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The Power

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Book Review : "The Power" by Naomi Alderman

“The Power was on my reading list for months. It sat there while I was unsure whether I should read it or not. It seemed to me it would be too much like this book or this TV show. I was wrong and as I read on it kept on delivering.

One day, the fifteen year old girls of the world realise they have the ability to inflict pain with an electric current they can create from a flick of their hands. Little by little, all female teenagers come into their power and grown women realise they can have it too.

The power is not only the ability the women of the world have awakening in them, the literal power to hurt. It's how from this physical power arise the self confidence and then the political power, the religious power, the power over others and over history. Power begets violence and violence feeds itself from power.

The novel follows four main characters: Allie, a teenager who was abused by her foster family ; Roxy, who is the illegitimate daughter of a London criminal ; Margot, the mayor of an American city and whose daughter Jos comes into her power ; and finally Tunde, a Nigerian young man who reports the events happening all over the world.

These four narrative threads really give scope to the events, because we share them from all over the world, either in a major Western city, from different countries, or within a small community. All four slowly reveal the deep mutations of the society, and like a quilt being sewn, you see how this is going to happen.

"This?" are you asking. Yes, "This". "This" is the twist in the story that happens in the first two pages and that I won't reveal here because it is, I think, what really sets this story apart.

But it makes for a powerful and uncomfortable read, because you end up reading some atrocities, feeling sorry for the men it happens to, before suddenly remembering "Hey! Hang on! This is exactly what is currently happening to women, you know!" And I think that's also where The Power really is successful. The reversal of stereotypical situations and attibutes progresses as the novel progresses and Alderman is to be praised for how she fully exploited the architecture of her story by letting us know, from the beginning, how it would all end. History belongs to the winners.

It also makes for a morally complex read. After all, haven't women had to bear with violence and fear and shaming all their lives? Is the reversal acceptable? The novel gives a clear answer to that, though with a bleak view of humanity, whether you're male or female or intersex/queer.

What I was afraid of when picking the book was that it would be Buffy season 8 - alternate version (1). It's not (not at all, like really not). It's more of how a turned on its head Handmaid's Tale came to happen mixed with a turned on its head Parable of the Sower. It also reminds strongly of In the Mothers' Land by Elisabeth Vonarburg. The Power picks up the conversation held in feminist scifi novels for decades and adds its stone to the whole. It is the continuity of it.

Nonetheless it is different and original thanks to those four first pages that announces a tragedy that you will see unfolding, a bit in the way of a Greek tragedy, while the writing maintains a sustained and gripping pace. And the last pages will have any woman who has had to face a patronizing man chuckling (or sobbing of despair).

The Power will very probably end up being a classic feminist scifi novel. Alderman wrote a gripping tale that any SF reader who likes its genre to deal with social and political themes will love.”

-author unknown

http://www.themiddleshelf.org/reviews/naomi-alderman-the-power

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The Reverse of Cultural Norms in “The Power” by Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman’s “The Power” specifically challenges typical normalities that lie within a patriarchal society. Typically, men are deemed more powerful due to their ability to have the upper hand when it comes to physical imposition. In her novel, the narrative unfolds in a way that allows women to gain leverage over this typicality. While this leverage comes from a fictional force that is the electrical network women have to inflict violence among their abusers, it is certainly a great way for readers to evaluate what the world would look like if the narrative over gender supremacy were to be flipped. Women stepping into dominant roles leads to discrimination among men. This reversal allows readers a chance to consider what normalized violence towards men would look like and shows the societal reactions under this new dynamic. Authorities begin warning boys and men to stay inside for their safety and to be alert during their interactions with women as it could lead them to be harmed. This is an example of the warning statements women receive growing up in regards to their interactions with men. There are many parallels presented throughout the novel comparing this alternate world to that which we live in today, only with a roles reversed point of view. Another example is when in the town of Bessapara, women place restrictions on men and their freedoms. While exaggeration is ever-present throughout these parallels, the latter is true for many womens’ freedoms in some countries even to this day. The story becomes even more aligned with these power and gender dynamics when she dives into sexual encounters and dominance between the sexes. Especially in Bessapara, where women were held captive in sexual slavery for long periods of time, we see how women begin reciprocating the harm done to them by men in order to feel a sense of revenge. The reciprocity of these violent acts forces men to consider the intense brutalization that women endure and put themselves in the shoes of women's experiences. Reading something so graphic about men being in a position of victimization by the entire female population is very curiosity-provoking. Although a bit troubling to read at points, Alderman’s novel is a great analysis of understanding what it may be like to exist as a woman. The forced reversal of gender ideologies and power systems is an effective eye-opener to the harsh reality we live in with men deemed as more powerful.

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The next chapter of power focuses on artifacts found by the archaeologist. They switch the titles the female artifact is given with the title the male artifact is given. This means that the male is now interpreted as a sex worker while the female is interpreted as a warrior. This switching of roles is significant because it shows men how it feels to have a piece of history turned into a sex symbol off of misogynistic ideas. This book does well to highlight sexist double standards. I feel like if a man were to read this book he would get upset over the treatment of the men and the proceed to belittle how this book is based off of women’s experiences in modern day. The section also highlights the idea of third man syndrome which i thought was interesting. One of the man characters starts to hear a voice in her head and believes it to be God. Third man syndrome is when you start to hear voices in your head to cope with trauma. Allie might be feeling pressure from being a healer and seen as a god by the people from the church which causes her to go crazy. Overall its such a good book and has yet to disappoint yet. 

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Power reveal character

Corruption is inevitable. 

In the novel Power, things are starting to shift downwards. During these times, women in power and things are starting to become more chaotic and unbalanced. This is the epitome of the real world but instead, men are in control, and just like in the novel things are chaotic and disastrous. Thus the novel emphasizes that corruption is inevitable even in our contemporary society. In the real world, corruption is among us because men use their power for self-interest, which reveals their selfish and self-centered ways. In the novel, women, especially those in the country where Tunde is, were enslaved, mistreated, and abused their whole lives, so they utilize their power for revenge when given a chance. This shows that corruption is inevitable because when given power, many individuals utilize their power for self-interest. Power can cloud our judgment and morals thus making us lose interest in what’s best for everyone. Power reveals one’s true character because if you are truly a good person/leader and not self-centered when given power you wouldn’t use your power to obtain things for only yourself, instead, you would do things to prevent others from going through the difficult situations that you went through.

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Why Power Corrupts

Class Discussion (11/15):Between the second title page and the beginning of the narrative, we get a quote from the (fictitious) Book of Eve. Highlights: “the shape of power is always the same; it is the shape of a tree,” “My children, nothing has happened here that has not been in accordance with the natural law,” “power travels in the same manner between people; it must be so”

The quote from the class discussion emphasize how power travels. It emphasizes that the sense of power remains the same between every individual who obtain power. So what contributes to the different ways different people act when they obtain power?

In the article, “Does Power Corrupt or Enable? When and Why Power Facilitates Self-Interested Behavior”, the author mentions that an individual's moral identity and character define how they will utilize power if it were obtained. Our moral identity is a source of cognitive reasoning that helps us judge what is right and what is wrong. Also, our moral identity emphasizes the degree to which moral concerns (honesty, justice, etc) are a central part of our identity. The article presents a research experiment that consisted of 102 students who participated in a task in which they had to decide how much to take from a common resource. “The participants were told that they shared a pool of 500 points with other people and that they would have to decide how many points (between 0 and 10) that they would take for themselves versus leave for others”(Decelles 2012). The results of the experiment concluded that moral identity plays a crucial role in determining if an individual will act on self-interest if given power. The reults concluded that “self-interested behavior is a function of individuals’ moral identity” (Decelles 2012). Thus an individual with a weak moral identity will “more likely to act in self-interest”(Decelles 2012) when given power, while an individual with a strong moral identity is “ less likely to act in self-interest”(Decelles 2012). In conclusion, power doesn’t change. No matter how you receive power (whether its received from society or inheritance) all power comes in the same shape. The way we behave when given power reflects our sense of moral identity.

Works Cited

Decelles, Katherine A., et al. “Does Power Corrupt or Enable? When and Why Power Facilitates Self-Interested Behavior.” Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 97, no. 3, 2012, pp. 681–689., doi:10.1037/a0026811.

Magazine, Smithsonian. “Why Power Corrupts.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Oct. 2012, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-power-corrupts-37165345/.

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Characters of the Power

In this book, we get multiple view points of the phenomenon going on in the world through the characters. Characters are always the main contribution to the book, but the characters in this book are even more important than normal because they move the story along in chronological order through each of their stories.

The characters include:

Roxy: Roxy’s story starts with the murder of her mother as a little girl. The power changed her life because she felt so vulnerable and hopeless in that moment, but now she has so much power to never be in that situation again. I think this really empowers Roxy to be strong throughout her life mentally, but now physically too. When she is able to go back and injure or kill the men that hurt her mother, she truly feels as though she has gotten her revenge.

Tunde: Tunde’s story is the most unique because he is not a woman with the power. He sees it from an outside perspective, which in turn allows us as readers to see how a man feels about it. Although he is working for the media, he is fascinated by it and wants to research it on his own. He was the first person to post it on the internet, which basically started the hatred around it. If it wasn’t for his contribution to this story, no one would have known about the power going on. The women were good at hiding what was happening, so of course a man had to ruin it for them.

Margot: Margot is a woman already in power that risks being taken out of her position. I think it is even worse for her to be in a government position because she is being watched by the men around her. She has to take a test to see if she has the the body part to make the electricity, the skein, but because of how strong she is she does not get caught. She also has to make decisions regarding the girls and young women in her life. She understands the hardship of what women go through daily in regard to being scared around men, so when the roles are reversed she has to put consequences on the women.

Allie: Allie’s story starts off by her killing her foster father. She was sexually abused by him so this power now allows her to be in control. She runs away after the incident and ends up in an orphanage. When she explains what the sensation was from the power the girls look to her as a higher power. She became Eve when she got to the orphanage because she did not want to be caught for the crime she committed. She soon gains the name Mother Eve and is watched by the nuns so nothing bad happens to overrule the religion in the orphanage.

I think the more we read this book, the more developed the characters will become. One of the main parts of this book that differentiate it from others is the way that it is written from the different viewpoints. 

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The deeper we go into this book the better it gets! I love how we get to follow the inevitable female take over that happens and which events impact it. We see Margot get heat from her superior for doing something without asking. Could that spark her contribution to the take over? I love that the Moldavia president’s wife kills him so she could have power. The theme for this unit is girl power. That phrase sparks many ideas into my head. Girl power as written by google is used in reference to an attitude of independence, confidence, and empowerment among young women. This book took that meaning literally. Power is not always good though. Power is fueled by fear. Women take the power in this book by using their gifts to make men submit to them. But because power is not always good I fear that the female judicial system might not last as long or be as just. But I am still rooting for the outcome of this book to be satisfying to my (mostly) male hating brain.

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#thepower is a sci-fi book based in a world where women rule over men. I love it already. As a black female in America, this book satiates my need for women to dominate men. I hope that we evolve into a society where women rule because we are better in every way. Yes, there is where the male hate train starts. We create and birth them just for them to demean and disregard us. I am looking forward to the ending of this book. I’m hoping it leads to women being able to balance their power and not have it destroy them. Power can be overwhelming#thepowerbynaomi #jazmindomingue

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Reflective nostalgia in Foxfire

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Violence and Anger in Joyce Carol Oates’s Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl-Gang

Anger and violence are prevalent themes in Joyce Carol Oates’s Foxfire. Though published in the nineties, the setting of the book takes place in the state of New York in the fifties. The FOXFIRE girls observe and experience violence in nearly all facets of their lives. The expression of anger through violence has become normalized for them during their upbringing. The narrator, Maddy, contends that, “It was a time of violence against girls and women but we didn’t have the language to talk about it then” (108). Instead, the girl-gang unites under the leadership of Legs Sadovsky with all men being named as the enemy. The girls find strength and protection from victimization in the growing number of members in the girl-gang. FOXFIRE allows the girls to establish control over their lives and their circumstances in a way they hadn’t previously had the opportunity to.

           Rita O’Hagan was initiated into FOXFIRE despite claims of her being overly emotional and in constant need of savior. When Maddy tries to buy a typewriter from her uncle and he tries to make a move on her, Legs tells her, “Oh Maddy-Monkey, shit—we’re all Rita” (78). The fact that this statement came from Legs is very significant. Legs has shown her dominance and defiance from the beginning of the novel, especially as it pertains to men. Yet, she acknowledges that as much power you think you have, you can be put into a situation where you are the one in need of saving. Women must protect other women because who else will?

           This novel as a whole sheds light on the violence and anger women experience. Dealing with the legal system, readers can observe Legs’ anger and frustration as she deals with “the biggest insult ever.” The police interrogate Legs about the car-kidnapping and insinuate that she could not have done this without the help or direction of a man—her boyfriend. The police assert that this must be the workings of a male-gang, “Asking repeatedly who her boy friends were, what kinds of things she did for them, which gang is it?—Viscounts, Hawks, Dukes?—or some older guys?” (151). Legs does end up getting charged for a long list of things, including being “incorrigible” and “promiscuous” with the helpful testimony of her father, stating how he just couldn’t “control” her anymore. This perpetuates the idea that it is not acceptable for women to express their anger. With the police, they made the assumption that Legs was getting vengeance for a man, a “boyfriend.” Legs’ drunken, violent, hypocritical father has the audacity to blame Legs’ actions as a result her mother’s death. The retelling of these confessions allows the reader to understand the motives and meanings of the anger and violence within the novel. Although this book was set in the fifties, a lot of the struggles the girls face can be translated into occurrences and circumstances we see today. Women still exhibit the need to protect one another and share their experiences so that we may empower one another.

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Do Modern Women Need a Girl Gang?

It seems to make sense that these girls have gotten together to form a gang. They have experienced horrible acts by various men in power throughout their lives and are now fighting together for Foxfire revenge. But that world has changed hasn’t it? We don’t need to ban together to humiliate teachers into quitting jobs, beating blood relatives, form a picket line, and threaten someone at knife point, right? 

But male family members still assault their female child relatives, male teachers still assault their female students, people still abuse animals for the sake of greed, and men in the streets still catcall and violate the women around them. 

It is still part of our everyday lives. Yet people claim how much worse it used to be, and yes it was worse because people were open about how little they cared for women’s rights. Or maybe that makes it better. Because then you would know who was against you. Now people claim to care only to make rape jokes when you aren’t around.

Women have been protesting for years for better treatment, for persecution of the perpetrators. We have been doing our best to go about it in the “correct” way, the “legal” way, the “constitutional” way. But those ways were put in place by men, so are those ways meant for us? Looking back to Kincaid in Antigua, she mentions about how the only words to describe the wrong that is happening is in the words of the conqueror and how that nothing happens because they choose what that word means. So can these laws and rules help women when the men are the ones deciding what those laws mean. And even worse, like Legs discovered in juvenile detention, women too are using those laws against other women.

Is the way for change actually a form of revolutionary revenge? Maybe it starts that way. Fighting back against the indiscretions against women, until eventually the power is broken. Many believe that women should be these unyielding rulers. But replacing one oppressor or dictator with a female version is not going to solve the problems. But those oppressive rulings were started by men. Historically speaking and even biologically speaking, groups with a matriarchal reign whether it be human or even animal, have less violence and more cooperation among the group.

So what level of fight back do we give? Do we continue with the peaceful protesting that has frequently been deemed unpeaceful by men in power in order to silence the rebellion? Or do we form gangs and finally get the revenge that so many women have earned?

That is why Foxfire is so powerful for so many. Because that is what we truly want in some regard. We want to rage at the patriarchy and the violence it allows towards women. Yet we are forced to play by rules that were designed to work against us. 

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“Margaret Hennessey’s experience was far from unusual. She had been detained under a program she likely had never heard of: the “American Plan.” From the 1910s through the 1950s, and in some places into the 1960s and 1970s, tens of thousands—perhaps hundreds of thousands—of American women were detained and forcibly examined for STIs. The program was modeled after similar ones in Europe, under which authorities stalked “suspicious” women, arresting, testing and imprisoning them.

If the women tested positive, U.S. officials locked them away in penal institutions with no due process. While many records of the program have since been lost or destroyed, women’s forced internment could range from a few days to many months. Inside these institutions, records show, the women were often injected with mercury and forced to ingest arsenic-based drugs, the most common treatments for syphilis in the early part of the century. If they misbehaved, or if they failed to show “proper” ladylike deference, these women could be beaten, doused with cold water, thrown into solitary confinement—or even sterilized.”

….

“Actually, the police were justified in none of these arrests. It is clear to modern observers that the American Plan was a stunningly sexist program, and one that made no sense from a public-health perspective. Nearly every person examined and locked up under these laws was a woman. And the vague standard of “reasonable suspicion” enabled officials to pretty much detain any woman they wanted. Records exist in archives that document women being detained and examined for sitting at a restaurant alone; for changing jobs; for being with a man; for walking down a street in a way a male official found suspicious; and, often, for no reason at all.

Many women were also detained if they refused to have sex with police or health officers, contemporaneous exposés reveal. In the late 1940s, San Francisco police officers sometimes threatened to have women “vagged”—vaginally examined—if they didn’t accede to sexual demands. Women of color and immigrant women, in particular, were targeted—and subjected to a higher degree of abuse once they were locked up.”

What happened to Legs and the other girls that were imprisoned in the penitentiary were sadly victims of a set of sexist laws put in place for some false sense of purity and family values. A main reason promiscuity laws were put in place is because women were being blamed for soldiers having STIs. The government decided it was a security risk to have these dangerous women around. 

The Social Hygiene Association created this poster in order to warn soldiers of the dangers of being with a prostitute. Women are consistently being blamed for the faults of men and sadly for women they created laws to punish women for it. 

Which is what we see Legs suffer from. Her crimes amounted to much more than threatening someone’s life. In fact the main crimes the court seemed to care about were the ones where she wasn’t acting appropriate for a young lady. The men around her failed her consistently or even harmed her in some way and she was the one imprisoned. We see the principal speak out about how unruly she is, the way she acts and dresses, her truancy problems, and he never mentions that he failed to protect his female students from the violent male-only gangs. Her father lies about her being promiscuous, which again the court is staying focused on. The officers harass her, touch her, and by all accounts threaten her with their innuendos. Yet again she is the criminal. The one to be placed in the juvenile penitentiary to be stripped, humiliated, virginity and STI tested, and then beaten and tortured when she doesn’t comply. Torture. That is exactly what “The Room” is, it is torture for not being a compliant, quiet, young lady.

This was not unusual acts back then and even to this day women are subjected to similar acts by the court system. Officers taken advantage of witnesses or victims of a crime. Courts dismissing their claims. Jailed for self-defense from a violent attacker, usually a current or former spouse. The difference is, that we say to ourselves that it was in the past, that things have changed. Because otherwise we have to admit that after all these years of fighting we are still fighting for the same things.

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Self- Love

As I was reading “Eight Bites” in Her Body and Other stories, it was also reading my soul. The one thing that will get a trial argument out of me is someone or something making a person feel like they can not be themselves. If you can not be yourself in a world with over 7 billion people, then who can you be? It made me think of a tweet I had seen recently, which will be included at the bottom of this. For those that do not know the woman on the left is Coi Leray, the middle is Megan Thee Stallion, the right is Lizzo. This photo is my point of view that I want to share with everyone. No matter what you look like, how you are built, if you pay for plastic surgery, or surgery to get things fixed or shaped someone will always have a negative comment to say about you. In the eyes of society and the world there is nothing a woman to be perfect or to be fully accepted without judgment. You have to love yourself for who you are because at the beginning and the end of the day, you’re all you have.

“Eight Bites” is a story about weight loss and not accepting yourself the way you are. Self hate is promoted within this story. The main character’s mother even told her that eight bites are all woman needs to eat. I do not know about everyone else, but I know that eight bites of any type of food is not enough for me. The author actually shows how easy it is to pass down self hate to other generations after you. She even shows how woman are basically pushed to conform to the society’s norms. The main character shouldn’t have felt the need to be like her other two sisters or only take eight bites of her pasta because that’s the norm. #Be Your Own Type of Beautiful!

Knock !Knock! Who’s there? Women acceptance. Women acceptance who? Women acceptance in society. Sorry we cannot let you in.

The author wrote a story before “Eight Bites” called “Real Women have Bodies”. This story is really deep and actually one of my favorites. It shows how a woman personality and soul basically fades by being controlled by their body image. I believe that the fashion world/ industry today oppresses women to be built a certain way and present themselves a certain way. In the story, the owner was selling dresses and they were moving on their own volition because the women’s body was literally sewn into each piece.

I love how the author put “Eight Bites” and “Real Women have Bodies” right after each other. They pick up where the other one left off and can even be seen as a cause and effect storyline. Due to the fashion industry and other putting pressure on the female appearance, it causes the women in society to have low self-esteem and confidence in their nature selves.

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Feminism is Valid: A Movement for Equality of Women

If you are a woman, you know how hard it is to do something “right” as a woman because you will always have someone behind you judging. You are wearing too much or you leave nothing to imagination, she has too much makeup or she needs to put some on, she looks too much like a boy or she looks too much like a woman, she is too young or too old to dress like that, she needs to act more ladylike or she is too polite. Nothing will ever be enough for someone else.

What makes being a woman so hard? Being a woman is psychologically difficult. Not only do we carry the burden of birthing children and we aren’t doing that, we have periods every month along with mood changes from hormones. Our prime purpose is having children and taking care of them and the duties that come along with that. You have a job title that is gender-specific. Having children requires sex and somehow who you have sex with and how many times is everyone else’s business because if it’s not, men can’t tell whether you are a “whore” or not. If you have sex too soon, you’re a “slut”. If you wait too long, you’re a “prude”. There is no winning ever.

Not only is being a woman psychologically difficult, it is physically impossible to please everyone. Feminism is about women supporting women, in the battle for equality and liberation from men. Sometimes, that isn’t the case because women can have a tendency to fall into the same mindset men have and play the submissive and agreeable role. Being a submissive woman is the way some people were raised, which is why it takes women to break the cycle. Don’t let others dictate what you want to wear and how you wear it, have sex (responsibly) with who you want, say what you want, do what you want, go for whatever you want to achieve, and let nothing stop you in the process. What you wear has nothing to do with rape, a study found only 4.4% of all reported rapes involved “provocative dressing”. Rape has everything to do with rapists, not what you choose to wear. It’s not okay to keep normalizing these behaviors, which is why the cycle needs more women to break the chain.

Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/04/13/why-dress-codes-cant-stop-sexual-assault/

https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/being-a-woman-shouldnt-be-this-hard-2e8c756b349a

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Too Much Woman or Woman Enough? Why Feminism is About Equality and not a Man-Hating Club

Reading “Real Women Have Bodies” in the book Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen María Machado, I wanted to analyze this further. In the short story, Machado tells a story about a young woman who works at a dress shop and falls in love with the dressmaker’s daughter. In this world women are seen merely as a side character--or invisible completely, which can be true to our world nowadays. This invisibility portrays women that are seen and considered worthy as a green light for rape or harassment and further carries on the idea that misogyny is normal and acceptable among men.

Something so true to our world and this story, is that women are seen as invisible or unimportant unless they are pretty in the face and “valuable” for their body as well. Why does that then only make women enough? 

Carrying on in the story, the young woman sees this reality as true, but feels an exception herself. She found her love and sees her version of being “seen” fulfilled by sex and acknowledgement. This angers her for other invisible women that do not achieve their sense of self worth and for the women who are seen as nothing more than a body and a victim for rape. She is so angry and wants to do something for other women--and this is why feminism exists and why it is focused on equality. Nobody should ever have to feel like not enough or too much of a woman.