The men featured in ¨Siren Song¨ by Margaret Atwood and in ¨Pin up¨ by Billy Collins are lured in by the feminine characters of the poems. The Sirens use their voice to lure the men in, singing ¨the song that forces men/ to leap overboard in squadrons¨ (lines 4-5), driven mad with the desire to reach the half-women, half-bird creatures. The women in the pinups, on the other hand, use their beauty; posing in different provocative scenarios, some ¨wearing/ a straw hat and very short blue shorts, / her(their) shirt(s) tied in a knot just below her(their) breasts.¨ (lines 7-9) while others wear an ¨admiral’s cap, bending/ forward, nesting her(their) hands on a wharf piling, / glancing over the tiny anchors on her(their) shoulders.¨ (lines 10-12). The sensuousness of their poses incite the lust and desire of men, but beside showing considerate amounts of flesh that amount to carnal excitation, the models in the pinup’s also add a psychological factor that greatly serves in attracting the attention of men more fully: the element of pretended innocence, of faked defenselessness.
The model’s attitude of vulnerability seen in the pictures, of being the ¨damsel in distress¨, greatly appeals to the egos of men, automatically, but subconsciously, bringing out their protective side and making them feel as if they have to be the hero of the day and rescue the women. ¨You would like to come to her rescue, / …lead her to safety, and receive her bottomless gratitude. ¨ (lines 27-30) says the man who narrates the ¨Pin up¨ poem, referring to the woman posing in the calendar for the month of March, the epoch of the great winds. Conveniently, the woman is wearing a skirt while walking her dog; and her legs got tangled with her dog’s leash. ¨One hand is busy keeping her hat down on her head/ and the other is grasping the little dog’s leash, / so of course there is no hand left to push down / her dress which is billowing up around her waist¨ (lines 16-19) The feigned attitude of defenselessness, (particularly created by the industry who makes these type of calendars to appeal to the male public) combined with the sensuous and sometimes even erotically charged poses of the models is what lures the man in…¨the leash has wrapped itself around her ankles / several times giving her a rather bridled / and helpless appearance which is added to / by the impossibly high heels she is teetering on.¨ (lines 23-26) , it is the psychological appeal aimed towards the man’s innate and natural desire to ¨rescue¨ women and protect them and the carnal appeal directed to incite the man’s instincts combined that proves to be ¨fatal¨ for the man.
Fortunately, for the man in the ¨Pinup¨ poem, this ¨fatality¨ will only cost him a couple extra dollars. He is in auto mechanic shop, getting his car fixed while busily entertaining himself with the calendar. But the mechanic runs into a problem; ¨It seems that…the job is going to cost more than he had said and take much longer than he had thought.¨ (lines 32-35) Now, instead of the man inquiring as to what the mechanic believes to be the problem or even getting slightly frustrated or suspicious, he shrugs his shoulders, tells the mechanic to continue with his job, and impatiently returns to his calendar and fantasies. ¨Well, it can’t be helped, you hear yourself say / as you return to your place by the workbench, / knowing that as soon as the hammering resumes / you will slowly lift the bottom of the calendar / just enough to reveal a glimpse of what the future holds in store…¨ (lines 36-41)
The ¨fatality¨ for the men in the ¨Siren Song¨ poem proves to be real and has to most definitely be taken in the literal sense of the word. The three sirens lure the men into their island with their song… but it is not their voices specifically that make men go insane with desire, but what the song says, the message within it. ¨This song / is a cry for help: Help me! / Only you, only you can, / you are unique¨ (lines 22-24) The sirens are crying for ¨help¨, asking the men, begging the men, to come and save them, saying that they are special and unique and the only ones capable of being their one and only savior. As in ¨Pinup¨, the feminine characters of the poem (the sirens) are pretending to be helpless in order to lure the men in. They pretend that they need the men’s help to leave the island, to be set free. ¨I don’t enjoy it here / squatting on this island / looking picturesque and mythical¨ (lines 13-15) This is the supposed ¨secret¨, and when the sirens sing out to the men, claiming that they so very desperately need to be saved, it is not difficult for the men to actually believe this. The sirens, however, are only half woman. The other half of their bodies is covered in feathers. To compensate for what they lack, they tell the men through their song that they are fully women, but in disguise. ¨Shall I tell you the secret / and if I do, will you get me / out of this bird suit? ¨ (lines 10-12) The sirens call their bird bodies a suit to make the men believe that they just happen to be stuck in a costume and only need their help to get out of it and reveal the other half of their beautiful, naked bodies, the lower half. This is the carnal incitement of the siren’s song that causes the men to be attracted to them, but what really ends up luring the men into the island other than their beautiful voices and the promise of a female lower body and thus carnal enjoyment is the aforementioned ¨cry for help¨. This cry causes the men to go mad and sail towards the island and towards the sirens, which then causes them to crash into the rocks and drown. ¨Alas / it is a boring song / but it works every time.¨ (lines 25-27) says the siren(s), revealing their true intentions (to lure men into their deaths because they are bored) and an incredible understanding of the male psyche.
Both the physical and psychological appeals in ¨Siren song¨ are based on lies: the sirens are not full women and cannot offer the carnal satisfaction that a female body can offer to men, and they do not need men to save them, but might appreciate a ship passing by with the spirit of getting some fun from toying with the men’s desires and killing them. The models in the pin up pictures are posing, their beauty is real but their helplessness is feigned for the purpose of making the calendar selling industries (and other industries benefited from the selling of those calendars) some money. Either way, the men are toyed with, and they are worse off after having indulged in their mental fantasy that made them believe that these beautiful women (or half women) really were poor, vulnerable creatures, in need of a man to come and rescue them, for which they will offer them their ¨bottomless* gratitude¨. Pun intended.
*bottomless as in naked and as in infinite, for those slow ones who did not get it.
