Eileen Myles

One of the reasons why Myles chooses to focus so much of their work on female narratives, apart from the display of their own personal identity, was to bring about equality for women as a whole. In the 20th century, women were generally considered inferior to men and did not get access to the same amenities and life pleasures, were usually confined to a household managerial role, and were not given the opportunity to experiment with the many offerings in the world to pursue their passions and desires. Myles realized that this stigma was especially true when they first moved to New York and began working on the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church. So, they made a concerted future effort to shed some more light on this prominent issue, raise greater awareness in their community, and hopefully bring about tangible change to the world in their lifetime. A clear presence of these goals can be seen through the novel Cool for You, published in the last decade of the twentieth century. Note that its content deals with societal events occurring in the early to mid twentieth century, which allows integration with Myles’ other books and poems, as well as those of other New York School poets.

Cool for You is an examination of Myles' working class childhood in Boston, surrounded by women trapped in their pre-existing rigid gender roles during the American 1950s, 1960s, and shockingly continuing until the end of the 1970s. This book focuses in particular on the women in Myles' family, and the ways in which society traps women in small places. [3] In the examination of the feminine stereotype, the novel implements non-quantifiable figurative writing, in terms of the role of Myles' mother in their life and her overall influence on Myles' career trajectory, as well as literal writing, seen through some of the scenes in the nursing home where the main character escapes from confinement to successfully visit their grandmother. In the grand scheme of things, this story revolves around the protagonist's desire to break free out of small spaces and carve out a large self-freedom, in terms of the previously-held restrictions of gender and career. Through this novel, Myles is able to take the conversation regarding feminine equality and societal uplift, and steer it away from themselves to apply it to the large contingent of females that look up to them. They use their primary focus regarding their personal identity to generate a secondary focus based on a clear global identity - an identity of inclusion and acceptance that needs to be firmly imprinted in society.

The narrative present in Cool for You easily resonates with a large number of their audience members, as a majority of the female portion would have likely felt some sort of oppression in their lives, ranging from minute disagreements within their own families to a fundamental disagreement with their position in the defined global hierarchy. As a result, Eileen Myles has galvanized their audience toward a common goal of major societal change, and continued to do so in their future publications in an effort to revamp the underlying structure of male-female relations. Looking at the present day, we can confidently say that Myles was successful in their efforts, as women have rose to new heights never seen before, and have become much more equal with men in terms of available opportunities.

In 1977 and 1979, Eileen Myles published issues of Dodgems, a literary magazine whose title, in the vernacular of Great Britain, referenced the particular bumper cars of Revere Beach, Massachusetts. The meaning of this title, the disorderly and unorganized chaos of a bumper car ride, serves to represent the collisions of aesthetic differences that characterized the poetry scene of the time period. [5]. These collisions emanated from the integration of different poetic movements such as New York School work, Language Poetry, Performance Texts, and unconventional prose. Specifically, Dodgems published radical poetry from notable celebrity artists of the time period, such as John Ashberry, Barbara Guest, and Charles Bernstein. It also shed light on the more modern, evolving, and casual part of society with its contribution of a letter from the celebrity Lily Tomlin, as well as an angry note from a random neighbor!

When Myles landed into the New York poetry scene in the early 1920s, they were placed right into the center of the avant-garde movement, where everyone they met took it upon themselves to flaunt their expressive personalities and unconventional ideals to them. There were so many approaches that seemed socially acceptable for the time period, and because Myles came from a doctrinaire Catholic background, they were accustomed to following only a single defined ideal as correct, and rejecting all other concepts that were either unfamiliar or vague [5]. They had little experience, and weren't open to learning from some man or woman of their age or older the “truth.” As such, when they started out, their “avant-garde” was a shakily defined grid that attempted to combine many of the illusionist approaches they had been exposed to, and they weren’t able to decide on being a steadfast lesbian proponent. This initial uncertainty is exemplified in their two year publication of Dodgems. By exposing not only the world but also themselves to the works of Bernstein, Notley, and Tomlin, Myles was able to examine the avant-garde aspect of the works of each of these poets and dissect the minute particularities of their creativity in editing. Their thorough editing process gave them a sense of feeling, and allowed them to consider their goals from the mindset of an external reader. As a result of this experience with Dodgems, they were able to identify their true calling as a lesbian and structure their future artistic works accordingly. Dodgems was critical to the development of Myles’ personality.

Click the list of authors on the right to learn more about the specific details of the magazine and the technological mimeograph involved in its production.

Referenced in Chelsea Girls as the memoir published at the book signing that initially questioned but later cemented Myles’ realization of their lesbian sexuality, A Fresh Young Voice From the Plains contains numerous poems that are enriched by their litany of sexual undertones and societal connections. Here, the specific poem in consideration is Myles’ work Along the Strand. This work is a clear reflection of how the combination of sex and drugs was a paramount feature of Myles’ existence, dating back all the way to their years as a blooming adult. In the very first stanza, Myles proclaims, “Or like that time I fell in love with Morning, it was something that I could stay with. I would stick around but it slipped into Noon and again I fell in love; at twilight I was meditative and prayerful and at night I was in love with someone I could not see" [8]. Myles clearly displays to engage in acts of sexual activity at any point in the twenty-four hour cycle, from the earliness of sunrise all the way to the dimness of sunset, along with the period of pitch-black dark in between. They do not require any period of resolution, and can continue to engage in sexual activity for however long she wants to. In addition, the fact that Myles is personifying the different phases of the day such as ‘Morning’ and ‘Noon’, evidenced by the capitalization, shows that they do not even need a partner alongside their to obtain sexual arousal; rather, Myles’ joy and passion, arising from the tenacity in their belief of being a loud and proud lesbian, allows them to be pleasured simply by themselves at any point in time [9]. Clearly, the reader will develop a firm impression surrounding Eileen Myles that is underlined by their gender and sexuality, which is what they desire in this work and the rest of their literature.

This praise of sexual identity continues throughout the rest of the poem, with varying levels of depth and explicitness. Myles credits their mother for fostering within them a sense of boldness when she reminisces, “My mother taught me sex was dirty, which was exciting. She taught me love is romantic. I didn’t start fucking till quite late. Exciting, romantic, I am quite sure it is the one thing I have invented" [7]. Myles shows to their audience that they are not only happy that they continue to engage in multiple sexual endeavors; they also heavily value the thematic factors of intensity and romance that play a major role in defining the quality of the sex. They obtain a great thrill if the deed is done in secret as part of an affair, unbeknownst to everyone involved, or even plainly in the open to intentionally trigger the disapproval of others. In essence, they are proud of the uniqueness of their action in the sexual world, which perfectly corresponds to their identification as a lesbian. In fact, when Myles states that ‘it’ is the one thing that they “invented”, ‘it’ actually refers to the new lesbian gender group in society! Like an engineer, they are methodically constructing a persona and paving the way for their character to be widely implemented throughout the community. Myles is acutely aware of the revolutionary aspect of their lesbian self, and is not afraid to flaunt it. The reader sees this confidence and is inspired by the magnitude of their feat.

Myles finishes up the poem with an especially striking visual picture. They describe, “Black, white, and grey. Even as she lay dying. Even as she first fucked and her lover’s words caressed her like smoke, inventing pools in her gorgeous and tangled black hair” [7]. Myles concludes that, even though their, or any dissenting personality, engaged in a life radically different from the rest of the societal world, their end outcome is exactly the same as that of normal people. You hair will turn from black to white and grey, and you will die, aware of the tangible impact that you have left on the world. Beneath this description is the underlying question being posed: if there is absolutely no difference between the death of a normal person, who didn’t espouse sexuality of any kind, versus the death of a sexuality-proponent person like Myles, then what is stopping you changing the world? Through a clear reminder that the world is what you make of it, Myles creates a call to action among the members of their audience, particularly encouraging the women to be like them and experiment with a lesbian identity as a stepping stone toward identifying their true selves [8]. As we see in our current society, the LGBTQ movement is on the ever-expanding rise, and more and more women are becoming more comfortable in coming out as lesbians. Overall, Myles has not only impacted the immediate readers of their work, but also any future generations - their efforts have changed society as a whole.

Myles uses their narratives of resistance, pain, and joy to shed light on the other major societal problems that were taking place during the 20th century. They use their personal experience as a queer woman in a male-dominated world to provide additional insight on difficulties that they felt applied to a majority of the population, such as homelessness, poverty, AIDS, and the political climate of the United States [9]. The direct nature of their writing adds to the strength of these claims, and essentially forces society to consider the negative impact that these issues could have if potential measures to rectify them are not immediately implemented. We see an example of this specific type of publication in their piece "An American Poem," published by Myles as part of their memoir Not Me in 1991.

On the surface level, this poem is an autobiographical narrative of Myles' life from 1949 to 1991, the time of publication. However, Myles uses the specific details of their story to reveal evocative commentary on the American world's detrimental state. For example, in the introduction, Myles imagines, "Can you imagine having the benefits of being born into such a wealthy and powerful American family?" [10]. Here, Myles is alluding to the fact that, while there may be a minute subsection of the American population that lives a privileged life, the rest of the community is barely able to meet their basic necessities, or even struggling to make ends meet! They continue to hint at this glaring disparity throughout the rest of the piece, and stimulate a call to action from their upper-class audience. This call is to create an economic balance through equal monetary distribution to aid the middle and lower societal classes.

Later on in the text, Myles passionately reveals, "You are the new Americans. The homeless are wandering through the streets of our nation's greatest city. Homeless men with AIDS are among them. Is that right? There are no homes for the homeless, there is no medical care for these men" [10]. They build upon their argument of financial disparity and explicitly lists several unfortunate consequences that result: inability to find room and board, the rapidly-spreading AIDS epidemic, and the plethora of spreading diseases. Moreover, Myles strikes a nerve in the community when she explicitly states that "men" are the ones bearing this catastrophe. If men, typically the dominant and unflappable portion of society, face so much suffering, then the reader can only imagine the additional burden bore by women of a similar economic status simply due to their sex. They thus paints a depressing and resonating picture that motivates Americans to take action to improve societal quality.

Finally, Myles concludes the poem with, "But I am no longer ashamed, no longer alone. I am not alone tonight because we are all Kennedys. And I am your president" [10]. Here, Myles indicates that the political instability of the United States, stemming from John F. Kennedy, is responsible for this mismanagement of resource capital and all of the ensuing problems. They desire a governmental change to a structure that prioritizes the underprivileged over the privileged. In fact, Eileen Myles actually ran as an openly lesbian presidential candidate in the 1992 election, in an attempt to bring about first-hand societal modifications based on their community ideals [11].