A poet is suggesting that God, in a sense, raped Mary. But to do so takes away her agency – her choice. A radical woman’s voice.
On May 18, award-winning poet Danez Smith cited a poem by Tyree Daye, a teaching assistant professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, that appeared to accuse God of raping Mary, or placing “a baby” in her “without her permission.” Thousands of people reacted to Smith on Twitter – many of whom emphasized the Virgin Mary’s consent to a Baby Jesus in Scripture: “May it be.” But that didn’t satisfy Smith.
The debate started when Smith quoted one of Daye’s poems in a tweet: “I knew God / was a man / because he put / a baby in Mary / without her / permission.”