The Gnarled Face of Sexism: Accounts from the 1st and 3rd World
Similar to most social plagues cast upon humanity, sexism is a widespread epidemic in both the 1st world and 3rd world. Several forms of sexism occur in Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood and The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, dividing 1st world sexism from 3rd world sexism. Broadly demonstrated in the novel Bodily Harm, 1st world sexism revolves around perversion and sexual abuse. On the contrary, Emecheta argues that 3rd world sexism occurs through polygamy and strong gender responsibilities.
In the 1st world, men dismember women to make them consumable and powerless. Atwood uses Rennie’s boyfriend Jake to exhibit an all-encompassing view-point that men commonly share of women in the 1st world. Rennie expresses her acknowledgment of the disturbing view Jake holds of her when she realizes that, “Fragmentation, dismemberment, this is what he sees when he looks [at her]” (248). Jake considers Rennie a “piece of meat” capable of being carved and consumed. He looks at her and sees something he can control and dissemble, separating the body into digestible pieces. This is further demonstrated when Jake asks, “What is a woman…A head with a cunt attached or a cunt with a head attached? Depends which end you start at” (225). By dismembering the female body, men control and dominate women. As a segmented body, a woman looses her sense of whole self and becomes dysfunctional.