Critical interpretations of creative texts are hugely influenced by the title of the work and the name of the poet tagged onto it. In pedagogic praxis, this may lead to the stabilization of certain meanings which fix the poem within a stereotypical framework. Carol Ann Duffy’s “Standing Female Nude” that demands an inevitable reading from a feminist perspective. The feminist critical interpretation is endorsed by the poet being a female and the words in the title, ‘female’ and ‘nude’. Functioning as a canonical text prescribed in the syllabus of English Literature courses, the poem may seem to stagnate within stereotyped interpretations of victimization. This paper attempts to read the poem from its inevitable feminist perspective, while moving beyond to elucidate the working of Elaine Showalter’s ‘feminine’, ‘feminist’ and ‘female’ theoretical categories in Duffy’s “Standing Female Nude”. The paper looks at how the reading of the poem against Picasso’s painting and Showalter’s critical essay envisages the creative and critical significance of the poem.

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