The Penelopiad is a revisionary account of Homer’s famous epic The Odyssey. The novel revolves around the famous mythical character Odysseus and his quintessential wife Penelope. Homer had written The Odyssey from the perspective of the hero Odysseus. But Atwood has given an alternate version to the myth and has retold it from the point of view of Odysseus’s wife Penelope and her twelve hanged maids. Among the Canadian women writers, Margaret Atwood has a notable position as a feminist writer. In most of her novels, the basic concern is feminist issues, which are actually humanitarian concerns giving a voice to the ‘second sex’ in the patriarchal society.
In this regard, it has been actually pointed out that Atwood’s feminist issues are basically ‘her wider humanitarian concerns with basic human rights and their infringement by institutional oppression’ (Coral 7). She wrote about the inequality faced by women in patriarchal society as according to Maggie Humm, the fundamental aim of feminist perspective is ‘to understand women’s oppression in terms of race, gender, class and sexual preference and how to change it'(coral x). In The Penelopiad, Atwood explores the features of feminine existence which is easily evident in the patriarchal structure of society. It is about the life of a woman, who is a faithful wife and is known for her constancy. Penelope, Odysseus’ wife and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy, was the daughter of the King Icarius of Sparta and a Naiad mother.
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During her childhood, Penelope longed for the affection of her mother and father. Penelope as a child had to learn to be self-sufficient as she could not expect parental support. During her childhood, she learnt that the virtues of self-assurance and self-reliance are important for her survival in the selfish world. Penelope had to search her own identity and create a space for herself. Through Penelope, Atwood establishes the need for self-dependence required for an individual to survive in this narrow society. Although this need rises in a different situation in the journey of Penelope it helps her all through her life. Atwood understood that the need for self-reliance is also an inseparable tool of women’s emancipation on the whole. Penelope was married to Odysseus at an early age of fifteen.
Penelope was too young to think anything about marriage. Penelope feels as a packaged product belonging to a male-dominated society ready for consumption. She, as a bride, does not compare herself to a blooming flower, but to meat wrapped in gold and to blood pudding. She confesses: ‘And so I was handed over to Odysseus, like a package of meat. A package of meat in a wrapping of gold, mind you. A sort of gilded blood pudding’ (TP 33). Atwood represent that women in man’s world merely get the importance like an edible product which one likes to eat for taste and pleasure; symbolically, the simile of meat and blood pudding represent women as a commodity and object necessary for gratification in the patriarchal society. Through the character of Penelope, Atwood admits to her readers that the simile of meat is too crude but it seems that it gives a suitable status of women in the patriarchal society during the period of Odysseus.
Penelope compares not only herself to meat but she compares the entire women gender to meat. The meat was considered as a highly valued thing among the people those days. Especially, the royal people and the aristocrats were fond of it. Atwood attempts to express that the aristocrats were fond of women and the reference of maids clears up this point. The aristocrats ate a ton of meat implies that the aristocrats kept a number of maids whom they utilized for their physical joy. Atwood has made reference to these maids over the span of the novel. These maids were the products for their owners and they had no individuality of their own. These maids were considered dirty and these young ladies couldn’t choose anything for them. They did not have parents as their parents either sold them or they were stolen.
As children, they needed to work for their masters and when they grew up regardless they needed to serve them but in an alternate way. They were compelled to sleep with their owners, visitors and their sons. These maids were just instruments for their masters and they were not considered human beings by them. Atwood discusses the maids on compassionate ground, and not merely as a specific gender. They did all the work and did not get the proper food to eat. The predicament of these maids remained unspeakable and disregarded. They could neither sob nor show their agony as it was useless. The exploitation of these maids began in their childhood itself. Beauty was a bad dream for them and in the event that they were pretty their lives would be worse.
These maids had learnt methods of attracting men in their childhood as though they were setting themselves up for these activities in future. The maids were simply an object of male delight in the patriarchal society and had no presence of their own. The only thing important was their body. A similar sort of treatment is given to the animals likewise by men, the animals who are slaughtered so as to give the indulgences meat to the people. Similarly, these maids were slaughtered, however not physically but emotionally, mentally and physically. This has made Atwood compare Penelope and consequently entire women race to ‘meat’. Despite the fact that Penelope was won by Odysseus and many suitors had lost. But no suitors seemed sad for losing Penelope rather it appeared as though they had lost an auction for the horse. Penelope remarks, “At any wedding preceded by a contest there were bound to be a few sore losers; but no unsuccessful suitor lost his temper at my feast.
The Gender Identity Oppression
The concept of gender is one that has been a heated topic for many years. There are many different theories on what gender is, and how it should be used and treated in society. Judith Butler argues in her piece “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution” that gender is not something that one is born with, but it is instead a performance. She writes about the importance of identity, and the divide between sex, gender, and race. While many believe gender is determined as a biological attribute to a person, Butler believes otherwise. A text that accurately depicts Butler’s theory of gender as a performance is Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which is a novel surrounding a dystopian, anti-feminist society.
Set in a backwards American society, where oppression has been restored, and the government has taken complete control, the story follows a female character named Offred, who has to adapt to societies new (yet old) reality. There is an overwhelming sense of essentialism in the novel in regards to women’s roles, and highlights key points referred in Judith Butler’s theory of gender as a performance. Judith Butler argues that sex and gender are socially constructed, and that they are something that is performed in society and something that one will become, not something they already are. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood emphasizes Butler’s theory through the character of Offred and her experience with the role of female gender in a dystopian society.
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Judith Butler is one of the most well known writers on feminist theory, and in her piece “Performative Act and Gender Constitution,” she formed a theory of gender that is well known and referenced all over feminist movements. She argues around a centralized concept that your gender is constructed through repetitive acts, or performances, and that gender is not something that you are born being. They are “a stylized repetition of acts” that is “a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo” (Butler 520). Although she believes in this theory, society has created a status quo of gender, one that is “constrained by historical conventions” (Butler 521).
History and time has created a “script,” according to Butler, that is expected to be followed from birth. Although these social expectations are expected to be followed, she states that many people who are following said “script,” one that is distinguished by their biological sex, are not even aware they are doing so. She argues that sex is also assumed based off of gender. She writes that many feminists theorists, such as herself, disagree with the explanation that sex dictates social expectations from a women. In Ingrid Robeyns “When will Society be Gender Just?” she too defines gender as “social positions that men and women occupy” because of “certain bodily features that reveal her reproductive capacities” (Robeyns). A person’s bodily features, she says, are used as “markers” to determine a man and a women, and thus also “justifying their social positions” (Robeyns).
These premade roles that are set out for them are so solidified into history that it is expected to be something they are instead of something they become. It is expected in society for biologically born women to display “feminine” traits, such as painting their nails, doing their makeup, wearing dresses, etc. It even goes as far as the expectation of bearing and caring for children. Men are also expected to follow their roles, as being “strong” and “dominant,” and being the monetary caretaker for the family. Butler writes that these roles are “a strategy of survival,” and that “Discrete genders are part of what ‘humanizes’ individuals within a contemporary culture; indeed, those who fail to do their gender rights are regularly punished” (522). The fear of society’s disapproval is part of what has created this monster of gender expectations.
Although tying gender in as a “performative act,” Butler understands the difference between theatre and gender. There is no “role” in gender that can be differentiated from the self. An actor has the ability to step out of their role, back into reality. The performance of gender does not give the same ability. In theatre, one is able to maintain “a sense of reality in the face of this temporary challenge to our existing ontological assumptions about gender arrangements” (Butler 527). Being able to say “this is only a play” allows a separation between performance and real life. When in society, though, there is no set conventions that distinguish the two, providing a dangerous situation for those who decided to step out of the “normal” performance of their expected gender roles. Our bodies are inscribed with heterosexuality as something that must be performed from the beginning of life, and the performance should be acted throughout society by every man and women.
When the act of heterosexuality is broken, the history and sedimentation of societies normal gender “roles” are broken, thus creating a negative reaction. An example of this, referenced in Robeyn’s article, is the power imbalance between the gender performance of men and women. She writes: “The femininity norms make it much harder for women than men to gain power. As Pierre Bourdieu put it, ‘access to power of any kind places women in a double bind: if they behave like men, they risk losing the obligatory attributes of femininity and call into question the natural right of men to the positions of power.’ Whereas empirical studies show that both men and women are socially punished if they violate their respective gender norms, conforming to these norms leads to gendered behavior that puts women in structurally weaker positions than men” (Robeyn 4).
Because of society’s expectations of gender, any small change in the usual performance leads to a huge imbalance. The concept of power is an important example of this, where men are expected to hold most of societies power, while women are expected to do the same in the home. If those positions are altered, or even switched, that creates social disapproval, and throws off the societies balance as a whole. Butler argues that although this may be the case due to the layers of historical expectations for gender performance, that gender should not be referred to as something fixed and binary, but instead should be referenced as fluid, constructed, and performed.
Society and its expectation of gender as a uniform act creates a “compelling illusion” of gender being part of human nature. This system is preserved in society because of its “cultivation of bodies into discrete sexes” and the “reassurance that there is an essentialism of gender identity” (Butler 524-528). Butler wants it to be known that gender and sex does not have to correlate, and that it is in fact possible to choose the traits of your own individualized gender. Although, unfortunately, society may have something to say about this. Even though womens suppression has become less and less every year, there are still expectations from women, such as bearing children and doing the household chores, that are still a part of society’s outlook on gender.
Butler believes, though, that with enough break in the sedimented “performances” of gender, that it is possible to present your gender in whichever way you would like to. Although these preliminary gender roles have been acted out throughout the beginning of time, today’s society is beginning to follow Butler’s theory of gender as a performance. Many people are beginning to break out of their roles, and be someone that they want to be, without a label of gender. Although some are becoming successful at doing so, sex and gender is still a “performative act” that is hard to be broken. The dystopian society of Gilead in A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is a prime example of women’s oppression and the effects gender roles have on a society.
