Audience of Cynthia Huntington’s Poem: “Shot Up in the Sexual Revolution: The True Adventures of Suzy Creamcheese"

Cynthia Huntington’s poem, “Shot Up in the Sexual Revolution: The True Adventures of Suzy Creamcheese,” provides an intimate glimpse into the mind of a young woman who is incontent with her sexual experiences. Huntington wrote this piece during the prime of the sexual revolution and the rise of feminism.  The intended audience is most likely young liberals who are similarly struggling with their sexuality.  It can also reach out those that cannot comprehend the mindset of such liberals; an attempt to understand the contemporary “hippie dream.”  She also writes the poem for herself, providing liberation from hiding her deepest emotions and feeling guilt for frustration with the constrained idea of sex.  The poem is a mature work, largely due to the explicit diction, using words generally considered taboo in literature such as, “fuck,” “penis,” “cock,” and “nipples.”  The candid nature of the poem gives a frank sense of what society expects from women, but it is clear that women want more and can do more.  This poem is not for the faint of heart or the callow.  There is much figurative language that portray the raw image of what the female body has to offer. Huntington’s use of rhetoric convinces the audience of genuity and purity though it also has a titillating nature.  One can almost feel for the women that is going such a turmoil in discovering what her body is capable of in a society that has only just opened its eyes to the existence of homosexuality.