While reading Written on The Body, I was wondering what gender the narrator was throughout the whole novel. Initially, before reading the novel I already had my mind set on a female, the reason being because the class is about Gender, Image, and Rhetoric and we have been discussing a lot about homosexuality as well as intersexuality. So of course, going into the book I already have my mind set on that the narrator is a female just based off the class. Actually reading the novel, I wasn't exactly sure. The narrator has love affairs with plenty of females who are married, which I know happens a lot these days. Yet, like I discussed in my last blog, how many females would actually cheat on their husbands with other man...and then end up going back to their husband? I'm sure the main reason why females would even cheat on their spouse is due to their marriage is boring, they do the same rituals every day and they stop having sex. So most females cheat on their husbands with another male who can give them the satisfaction that they're husband can not. Now, I am not an expert in a situation like this because I have not been exposed to or had a first hand experience with something like this, but that is just based off my instincts. If a females will cheat on their husband with another man, they will most likely leave their husband for this man (if things get serious) based on the fact that they are no longer happy in their relationship, but like i said, I am not expert.
Now a married woman cheating on their husband with another females is a completely different story. I believe if a woman is going to cheat on their husband with another man (being previously bi sexual or not) they are more likely to do it just for the experience. Obviously the woman likes males, since they married one but the thrill of a different experience may cause them to cheat, especially if they meet another female that they are attracted to physically or non-physically. Yet in the end, of course, they go back to their married life for the experience they had was just an experience.
While reading the novel I was thinking about this just to try to figure out what gender the narrator actually was, I was leaning more towards the female throughout the first few pages but my thoughts were fully set on the narrator being a female when I reached about page 70. There is a part in the book when the narrator is talking about an ex-girlfriend and how insane she was. The narrator was stating that she was only able to see the girl during certain times of the day and that she bred rubber plants. She then stated the girl locked her out of the greenhouse and left the narrator in he/she's "mickey mouse one piece" at that point, i had my mind set. The narrator was a female...was she intended to be a female? I don't really know.
I was with you there throughout the novel in assuming that the narrator was female. This was based largely on what you have mentioned already; our priming/predisposition to the women/female's perspective throughout the course so far. Also, the author is a lesbian which I think influenced my assumptions as well.
ReplyDeleteThis may be my socialized thoughts but to me, it also just seemed more feasible, and believable, to have a bisexual female than a bisexual male. I think this stems from my one sided exposure to a lot of female bisexuals, and lack of exposure to bisexual males.
Regarding the cheating you mention in your post, I will have to disagree with the generalization that a female who cheats on their husband with another male will leave their husband to be with the other man. I think that if you look at it from an objective perspective, and I think i read this somewhere or had this discussion with a knowledgeable source that, cheaters will not give up their stability and their family for something that they are not sure to be concrete/stable. To me, this makes sense because sure, you cheated, but why trade EVERYTHING you have worked for and have for a whim. Now I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, I just think it's not as frequent as we may think.
I can't really say I agree with many of your points on this one. I do think that there are certain things that you can reflect to help think of the narrator as a female but not each one of those things can be specifically applied to a female or male. I am just set on the idea that the author really did try to write it as a genderless person and focus on the idea of love and how not to be cliche about it. Of course my natural instinct was to pick a gender [and based on some of the other posts] I may have been one of the few who got the vibe that the narrator was a male more than I thought of a female telling the story. But as a side note I did agree that based on the premise of the class I did think that too. I had this idea that we had to decide for ourselves and I was so sure it would be female. As I was reading though I found I could attribute most of the thigns to a male character. I tried not to but I did anyways. On a different note I agree with Leo's comment because most cheaters do not give up stability and that whole comfortable lifestyle for an experiment or a fun time with someone else. It's not too rational but I see what you mean though because it can occasionally happen.
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