B.The Absent Women’s Bodies in Public Discourse
Being absent in public discourse is not a new problem that women have to facetoday.Actually,it is a problem that constantly hovers in the minds of all women all thetime.If women were not present in public discourse,their freedom of expression wouldbe restricted,their views would be disregarded,and even their ability to expressthemselves would be suppressed at the very beginning.Furthermore,the more revealingis the fact that women who seem to be actively expressing themselves in their lives tendto talk about topics and content that are very similar to each other.Those things areeveryday things that don’t really matter.In other words,they seem to be activelyexpressing their own wishes,but these are content that is excluded from the publicdiscourse because public discourse always refers to the context in which those in powercan maintain their power.At the same time,if necessary,these discourses that womenare in will be deprived of by those in power.So in a way,this is also a kind ofrepresentation of a woman’s absence from the public context.
Since Munro herself is a female writer,she depicts naturally all the stories in the book from the perspective of Del.To be more specific,it is founded on the timeline ofher growth.From her point of view,readers are able to witness various kinds ofwomen’s life.And in some ways,she also is part of their conversations in differentsituations.While the focal points or the content of the conversations and the leadershipof the conversations are the pinpoints that should pay more attention to.
Chapter Three Resistance against Violence: The Covered Woman's Body ......................... 48
A. Twisted Women's Bodies under the External Violence..................... 49
B. Rebellion Women's Bodies with Budding Awakened Consciousness ........................................ 56
Conclusion ...................................... 61
Chapter ThreeResistance against Violence:The Covered Woman’sBody
A.Twisted Women’s Bodies under the External Violence
Women make a lot of attempts to let their bodies be seen.Whether they are activeor passive,norm-based violence from the outside has a long history and is sointertwined that many women’s bodies are twisted when they try to resist the violence,and then become a taboo in people’s mouths,further becoming women’s bodies coveredby the norms.Changes in society have changed the circumstances to which women have been exposed.But through the taboos surrounding woman’s bodies,we can seethat the traditional norm of violence still wants to keep women’s bodies in a subordinatestate.
Prostitute,the one that Del pays much attention to,is a typical representative ofthis kind of body distortion.The prostitute is the extreme offshoot of the desirablewoman’s body.The“prostitute”that will be discussed refers to those who misuse theirtalents for the sake of personal or financial gain.In some way,they treat it as theirprofession.As one of the most typical twisted women’s bodies,in contrast to the normalsituation of desirable bodies mentioned above,they have some essential differences.Itis evident that they are among the most despised and disliked bodies under social normsfor society because they are criticized for depending on their own bodies to satisfy thedesires of others and materialize themselves into desirable women’s bodies bysacrificing their self-respect.
Conclusion
Throughout the history of women,it is easy to see that they have always beendivided,as goddesses,mothers,virtuous wives and prostitutes.The norms external towomen intertwine and interact with each other,allowing the women’s bodies to fall intoa great web woven by them from the
