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

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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