Gemineye's "Penny for Your Thoughts" effectively challenges various gendered stereotypes concerning sexuality / sexual relationships; mainly, the assumption that men are more preoccupied with and / or take more pleasure from participating in carnal acts of sex vs. forming intimate emotional relationships.
The primary poetic "device" that Gemineye utilizes to challenge the aforementioned gendered stereotype is a sort of semantic "inversion" or "twist." In other words, just as he begins to form a rather vivid, sexually explicit scene, he quickly and creatively inverts his meaning to reinforce a sense of emotional vs. carnal intimacy:
"Getting intimately closer as we approach the
Climatic altitude of nude, mental, sensational… conversation.
Because I’m trying to get to know everything about you
From the neck… UP."
Via the first portion of the above "stanza," notice how Gemineye begins to construct his scene via utilizing words that connotatively resonate with a sense of explicit sexuality (e.g., "climatic," "nude," and "sensational"). However, just as the listener assumes / expects Gemineye will complete his scene with a final serving of sexually explicit detail (e.g., the "typical" male attitude / response), he redirects attention away from the carnal body, to the emotional mind. Similarly, just as the reader assumes / expects Gemineye to be interested in his partner from the neck down (carrying further implied sexual connotations via drawing attention to the stereotypically sexualized female organs), he again inverts his meaning to draw attention to the symbolic center of his partner's emotional vs. carnal self.
However, via the use of these semantic inversions, notice how a sense of explicit sexuality is not purged from how Gemineye conceptualizes his relationship with his partner. Instead, I argue that Gemineye's use of this sort of poetic inversion effectively allows this raw explicitness to transition from his partner's body to her mind, losing absolutely no power as this border is crossed:
"I want to lick every inch of every crevasse
So I can get an oral fix from each orifice
And taste you passionate... IMAGINATION."
Again, when the reader assumes / expects Gemineye to complete this scene via referencing some sort of carnal, sexual act, he immediately shifts this sense of explicitness away from his partner's physical body, to something that is not physical. In short, I argue that this poem would not be nearly as effective if Gemineye completely purged it of it's sense of explicit sexuality. Instead, this sense of explicit sexuality creatively exoticizes and sexualizes the emotional characteristics of his partner, characteristics that men are typically assumed not to be interested in forming a truly intimate and / or satisfying relationship with.
Gemineye's use of this semantic inversion would not be NEARLY as effective if "Penny for Your Thoughts" was simply recited vs. performed:
"I’m penetrating every entrance… to your mind."
For example, the pause denoted by the ellipses does not guarantee that the listener will stop and process for the necessary amount of time for the inversion to "work." However, when performed, Gemineye consciously pauses, gives the listener adequate time to process part one of the semantic inversion, and then proceeds. As a result, the silent "rests" created by these pauses can be interpreted as the "loudest," most meaning-dependent features of the poem. In short, if not performed, the core quality of Gemineye's poem would be rendered ineffective.
Although Gemineye's use of this semantic inversion is definitely creative, effective, and admirable, I found the aggressive, intense tone that he utilizes to perform his poem to strangely contrast with his intended purpose. Via the utilization of this aggressive, intense tone, I argue that Gemineye perhaps unwittingly reinforces the potentially destructive gendered stereotype that men are inherently aggressive, angry beings. Although Gemineye's focus shifts from the body to the emotions across his semantic inversions, his aggressive, angry, and intense tone remains static. While his tone remains unchanged across these semantic shifts, I feel as though Gemineye is sending the message that male anger cannot be diffused; instead, it can only change forms and "must" otherwise be directed at something.
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