Analysis Of Carmen Maria Machado's Short Story: Her Body And Other Parties

Carmen Maria Machado has undeniably awakened the literary world with her impressive debut short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. The American short story author, eassyist, and critic published her masterpiece in 2017 in partner with Graywolf Press resulting in the clout associated with her already established name being amplified due Her Body and Other Parties unapologetically bold content. The short story collection dauntlessly presents itself right in front of the readers face demanding to be acknowledged with its genre defying content while simultaneously provoking necessary conversation about particular themes concerning the many plights of women. Machado also does well seamlessly incorporating non heteronormative relationships

into her stories so that the reader will have no choice but to accept them as the norm minus any hesitation. One theme in particular that can be seen in more than one of the stories in the collection is women, in any role, owning and utilizing their sexuality to whatever degree they deem fit absent from shame. Specifically in the story “The Husband Stitch”, Machado, exercising the queerness attached to the frame of a short story, generates shock factor with the narrator detailing the sexual autonomy she possesses as a woman, and a brief violation, that challenge the traditional thinking concerning the sexual identity of women.
The fact that Machado incorporated the concept of queerness of the short story form only enhances the message the she is trying to communicate to readers.

In the essay “The Queer Short Story”, written by Axel Nissen, the perception of the short story is examined and decided upon. Nissen states that “the short story is the “other” of fictional prose narrative. As the other it must continually justify its existence, worry about the circumstances of its being and becoming, agonize about its value and identity”, which is very much connected to the concept of queerness and what Nissen includes as “queer theory”. Nissen then proposes that the word “queer” is appropriate for describing the way the short story is considered “other” along with it being “an absence or deviation from whatever is the normative sexual or gender behavior or identity in a given period or culture”. So when applying this to Machado and her short story, “The Husband Stitch”, it can be seen that the queer nature of the short story and the queer nature of discussing a woman’s sexuality go hand in hand. Machado has allowed herself the freedom and space to explicitly write about a behavior that has been designated as shameful for a certain gender, a behavior that also continuously has to be unjustly

validated.
Although Machado inserts the narrator in a traditional setting where she fulfills roles that are stereotypically assigned to women such as being a wife and stay-at-home mother, she counteracts the idea that, that is how all women are supposed to be seen by emphasizing the narrators sexual behavior. It is often assumed that women are not meant to openly display their sexual desires or intentions and in “The Husband Stitch”, Machado writes the narrator in such a way that declares that women not only have these desires, but it is beyond acceptable to be able to revel in it. In the beginning of the story, before any relationship even develops, the narrator decides “I know I want him before he does. This isn’t how things are done, but this is how I am going to do them” (Machado 3). The narrator knows that there are rules or rather unspoken notions that society has bestowed upon women, but she is also making a conscious decision to disregard them and act in a way of her own decision. It is a simple declaration that is full of empowerment for the narrator and the women reading the story.
The vulgarity and frequency of Machado’s descriptions of the sexual encounters experienced by the narrator, which are exclusively told from a female perspective, can elicit appropriate feelings of uncomfortableness that result in the questioning of the arrival of the feelings in the first place. For example, there is one scene in which that narrator tells of the moments before she is due to walk down the aisle in which she uncustomarily spends having sex with her soon to be husband. She says “He becomes hard, and I tell him that I want him to use my body as he sees fit… I do not know if I’m the first woman to walk up the aisle of St.George’s with semen leaking down her leg, but I like to imagine that I am” (Machado 11). This is a great example because it works in contrast with the current setting and circumstance of the scene. The assumption is that women are supposed to be chaste and pure before stepping into a wedding dress, but this is unrealistic as men are not held to the same standard. The blink in surprise that accompanies reading that she is being married with semen running down her leg comes from what exactly? Women are sexual beings as well and would that same surprise and uncomfortable feeling arise if it was told from the perspective of a man? Does the uncomfortable feeling come from the fact that she is unashamed and actually likes the evidence of the sexual encounter, and if so, why? Machado’s exact purpose is for the reader to ask themselves and answer these questions so that the stigma surrounding women and their sexuality be eradicated. So that the next question can be of ways to become more comfortable in owning ones own sexual identity freely.
Rachel McKibbens, Author of blud, contributes to the conversation with her own body of work. In her poem “three strikes”, the theme of sexual identity is touched upon in a way that is also explicit and different from the norm. The speaker of the poem reflects on how the act of masturbating, initiated after discovering pornographic images of women, was an empowering experience. Her straightforward language of “pussies held open/ by French manicures// they instructed me on/ the body’s forbidden dialect,/ the gospel of ecstasy/… My middle finger,/ a shriveled magician//… I’d trace the broken/ landscape of my body/ & find God/ within myself//” (Mckibbens 15-16) pushes the boundaries of what is socially acceptable to talk about. What is significant about McKibbens’ work that adds to Machado is that it is also from a woman’s perspective and does not apologize for anything that has been said. There is no sugar coating of words to make it more palatable to read about a female enjoying the exploration of her body. It can be unusual to come up against a situation in which a woman’s pleasure has nothing to do with that of a man, but it is something that is happening universally among woman. The problem is that it is not talked about.
Lastly, Machado inserts a scene in the story that also challenges traditional perspectives on women and their sexuality.

After the narrator has given birth to her son, and not fully coherent, she notes that she hears her husband asking for that “extra stitch” alluding to the stitches that are given to women between the vagina and anus after childbirth due to tearing or cutting (Machado 17). The narrator also hears a short “-like a vir-” in response to what the stitch is supposed to do by the doctor. The narrator did not ask for this to be performed. The “extra stitch” also possesses no beneficial purposes for the woman receiving this procedure. Its sole purpose is to render the vagina tighter than it was before giving birth and to bring pleasure to the man on the other end during sex. The problem with this is that it is a clear in this society, the belief is that a woman’s body is only there for the use of a man. The problem is that there was a clear disregard when altering the narrator’s genitalia without her permission. It begs the questions of why is this okay, why was the pleasure of a man put before comfort and health even, and where was the consideration for the narrators ability to experience pleasure once recovered from giving

birth?
Her Body and Other Parties is the conversation starter that this time in our culture needs. Out of the many subjects that are addressed in the entirety of the collection, women and their freedom to express their sexual identity is one of the most important ones. “The Husband Stitch” calls for the reconsideration of the way women are seen in certain lights. Women are not dainty creatures that don’t experience the same human urges and desires. Women are not undeserving of claiming full ownership of their bodies and the way that they use them. Carmen Maria Machado’s work is astounding, but unfortunately, one of the reasons it is so praised is because it has been deemed as a piece of literature that breaks all of the rules when in actuality there should be no rules. It should not be a surprise that such topics are talked about in detail. Machado really reaches in deep, making readers reevaluate what has always been and why it needs to be looked at again.