack at
financial independence, have regard
for your personal well-being, have
your consciousness raised and
have a good
night’s
sleep.

Then a lion came prowling out of the jungle
and ate the feminist all up.

Kennedy says: ‘This poem was written in the context of a long sequence, Sing-song, which charts the domestic life of a family nursing a child through severe eczema. Among the relentless march of illness, I wanted some poems that looked outward from the main text, like abstractions, reflecting that, no matter what’s going on, our view is never simply one thing. (This is partly why I wrote this narrative as poetry, because it allows quick-change-artist shifts of voice and view.)

“I was a feminist in the eighties” is one of these abstracted poems.

It’s also a bit of a joke about getting real. In my twenties (the 80s), I really did think putting yourself second (or indeed, last!), or looking like death warmed up from tiredness were not feminist aspirations, and certainly something that could never happen to me. On a more serious level, I suppose this poem begs the question of what it is to be a feminist.’

To me, this poem speaks on many levels about what it is to be a woman, not just a feminist, and the expectations that are put on us for being both of these things.

It’s interesting to read Kennedy’s explanation of the poem, because I wasn’t aware it was also linked to illness – but now that makes sense. There is a growing sense of fatigue here that matches not only the trials of trying to be a woman and a feminist, but also trying to deal with chronic pain.

To me, the lion at the end always represented the patriarchy. I’m not sure if that was Kennedy’s intent, but that’s how it feels to me. Like I do everything I can to be a enlightened, thoughtful, compassionate, champion women, look after my house, look after my health – and then there’s always someone who will come along and shatter everything. I gotta say – usually that someone is a dude.

(As an aside, my recent battles with GiggleTV are actually a good example. I am trying to be enlightened, thoughtful, compassionate, champion women, look after my own health and that of others… and every time I see one of those screens with one of those terrible jokes, it reminds me that the rest of the world – the lion – doesn’t see things like I do. And look at the comments on that post – there’s a few lions in there too).

Anyway, I love this poem. I love the cadence, the content, the compassion, and what I feel to be the humour on a very difficult subject. It is especially meaningful to me because I struggle with every single one of the things deemed necessary to be a feminist. I can’t sleep. I’m not financially independent. I’m a terrible cook. And I often button my coat up in all the wrong holes.

… maybe it’s time we became the lion.

ANNE KENNEDY was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1959. She has written a novella, and two novels, Musica Ficta and A Boy and His Uncle, and a book of poems, Sing-song. Many of her short fictions have appeared in journals and anthologies, including ‘Jewel’s Darl’, which won the BNZ/Katherine Mansfield Short Story Award and was made into a short film by Peter Wells. Anne has worked as a screenwriter.