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Kinky
Book by Duhamel, Denise
90 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1997
5 people are currently reading
482 people want to read
About the author
Denise Duhamel
68Ìýbooks67ÌýfollowersDenise Duhamel's most recent books are Ka-Ching! (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), Two and Two (Pittsburgh, 2005), Mille et un Sentiments (Firewheel, 2005); Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (Pittsburgh, 2001); The Star-Spangled Banner (Southern Illinois University Press, 1999); and Kinky (Orchises Press, 1997). A bilingual edition of her poems, Afortunada de mà (Lucky Me), translated into Spanish by Dagmar Buchholz and David Gonzalez, came out in 2008 with Bartleby Editores (Madrid.) A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, she is an associate professor at Florida International University in Miami.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
September 6, 2024
This was such a fantastic book of poetry - by intersecting Barbie into the life of diffrent women one can see the image the toy has cast over generations of girls - unique and haunting; the poems raise important questions about gender roles and toys - and how we become what we play with in the end.
February 23, 2013
Totally awesome. I'm a sucker for an extended literary conceit, particularly ones that revolve around childhood icons. Duhamel does a good job capturing the ambivalence many adult women feel toward Barbie, i.e. I think I'm supposed to hate all she represents, but I can't stop myself from feeling nostalgic. And, of course, poetry that makes me laugh out loud gets some serious bonus points. Particular favorites of mine are "Barbie in Therapy" Bisexual Barbie" and "Differently Abled Barbies"
June 7, 2018
Duhamel's use of the conceits around Barbie fascinate even if some of the concerns are phrased in a way particular to the late 1990s. Hinting at Barbie's origins as a fetish doll and building on her particular focus as a fetishization of gender and sexuality in US, Duhamel creates an engaging conceit to overlay social satire and commentary upon, on ethnic erasure, body imagery, etc. Yet Duhamel's humor reigns it all in an accessible and yet brave package.
July 16, 2007
I love using this book with intro poetry students in a creative writing class. It helps defeat their preconceived notions of what poetry is or what it should be about.
March 6, 2023
The title of this collection of poems is deliberately provocative and not really indicative of what the covers contain. This is a series of poems about Barbie � the pneumatic, impossibly proportioned doll that permeated (maybe still permeates) almost every girl’s life. I was a Sindy girl, an equally freakishly proportioned lump of plastic but seeing as it was her head rather than her breasts that were outsized my mother may have thought she was the lesser of the evils.
In these poems we see Barbie reimagined as representations of real life women in all the variants that the dolls themselves lack. We have Hispanic Barbie, Bisexual Barbie and Native American Barbie that has the single line,
“There’s only one of her left�.
There are poems where Barbie develops self-awareness, the desire to do things awaken in her but she knows she is limited by the fact her arms are stuck at 90 degrees and she is unable to spread her fingers. We watch her existential crisis, her meetings with a therapist.
There are poems that answer the questions we all asked as kids such as � when they have so many accessories why doesn’t Ken or Barbie wear underwear? Apparently “It is a complicated issue� .
My favourite was the first one, Differently-Abled Barbies which will strike a chord with anyone who had a fashion doll and attempted to modify it (I gave one Sindy a short pixie crop haircut and used a pin to give another nipples in an attempt to make her more realistic) or had it befall some disaster but still kept it and loved it in its new incarnation. Here’s a little taster,
“In Chicago a Barbie
Loses her arm. Only the boy next door knows he has taken it
In Missoula, Montana, a baby sister cuts off most of Barbie’s hair
Not realizing it won’t grow back.
Our impulse to destroy what is whole,
To coddle and love what we have injured.�
Finally a book of modern poetry that had something to say beyond an exploration of the poet’s navel and had skill, wit and wisdom in its writing.
In these poems we see Barbie reimagined as representations of real life women in all the variants that the dolls themselves lack. We have Hispanic Barbie, Bisexual Barbie and Native American Barbie that has the single line,
“There’s only one of her left�.
There are poems where Barbie develops self-awareness, the desire to do things awaken in her but she knows she is limited by the fact her arms are stuck at 90 degrees and she is unable to spread her fingers. We watch her existential crisis, her meetings with a therapist.
There are poems that answer the questions we all asked as kids such as � when they have so many accessories why doesn’t Ken or Barbie wear underwear? Apparently “It is a complicated issue� .
My favourite was the first one, Differently-Abled Barbies which will strike a chord with anyone who had a fashion doll and attempted to modify it (I gave one Sindy a short pixie crop haircut and used a pin to give another nipples in an attempt to make her more realistic) or had it befall some disaster but still kept it and loved it in its new incarnation. Here’s a little taster,
“In Chicago a Barbie
Loses her arm. Only the boy next door knows he has taken it
In Missoula, Montana, a baby sister cuts off most of Barbie’s hair
Not realizing it won’t grow back.
Our impulse to destroy what is whole,
To coddle and love what we have injured.�
Finally a book of modern poetry that had something to say beyond an exploration of the poet’s navel and had skill, wit and wisdom in its writing.
June 20, 2007
This collection takes a satirical look at Barbie and Ken, from sad transgender experiments when they trade heads to Barbie's feelings of loss when she visits a gynecologist. Duhamel makes you laugh and makes you think. Some of her best work.
January 16, 2008
I have always found a loathing in my heart for Barbie & all she stands for. Maybe that's why this book is so dear to my heart. The poetry is wonderful & so perversely funny!
June 18, 2013
Ok, I had to read some poems from this book for a Women in Literature course and I loved it. Funny and Insightful. You never look at Barbie the same again.
Here's the Title poem-
They decide to exchange heads.
Barbie squeezes the small opening under her chin
over Ken’s bulging neck socket. His wide jaw line jostles
atop his girlfriend’s body, loosely,
like one of those novelty dogs
destined to gaze from the back windows of cars.
The two dolls chase each other around the orange Country Camper
unsure what they’ll do when they’re within touching distance.
Ken wants to feel Barbie’s toes between his lips,
take off one of her legs and force his whole arm inside her.
With only the vaguest suggestion of genitals,
all the alluring qualities they possess as fashion dolls,
up until now, have done neither of them much good.
But suddenly Barbie is excited looking at her own body
under the weight of Ken’s face. He is part circus freak,
part thwarted hermaphrodite. And she is imagining
she is somebody else—maybe somebody middle class and ordinary,
maybe another teenage model being caught in a scandal.
The night had begun with Barbie getting angry
at finding Ken’s blow up doll, folded and stuffed
under the couch. He was defensive and ashamed, especially about
not having the breath to inflate her. But after a round
of pretend-tears, Barbie and Ken vowed to try
to make their relationship work. With their good memories
as sustaining as good food, they listened to late-night radio
talk shows, one featuring Doctor Ruth. When all else fails,
just hold each other, the small sex therapist crooned.
Barbie and Ken, on cue, groped in the dark,
their interchangeable skin glowing, the color of Band-Aids.
Then, they let themselves go� Soon Barbie was begging Ken
to try on her spandex miniskirt. She showed him how
to pivot as though he was on a runway. Ken begged
to tie Barbie onto his yellow surfboard and spin her
on the kitchen table until she grew dizzy. Anything,
anything, they both said to the other’s requests,
their mirrored desires bubbling from the most unlikely places.
�
� Kinky
Denise Duhamel
Here's the Title poem-
They decide to exchange heads.
Barbie squeezes the small opening under her chin
over Ken’s bulging neck socket. His wide jaw line jostles
atop his girlfriend’s body, loosely,
like one of those novelty dogs
destined to gaze from the back windows of cars.
The two dolls chase each other around the orange Country Camper
unsure what they’ll do when they’re within touching distance.
Ken wants to feel Barbie’s toes between his lips,
take off one of her legs and force his whole arm inside her.
With only the vaguest suggestion of genitals,
all the alluring qualities they possess as fashion dolls,
up until now, have done neither of them much good.
But suddenly Barbie is excited looking at her own body
under the weight of Ken’s face. He is part circus freak,
part thwarted hermaphrodite. And she is imagining
she is somebody else—maybe somebody middle class and ordinary,
maybe another teenage model being caught in a scandal.
The night had begun with Barbie getting angry
at finding Ken’s blow up doll, folded and stuffed
under the couch. He was defensive and ashamed, especially about
not having the breath to inflate her. But after a round
of pretend-tears, Barbie and Ken vowed to try
to make their relationship work. With their good memories
as sustaining as good food, they listened to late-night radio
talk shows, one featuring Doctor Ruth. When all else fails,
just hold each other, the small sex therapist crooned.
Barbie and Ken, on cue, groped in the dark,
their interchangeable skin glowing, the color of Band-Aids.
Then, they let themselves go� Soon Barbie was begging Ken
to try on her spandex miniskirt. She showed him how
to pivot as though he was on a runway. Ken begged
to tie Barbie onto his yellow surfboard and spin her
on the kitchen table until she grew dizzy. Anything,
anything, they both said to the other’s requests,
their mirrored desires bubbling from the most unlikely places.
�
� Kinky
Denise Duhamel
September 22, 2014
I read this book at Manhattan College as part of a poetry class taught by poet Nick Carbo in 1997. We were all so wet behind the ears back then, and I was living as a monk in a religious order. Talk about culture shock as I read this fabulous book!
One of the poems is called Sister Barbie, and it imagines Barbie as if she were a nun. Well, I loaned the book to a classmate who was reading this poem out on the Quad, when a bird flew over and crapped right on the page! "It's a sign from above!" he laughed as he returned my book to me. I laughed nervously in response, but just a few weeks later, I left the religious order after four years as Brother Sean. Moral of the story? Kinky is one powerful book!
Someone stole my copy a few years ago, so I just bought myself another, and I'm not letting Barbie out of my sight now! Want to read Sister Barbie and all the other incredible poems in this collection? Well, you can't have my copy--so buy your own now!
One of the poems is called Sister Barbie, and it imagines Barbie as if she were a nun. Well, I loaned the book to a classmate who was reading this poem out on the Quad, when a bird flew over and crapped right on the page! "It's a sign from above!" he laughed as he returned my book to me. I laughed nervously in response, but just a few weeks later, I left the religious order after four years as Brother Sean. Moral of the story? Kinky is one powerful book!
Someone stole my copy a few years ago, so I just bought myself another, and I'm not letting Barbie out of my sight now! Want to read Sister Barbie and all the other incredible poems in this collection? Well, you can't have my copy--so buy your own now!
January 17, 2011
Kinky is not about the kind of kinky you're thinking about right now. Nope. Get your mind outta there...right now! It's about the kind of Barbie Doll kinky that makes it hard to talk, keep your head on...because sometimes Ken steals it. My faves: "Astrology Barbie," "Codependent Barbie," "Marriage," and, of course, "Barbie and Carrie." Most memorable line in the book, "I dream of dexterity and crying." Don't we all? Well, I know I do.
July 31, 2014
I love Denise Duhamel. There's not a poem she's written that I don't think is awesome. And a whole book of poems about Barbie? Seriously?
Let me give you a great example. A poem entitled Native American Barbie.
Native American Barbie
There's only one of her left.
Humorous, political, relevant though the book was published in 1997. Good stuff, everyone should read it, as well as Duhamel's other books. My favorite American poet, after myself.
Let me give you a great example. A poem entitled Native American Barbie.
Native American Barbie
There's only one of her left.
Humorous, political, relevant though the book was published in 1997. Good stuff, everyone should read it, as well as Duhamel's other books. My favorite American poet, after myself.
July 31, 2009
A masterful tongue-in-cheek collection of poetry that rejects double standards and oppression as it pertains to women in a quirky original style using the iconographic Barbie doll. One of my favorite books!
August 1, 2010
This book is brilliant. She uses Barbie as a metaphor throughout the entire collection, and addresses many aspects of American culture and misogyny in general, while making Barbie a first person character and giving her a voice.
August 27, 2010
This is a great collection of poems that throws Barbie into an unexpected light. Duhamel imagines the doll as a religious zealot, a beatnik, a therapy-obsessed trainwreck, and in dozens of other scenarios that are equally illuminating and provocative.
October 13, 2008
Don't let the name scare you. These are fabulous poems all about Barbie in various hypothetical modern roles.
September 19, 2009
Poor Barbie. Mattel's such a dick.
December 25, 2009
Possibly one of my favorite collections of poetry to date.
June 20, 2012
I enjoyed the exploration of Barbie from different social lenses, but the poetry itself was less than lyric.
May 16, 2015
Best. My favorite contemporary poet.
December 5, 2015
An entire poetry collection about Barbie, what could be better!?
January 12, 2008
This book is a sexy blend of hysteric and obsessive writing. Duhamel, while concentrating on a single theme (in this case Barbie), pulls almost everything into the poem�-literature, astrology, apocalypse, religion. The book’s organization is playful, with section titles such as “Lipstick,� “Power Blush,� “Mascara,� and “Eye Shadow.� I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the book as a whole, which has wide and wild appeal. My favorite individual poem is "Math Class is Tough."
June 10, 2014
A whole book of poems dedicated to Barbie? Yep. Duhamel gets pretty political/ religious / racy/ scandalous / etc etc. I mean, she owns the world of Barbie in this collection. A social commentary but also very entertaining.
July 27, 2007
Very original voice.
October 22, 2008
Brilliant and witty.
January 21, 2011
great!
May 15, 2012
Barbie poems...nuff said
January 28, 2018
First read in 1999.
July 1, 2021
o melhor livro de 2021
January 9, 2022
These poems (collection published in 1997) mostly hold up and are mostly wonderful.
from "Kinky" (title poem)
...Barbie and Ken vowed to try
to make their relationship work. With their good memories
as sustaining as good food, they listened to late-night radio
talk shows, one featuring Doctor Ruth. When all else fails,
just hold each other, the small sex therapist crooned.
Barbie and Ken, on cue, groped in the dark,
their interchangeable skin glowing, the color of Band-Aids.
Then, they let themselves go� Soon Barbie was begging Ken
to try on her spandex miniskirt. She showed him how
to pivot as though he was on a runway. ...
from "Kinky" (title poem)
...Barbie and Ken vowed to try
to make their relationship work. With their good memories
as sustaining as good food, they listened to late-night radio
talk shows, one featuring Doctor Ruth. When all else fails,
just hold each other, the small sex therapist crooned.
Barbie and Ken, on cue, groped in the dark,
their interchangeable skin glowing, the color of Band-Aids.
Then, they let themselves go� Soon Barbie was begging Ken
to try on her spandex miniskirt. She showed him how
to pivot as though he was on a runway. ...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
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