Standing Female Nude Poem

The poem is a monologue spoken by a model in a Paris studio. The model admits to being a “river whore” who sells her body in many ways. Here, she is posing nude for an artist who wants to make a great piece of art and earn himself a great reputation. Whereas she is simply doing it to earn “a few francs”. The poem portrays the business deal between the model and the artist.

The Thesis statement for my essay is, “The deemed immoral Standing Female Nude is amoral, for her nudity or prostitution is all about business and living for today”

The poet’s gender opinion is dramatized by very use of the title itself, “Standing Female Nude”. Society, especially at the time when the poem was crafted, would condemn and judge the nude female model as immoral

She has brought upon the immoral aspect of the business and then she reflects on how exposing her nude body the immoral “river whore” gets sanitized into moral ‘Art’. This is when the second protagonist situation comes in, the models perceptions about the bourgeoisie reactions to what the artist has painted. The model says that “the bourgeoisie will coo at such an image of a river –whore .They call it Art.” Through this the poet shows how perceptions in society about gender change with context .In person, the nude model is a River Whore and on Canvas she is a great piece of ‘Art’ befitting the attention of people like “the Queen of England” who believe that ‘the Art’ is , “Magnificent”!

The murmuring and the ogling of the painting at the great museums by the commoners, clearly explains gender bias. Duffy has used a pun on the word ‘hung’ to show how the model feels about it. When the painting gets completed the model believes it will be hung and showcased at great museums and the pun here is that the model is in so much pain that she feels like a piece of meat being ‘hung’ in front of hungry animals. This shows us how morally the model isn’t proud or happy about her profession, because she is being objectified. But, amorally she doesn’t care about it and it does not bother

Duffy uses sexual symbolism, “he possesses me on canvas” to show the artist believes that owns the model on the canvas ,as he has the liberty to portray her the way he wishes and paint her with the colors of his choice. Even though the Artist morally paints her to earn his living he craves to possess the nude model in real life (an immoral act), but cannot afford the nude model’s fees for sex. The lack of focus of the artist from his primary objective of painting of the nude model to her being his object of his desire, points to the gender bias .This brings out the immorality and amorality of the model and the sense of business very clearly. Now, I quote the nude model from stanza three, “There are times he does not concentrate and stiffens for my warmth. He possesses me on canvas as he dips the brush repeatedly into the paint. Little man, you’ve not the money for the arts I sell. Both poor we make our living how we can.” Also, at the same time it is very evident that the artist does not care about the welfare of the model , but making his painting more appealing ( the appeal being more fullness of a women ) and so comments on the lack of “volume & space” in the model due to her thinning down. The irony here is that he is not paying her well enough due to which she (the model) is thinning down and rather than increasing her fee, he is complaining about it to her. Neither does the artist pay for