Shameless Sex
Women in slave communities exercised substantial power in their circles, and were deferred to out of respect for this kind of mysterious womanly wisdom. There is lasting merit to the image of this comforting Madonna, who is comfortable and comforting in her sexuality, and doesn’t need it to be artificially ignored in order to be approached by a man, because she is powerful.
I feel there’s a real love for and between women present in African American culture, that bypasses the shame and obligatory prudishness that inhibits and depresses women stuck in the sphere of Western European culture. Sula gained a great deal of her perspective on sex from watching her mother, “Seeing her step so easily into the pantry and emerge looking precisely as she did when she entered, only happier, taught Sula that sex was pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable” (Morrison 44). Maybe it also stems from the kind of easy closeness all aspects of daily life seem to have in stories – there’s not as much body shame or repugnance for bodily functions. Like the scene where Eva pulls the constipated stool out of Plum’s butt: the visuals of the scene might be gritty, or recall hardships, but it is presented in a way that is not shocking or gross, because of the abruptness. She “shoved the last bit of food she had in the world (besides three beets) up his ass” (Morrison 34). This is life, the pleasant and the unpleasant often abut, and false etiquette is merely a time waster!
And in that aforementioned constipation scene Eva actually amends herself for the bit of subconscious shame the entered into the way she handled her son’s illness, “Eva squatted there wondering why she had come all the way out there to free his stools, and what was she doing down on her haunches with her beloved baby boy warmed by her body in the almost total darkness” (Morrison 34). She is making a connection that resonated throughout the book -when love is in the picture there should be no shame.
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April 16th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
I find it interesting, Rachel, that you conclude your analysis by referencing Eva’s love for her son, especially considering she later burns that same son alive. Yet her act seems more of an expression of her love, and her reluctance to watch her son degrade his and his family’s lives through his drug addiction. I hope we can explore this theme on a deeper level in class.