A Literary Analysis
on the Short Story Seek Ye Whore in a
Feminist Lens
The paper aims on the analysis of the
short story Seek Ye Whore in a
feminist lens. Seek Ye Whore is a
short story written by Yvette Tan.
Yvette
Natalie U. Tan is a Manila-based horror writer. Her works have been published
in The Philippine Free Press, the Philippine
Daily Inquirer, the Manila Times, Uno magazine, Rogue magazine, Story
Philippines, and the Philippine Genre Stories,
among others.
Her fictions have also appeared in anthologies
such as Sleepless in Manila and Philippine Speculative Fiction II and III.
The paper
also aims to answer the following guide question for the analysis:
I.
What
issues exist in a given literary work of specific importance to women and
women’s perspectives, values, categories, and experiences?
II.
What
does it mean, in a given story or poem, to be a woman?
III.
How
is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
IV.
What
are the power relationships between men and women (or characters assuming
male/female roles)?
Analysis
I.
The issue exists in the short story focuses on Filipino
women treated as properties, sex objects, helper, and destroyer.
Filipino women are treated as properties. The
fact the men like Donovan and Foster could simply get an instant “wife” through
ordering female as “wives” online. The website is actually Siquijorbrides.com
which sounded as seek ye whore for Foster. It was obvious that women (specifically
Filipina were seen as ready-to-order brides) depict social issue on how women
viewed in the society. They were viewed not as humans especially in the eyes of
men but as properties, blow-up dolls. This idea was supported by how the author
used the concept of Barbie-like ownership of women to give impression to the
readers how unfortunate they were.
Another issue that can be seen in the story is
on how women viewed based on their nationality or the country they came from.
"She's
a MAIL ORDER BRIDE from the Philippines. You know how hot
those Third World chicks are to marry white guys" (p.51)
I think everybody knows that it is inevitable
for the non-Filipinos, especially the Westerners to think that many of the
Filipino women are good in giving services such as anything related with
household chores, and even sex maybe because they had unintentionally made a mark on prostitution. Moreover, those
“third country chicks” planted on their minds took the notion of marrying a
white man just to get away from the hells of poverty. Surely, the types of
women in the story don’t exist the first world countries. There might have some
probabilities but is very little, very.
Women are under the rules of men or whoever
owns them. They are bound to the cliché works of cooking, doing household
chores, and love making.
““It’s
like a vacation. I wake up; the wife’s made breakfast and packed my lunch. I
eat, she kisses me off, I go to work. I get home, the house is sparkling,
the wife’s made dinner, and has a Bud chilling in the fridge for me. Some
nights, we chill and watch TV, but most of the time—” he paused, then said,
with eyes closed as if remembering, “We fuck like rabbits.”” (p.50)
The line cited from the story implied that
men’s highest gratification it to have a companion that will provide him all
the services and help he needs to satisfy all his desires (ie food and sex).
II.
The story implies that to be a woman is to give
pleasure to the one that owned/bought you which she will later on call as
“husband”. Primarily the women’s role in the story is to work for her husband;
cook interesting and delicious food for him, stay in the house, do the
household chores, make herself beautiful and pleasing in the eyes of her
husband so during the night they’ll make love. Through this they would be considered
“perfect” and “useful”.
III.
The characters are husbands and wives in the
story. The man/husband goes to work while the woman stays in the house. The
woman does her job and part as “wife” and that is to wake up early in the
morning to prepare her husband’s breakfast, prepares lunch for him so he’ll
have something to eat during office break/lunch hours, makes the house neat,
cook again for dinner, wait for her husband to come, and do some mind blowing
sex at nights. In short, the typical things a woman does with her husband.
IV.
The man dictates what her “instant” wife should
and should not do. On the other hand, the woman will perfectly do her part in
making her husband happy. Later on the man will be subdued under her care and
will end up blotted just like Donovan. We may conclude on that part that the
saying “Behind every man’s downfall is a woman” is true.
References:
De Vera, R.S., Seek Ye Whore: Yvette Tan. Connecting
Flights: Filipinos Write From Elsewhere. Page 41-77
Thank you for your information. It really helped me in my analysis for the story. And though the story was SPG, Feminism was emphasized.
TumugonBurahinThank yoy
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