#ms.45

Zoë Tamerlis

In a patriarchal society where you have to admit that women are disadvantaged in every way, in terms of power, work, etc., in many cases women are forced into a state of silence in the face of injustice, a silence that is not only spontaneous but also ignored, a kind of law of silence in a patriarchal society.

The mute woman is raped twice on the same day, once by a masked stranger in an alley, and again by a thief when she returns home, unable to make a sound, unable to scream, and finally killing the thief as he climaxes and discarding his body in pieces, leaving behind his pistol. From then on, the gun becomes her voice, from self-defence to murder, and the pistol that gives her voice reminds me of Sigourney Weaver, the sexually abused woman in Polanski’s “Death and the Maiden (1994)”. “If I didn’t have a gun in my hand, you wouldn’t even listen to me,” says Weaver to her husband. Clearly, it's a declaration that doesn't mean what it says.