Le Blason Contemporain: On Women Poets' Objectifying of the Male Body

During the French Renaissance, the 'blason' became a popular and an important poetic genre. The 'Blason du corps femenin', in which male poets presented witty, playful descriptions written in praise or blame of individual parts of the female body, attracted particular attention. In 1990, nine contemporary French women poets published a collective volume, Blasons du corps masculin, which updates and recasts this traditional genre. By turns …