Objectification of women

Objectification of women

1. Context

   • In the Gothic:
     • the ‘predator’/femme fatale
       • dangerous yet powerfully attractive; she helps portray the pain/pleasure paradox that has come to be synonymous with Gothic literature
     • the 'victim'
       • fragile and vulnerable, she gives the heroes something to rescue, and is often the prize for their brave endeavours
       • often a virginal maiden

2. The Bloody Chamber

   • The Marquis turns the narrator into a pornographic image reflected 12 times over
   • he dictates that she wear the collar of rubies- likening her to a dog
     • "the bloody bandage of rubies"
     • "he would not let me take off my ruby choker"
   • he plans to murder her and keep her in his bloody Chamber as a trophy

3. The Courtship of Mr Lyon

   • Beauty becomes an object when her father uses her as payment for his debt to the Beast
   • Although Beauty lives luxuriously, she is treated as an object and the property of men- her father and the Beast

4. Tiger's Bride

   • the heroine's father considers her one of his belongings- he wagers and then loses her to The Beast.
   • seen as merely "a pearl" or "a treasure," prized for her beauty and nothing else.
   • She escapes objectification by rejecting the role of woman entirely and turning into a tigress.

5. Snow Child

   • the Count created a perfect girl for his own enjoyment
     • blood red lips, skin as white as snow- made in his perfect image
     • she does not speak and does only what she is asked to do by him
     • he rapes her
       • once he has had sex with her she disappears into mere objects.
         • "a feather a bird might have dropped; a bloodstain [...] the rose"

6. The Lady of the House of Love

   • The Countess is the only character who objectifies men
     • "like to caress their lean brown cheeks and stroke their rugged hair"
   • she can't have a loving and fulfilling relationship- her insatiable hunger means that she preys on men
     • "she loathes the food she eats"
     • "hunger always overcomes her"