Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Machado, 2017
Following my earlier analyses of Madeline Miller’s Circe and Saba Sams’ Send Nudes, this final review examines Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties, in which Machado dismantles the traditional trope of female bodily autonomy being mythologized, policed, and silenced, instead, interlinking surrealism and satire throughout each narrative in order to expose the very real horrors of existing in a female body.
Within An Interview with Carmen Maria Machado, Machado articulates this desire to reclaim silenced feminine sexuality, stating that the idea of women’s bodies as a state of oppression, is counteracted by ‘letting sex scenes be pleasurable, letting female bodies be real’ (Ashworth). Machado’s literary women are, as Gabrielle Belot argues, ‘not solely victims of their pain […] that lead to old isles of trauma’, but are instead ‘allowed, and willingly seek out pleasure’ (Bellot). This rewritten pleasure is especially evident throughout Machado’s short narrative Inventory, in which a ‘cornucopia of rapturous sex scenes’ (Bellot), are rendered through fragmented vignettes, presented through a feminine first person perspective: ‘I felt good, like an adult who has sex sometimes’ (Machado 35).
Throughout Inventory, Machado focuses primarily upon the female form: the protagonists expression of longing- ‘craving breasts, wetness, softness of mouths’ (Machado 38), is expressed symbolically through the hammering throughout her body, that centres itself around each sexual interaction. Throughout these interactions, female desire is not isolated, but instead transcends individuality, transferred onto concrete objects: the ‘underwear’ the protagonist’s mother ‘found behind the bed weeks later’ (Machado 35), or the ‘hand’ that ‘remained inside’ another woman whilst the protagonist ‘fell asleep’ (Machado 35). These erotic depictions construct a narrative space where female desire is not condemned or pathologized, but embraced as autonomous and fluid. Machado’s Inventory– acting as an mature feminist reclamation of the past literature that sought to silence expressions of female sexuality, and autonomy as an entirety.
Together, my three chosen narratives, Circe, Send Nudes, and Her Body and Other Parties, build upon the necessity of re-evaluating and dismantling the long-standing patriarchal narratives that have historically confined female characters to passive, voiceless roles. Beginning with Miller’s feminist reclamation of mythological storytelling, through Sams’ interrogation of the contemporary social constraints on girls residing upon the cusp of womanhood, and culminating in Machado’s’ unveiling of female bodily autonomy and desire, this series illustrates how modern literature can challenge the restrictive female gender norms that have tainted societies narratives for centuries.
Collectively, these texts not only empower feminine agency and voice, but also invite readers to reconsider cultural expectations and embrace a wider understanding of what it means to be a real life woman, not simply a damsel in distress.
-Lottie Horn
Volunteer Writer
Girl Museum
References:
Machado, Carmen Maria. Interview. Conducted by A.J Ashworth, 27 Jun. 2023.
Machado, Carmen Maria. Her Body and Other Parties. Graywolf Press, 2017.
Bellot, Gabrielle. “Specter of Oppression.” American Book Review, vol. 39 no. 4, 2018, p. 5-6. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/abr.2018.0038