Blog 6: The Woman Warrior

One very important aspect of “No Name Woman” from “The Woman Warrior” by Maxine Hong Kingston is sexual identity, specifically for women. The aunt of the narrator faced harsh prosecution for her sexuality. This story explores many of the possibilities of what could have led to her suicide, whether it be rape or love. Either way, it is very clear that her community blamed her for her actions and made sure she knew it. This is made clear by how they ransacked her house and pretended she never existed after her death. The latter is especially horrible because their religious belief is that the dead get whatever you give them in the afterlife so she would never have anything.

This story opened up my eyes to the ways of traditional Chinese culture. Obviously there is pressure in our own culture for women to be sexually conservative, but I didn’t know about the harshness of this society. The idea that her community, a group of people that were all meant to be considered an extension of her family, would shame her so much that she would take her life and the life of the child that she loved is just so shocking on so many levels. It doesn’t seem like the people have advanced much either. We see throughout the story that the narrator is still being told to be pure and to not disgrace her family by being promiscuous.

There were many relevant quotes about female sexual identity on this reading. One line that directly shows the difference between men and women in this culture is, “They expected her alone to keep the traditional ways, which her brothers, now among the barbarians, could fumble without detection” (Kingston, 1510). Because the men in her village went to America, it is accepted that they will not be held accountable for their actions there, whereas the narrator’s aunt had all of the pressure on her shoulders to be perfect. We see that when she doesn’t meet these expectations, the repercussions are severe. We also see some of the pressures to be modest in this story. For example, when she says, “More attention to her looks than these pulling of hairs and picking at spots would have caused gossip among the villagers” (Kingston, 1511). It’s hard to believe that something so trivial would actually matter to so many people. This just illustrates the intense pressure on women to behave and not express their sexuality.

There is much pressure on women today to act a certain way sexually. If you have too much sex, you are a slut, if you don’t have any, you’re a prude. It really is an awful way to box in half of the population. In the case of rape, a woman’s sexuality is essentially taken away from her. It’s scary how rampant it is in our society and how often the woman is blamed for being attacked. All of this comes into play in this story, and it makes the reader consider the narrator’s aunt as more than just a woman who got pregnant and committed suicide, but as a person who lived a hard life and did not deserve to be treated so terribly.