Androgynous blood flows; genderfluid.
The soy boy hoi polloi stiffen at my command
As slamdunk justice is dispensed with brio.
Spitting bees of love safespacely,
With a skullful of broken hearts I brawl,
Hornlocked and hyperwoke.
Conclusion
Ceci n’est pas une conclusion.
Titania McGrath
Reading over that last poem, I realise with a shudder that my work shall never be surpassed. Poetry ends with me.
Literally everything I do is art. I have a formidable gift. And yet this has its downsides. I find it tedious to be so constantly and consistently admired. As one sycophant recently said, ‘William Blake was the Titania McGrath of his generation.’
It is true that some readers, mostly males, find it difficult to connect with my work. Very occasionally a woman will offer a criticism; a sad indictment of the now common phenomenon of internalised misogyny.
I am too dangerous for the literary establishment. I wield the truth like a sword, and we all know that (s)words can wound.
I am a healer, a weaver of dreams. I have been put on this earth to defend minorities and fight for social justice. My work is not about ego. It is so much bigger than me. This is why I would urge all my readers to spread the word about this book so as many copies as possible can be sold.
If you have made it through these pages then you have taken your first baby steps towards wokeness. But the patriarchy is a behemoth that will not be euthanised with ease. Only the other day I was out shopping for a birthday card for a feminist friend, and could find nothing that wasn’t either pink or based upon traditionally feminine tastes. I had to go to three different stores before I found something suitable. How many more women have to be mildly inconvenienced before we make Gender Studies compulsory in schools?
As you try to change the world, you must prepare yourself for the predictable sneering from the ignorant and the unwoke. They will dismiss you as a ‘social justice warrior’, and accuse you of going out of your way to find things about which to be offended. When they do so, remind them that we live in a heteronormative patriarchy. Everything is offensive.
They will brand your views as ‘Orwellian’. For this reason, it’s a good idea to prepare yourself by studying George Orwell’s most famous novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. I recently read it for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the society depicted therein isn’t quite the terrifying dystopia that everyone claims. There are some very sensible ideas, actually.
You must remember that bigotry is not always immediately apparent. We need to challenge the lazy assumption that people aren’t racist just because they never say or do racist things. Unconscious bias is real. If you don’t believe me, try applying for a job using a traditional black surname such as ‘Mugabe’. See how far you get.
Unconscious bias against Muslims is particularly rampant. Studies show that 96 per cent of respondents would run away if they heard someone shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in a public place.
When it comes to racism, it can’t simply be the responsibility of BAME people to reshape our white supremacist culture. If anything, it’s the whites – the perpetrators of injustice – who should be agitating for change. Film star Anne Hathaway revealed herself to be a virtuous ally when she declared that ‘all black people fear for their lives DAILY in America’. It’s a distressing truth that needed to be articulated, and sometimes the opinions of all black people are best expressed by white celebrity millionaires.
The worst kind of prejudice is that which is subtle, and thereby all the more insidious. We’ve all got a friend who won’t watch a film if it stars Cuba Gooding Jr, who can’t spell Djibouti or who tuts at passing Sikhs. In the moment, such things seem trivial and unworthy of comment, but they can have a cumulative impact on social cohesion.
We need to be proactive. If you aren’t a member of your local Antifa unit, you need to sign up. For those who don’t know, ‘Antifa’ is an abbreviation of ‘antifascist’, which means they’re allowed to punch people in the name of tolerance. As commentator Frank Guan has argued, the idea of social divisions being ‘reconciled through “honest” conversation’ is ‘hopelessly outdated’. Much better to just hit someone over the head with a bike lock.
Antifa are at the forefront of this struggle. In years to come, the history books will record that our socialist utopia was achieved because of middle-class hipsters dressed up as the IRA, pepper-spraying Trump voters and shouting at Jacob Rees-Mogg.
So get involved. Make sure that you are setting the right example. This applies to your appearance as much as your conduct. You can begin by gaining weight. Being skinny is an act of violence. If you have a thin waistline you are, by definition, a bully. It’s passive-aggressive fat-shaming. As Huffington Post reporter Michael Hobbes has argued in his article ‘Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong’, it is the stigma imposed upon the obese by doctors and the media that causes the most damage, rather than the fact that they can’t brush their own teeth without wheezing.
Guard against comedians who mock the oppressed. Promote a new kind of woke culture, one in which comedy itself is eliminated. We should be taking our lead from Saudi Arabia, where satirists can be punished with jail sentences of up to five years. ‘Satire’ has long been a façade for spreading hate.
Make sure you are active online, because when it comes to recalibrating the zeitgeist social media is crucial. Let us not forget that ISIS has been all but defeated through a series of creative hashtags. As well as some late-night vigils with tealights, of course.
Take every opportunity to resist the plague of cultural appropriation. Racial boundaries must be strictly policed. Unlike gender, which is totally fluid.
Challenge your own lifestyle. If there are no women of colour in your immediate family, you need to be asking yourself: why not?
Call out privilege wherever it appears. It is surely no coincidence that it is only ever straight white men – the beneficiaries of structural privilege – who make assumptions about people based on their sexuality, race or gender.
And write to your MP. Demand that the state take a more dynamic involvement in curbing hate. The phrase ‘free speech’ is a racist dog whistle. The only way we can stop fascism is if the police are allowed to arrest people for what they say and think.
So what next for Titania McGrath? It has been an enjoyable experience sharing these thoughts, penning a kind of bible for my woke disciples. But I will not rest until we have achieved our diverse intersectional socialist decolonised polyamorous genderqueer pro-trans body-positive anti-ableist privilege-checking speech-policing hate-free matriarchal utopia. There is still much work to be done as we wade together through the turbid waters of injustice.
I believe that I am at my most effective when I combine my art with my activism. After much consideration, therefore, I have decided that my next project will be to resolve the various conflicts in the Middle East through a short tour of my fem inist slam poetry.
So if any of my readers know of any suitable venues in Mosul, Gaza or the Sista n–Baluchistan province, I would be grateful if they get in touch with my agent.
Community arts centres or vegan cafés work best.
Woke Page 9