Chris' Fish Place

I’m coming late to this party, I have to admit. And for my, the defining feminist changes my outlook and gripped book is Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale.

                Still, you have to be a complete idiot to not see the power in this play (or performance piece). Considering that women’s sexuality is in many ways still owned/controlled by men, this book is still timely. Don’t believe that first part. What is the term for an older man who dates a younger woman? No, I’m not thinking Sugar Daddy. But what would you call Michael Douglas or Tom Cruise? Okay, now what is the term for an older woman (Shakira, say) who dates an insignificantly younger man (say Pique)?             

                Yep, you got it in one. And the age difference between Shakira and Pique is less than between Douglas and Zeta-Jones.

                I’m not blaming any one group here. As long as everyone is a consenting adult, I don’t care, really. What I don’t get is the double standard. A woman who embraces her sexuality is a slut; a man is a stud. A woman doesn’t have the right to have se without judgment. But a man?

                And I’m not saying this is global. I’m not saying all men are pigs and all women aren’t. Seism occurs on both sides of the line.   Quite frankly, the attitude that society has towards male victims of rape is insulting and upsetting. I’m just saying that even in a country where the average woman doesn’t have to worry about female cutting, forced marriage, war rape, and ignorance, the monologues in the book still resonant.

                While it is easy to see the power in the monologue of the rape victims, it is almost as horrifying to read the monologues of women who were taught not to be sexual, who did not have emotionally ownership of their bodies.  The personal stories that come out in monologues work because you know someone like this. I also have to give Ensler props for including an observing viewpoint. I do not like the word cunt. You have no idea how much I hate typing it. I don’t buy the reclaim the word argument. I really don’t. To call someone a cunt is to simply limit a woman down to that aspect of anatomy. It’s the same when you call a guy a dick. So I don’t like it. Ensler actually debates this idea of objectification and reclaiming of the word. Nicely done.