I am reading Marcel Duchamp’s biography by Calvin Tompkins and while doing this the sense of the time in which he lived is enlivened with stories, characters and moments, some historicized, others privately retold. One of these characters briefly mentioned is Mina Loy. I first came across Mina Loy as an undergrad in an intro to poetry class. I remember being drawn to her since angst love scorned but feisty women have always been beacons for me. Seeing her name again made me think about her more and to think about the time in which she inhabited and the men she encountered both as peers and as lovers. The time of the aughts during the turn of the 20th century was fertile for the avant-garde, the avant-garde you think of when you think the word “avant-garde” of Paris, of salons, of Gertrude Stein, and of a budding New York bohemian class.
This time was the time of men, many whom have impressed
their mark into the artistic landscape that may feel dated today but still
leave grappling tracks for any who wish to be considered equal to their
measure. In this time there were
women like Mina Loy, women who were both muse and artist. Mina was a beautiful women and
she had marriages, romances, and children with men that were of note and
influence in this scene. What is
interesting is that there seems to be, through her life, a trajectory that is
similar to her male counterparts.
She left her children for new lives, new loves and for freedom of self
and her art. She traveled to the places where things were happening and made
her presence known. Leaving
her children during these quests is shocking, even today. When men do it, it is seen as a shame but
something that is somehow understandable because it is at the quest of
something bigger, greater, more advanced then the necessity of nurture. I don’t know much about the full reason
or results of Loy’s own self-centric quest but I remark on it to contrast how
females and males are judged in this act.
The fact that women have artistic and existential drives as strong as
males should be recognized. Sadly,
it isn’t. Even today, the
liberations of artistic pursuits are impinged on the mark of your sex and the
obligations that it brings.
I’m not much of a fan of Loy’s poetry. It is a bit too dramatic for my liking
but still, there is force and there is sense of necessity to it, if even only
for the writer. What has affected
me the most about Loy is that she is not just another women in the books who is
either the passive beauty, bulldog patron, or the admiring fan. Her merits were earned and they were
acknowledged, even if to a lesser degree then her equal or lesser male peers. In addition, she was a woman and there
are no apologies or masking of this in her romantic pursuits or her
oeuvre. This is the source she
draws from, which today may seem like an easy pool to tap from but then, as it
is still is now, it is as honest as any source.
Has it changed for women poets, artists, writers, musicians,
and all else who have internal creative landscapes who desire to express this
in the form of artistic output?
Yes and no. Things are different, as it should be with the efforts of
Loy and many before and after, but still there is the reoccurrence of the
female archetype in the arts even today.
There is the muse, the girlfriend, the supporter, the breadwinner, the
hobbyist... There is no answer, no
set solutions; there is only the honesty in recognizing and acknowledging the
things of the past and the situation of the current. Did Mina Loy want to be in the Boys Club? I don’t think so, that wasn’t the goal,
that never should be the goal.
Below is Mina Loy’s “Feminist Manifesto” from 1914. Although not all parts are in alliance
with my personal beliefs, it is interesting nonetheless to see a marker of that
time and a specific articulation of such an immense thing.
Feminist Manifesto (1914)
Women if you want to
realize yourselves-you are on the eve of a devastating psychological
upheaval-all your pet illusions must be unmasked—the lies of centuries have got
to go—are you prepared for the Wrench–? There is no half-measure—NO scratching
on the surface of the rubbish heap of tradition, will bring about Reform, the
only method is Absolute Demolition
Cease to place your
confidence in economic legislation, vise-crusades & uniform education-you
are glossing over Reality.
Professional &
commercial careers are opening up for you—
Is that all you want?
Is that all you want?
And if you honestly
desire to find your level without prejudice—be Brave & deny at the
outset—that pathetic clap-trap war cry Woman is the equal of man-
For
She is NOT
For
She is NOT
The man who lives a life
in which his activities conform to a social code which is protectorate of the
feminine element—–is no longer masculine
The women who adapt
themselves to a theoretical valuation of their sex as a relative impersonality,
are not yet Feminine
Leave off looking to men
to find out what you are not —–seek within yourselves to find out what you are
As conditions are at
present constituted—you have the choice between Parasitism, & Prostitution
—-or Negation
Men & women are
enemies, with the enmity of the exploited for the parasite, the parasite for
the exploited—at present they are at the mercy of the advantage that each can
take the others sexual dependence—-. The only point at which the interests of
the sexes merge—is the sexual embrace.
The first illusion it is
to your interest to demolish of women into two classes the mistress, & the
mother every well-balanced & developed woman knows that is not true. Nature
has endowed the complete functions—-there are no restrictions on the woman who
is so incompletely evolved as to be un-self-conscious in sex, will prove a
restrictive influence on the temperamental expansion of the next generation;
the woman who is a poor mistress will be an incompetent mother—an inferior
mentality—& will enjoy an inadequate apprehension of Life.
To obtain results you
must make sacrifices & the first and greatest sacrifice you have to make is
of your ”virtue”
The fictitious value of
a woman as identified with her physical purity—is too easy to
stand-by—rendering her lethargic in the acquisition of intrinsic merits of
character by which she could obtain a concrete value—-therefore, the fist
self-enforced law for the female sex, as a protection of the man made bogey of
virtue—which is the principal instrument of her subjection, would be the
unconditional surgical destruction of virginity through-out the female
population at puberty—-.
The value of man is
assessed entirely according to his use or interest to the community, the value
of woman depends entirely on chance, her success or in success in maneuvering a
man into taking the life-long responsibility of her—
The advantages of
marriage are too ridiculously ample—
Compared to all other trades—for under modern conditions a woman can accept preposterously luxurious support from a man (with-out the return of an sort—even offspring)—as a thank offering for her virginity.
The woman who has not
succeeded in striking that advantageous bargin—-is prohibited from any but
surreptitious re-action to Life-stimuli—-&entirely debarred maternity.
Every woman has a right to maternity—-
Every woman has a right to maternity—-
Every woman of superior
intelligence should realize her race-responsibility, in producing children in
adequate proportion to the unfit or degenerate members of her sex—-
Each child of a superior
woman should be the result f a definite period of psychic development in her
life—-& and not necessarily of a possible irksome & outworn continuance
of an alliance—spontaneously adapted for vital creation n the beginning but not
necessarily harmoniously balanced as evolution.
For the harmony of race,
each individual should be the expression of an easy & ample
interpenetration of the male & female temperaments—free of stress
Woman must become more responsible for the child than man—-
Woman must destroy in themselves, the desire to be loved—
The feeling that it is a
personal insult when a man transfers his attention from her to another woman
The desire for
comfortable protection instead of an intelligent curiosity & courage in
meeting & resisting the pressure of life sex or so called love must be
reduced to its initial element, honour, grief, sentimentality, pride and &
consequently jealousy must be detached from it.
Woman for her happiness must retain her deceptive fragility of appearance, combined with indomitable will, irreducible courage, & abundant health the outcome of sound nerves—
Another great illusion is that woman must use all her introspective and clear-sightedness & unbiased bravery to destroy—for the sake of her self respect is the impurity of sex the realization in defiance of superstition that there is nothing impure in sex—except in the mental attitude to it—will constitute an incalculable & wider social regeneration than it is possible for our generation to imagine.
