Why do you kill off everyone that i’m emotionally attached to on Grey’s. Please stop.

Thanks,

It’s all jacked up.

To me, chapter seven stood out way more than eight did, so this is post is going to be mainly about the seventh chapter of Woman on the Edge of Time. Aside from unsettling customs from the future, we also get to see how jacked up Connie’s life has been, especially her childhood.

The first thing to catch my attention are man boobs. No fat jokes or anything(book described the man breast feeding with breasts from a “flat-chested woman”), literally man boobs, as in used to nurse. I assume that it would be expected seeing that males are mother figures in 2137, however it was unexpected to see that this future biologically shaped the male figure in order to commit a woman’s task of breast feeding. The concepts of gender are more profound for me in this portion of the book. Judging by the Connie’s reaction of “feeling sick”, and surely my reaction, it shows how distant the 1970s(hell,even today) is from 2137. We all may think this is obscene and completely illogical, but Piercy is making the notion that it may well be possible. Feminism is progressing(although it’s sort of hindered due to the Tumblr social justice warriors and “Femi-Nazis”,but I digress) and would continue to progress as time goes on. It may be to the point where the idea of gender equality literally means equality as in altering our biological structure.

As if it couldn’t get more disturbing, the chapter follows children of less than 10 years of age attempting to have sex with each other. Connie, like a normal human being, reacts with great disgust and anger, exclaiming that “‘[the children] could hurt each other’”. The point where it gets completely screwed up is when Luciente asks if Connie ever “played sex” and leads to disturbing flashbacks of her brother Luis fingering her and later with Jose. Ironically, the people from 2137 are less messed up than Connie, despiting experiencing the same thing. At least in the future it was a social norm and is not taken too seriously whereas in Connie’s time it would be far from disturbing. I interpret this part of the chapter to be a take on society. In both cases, it is shown that children from two time eras and societies are given different reactions for doing the same thing. It goes to show that society dictates what is wrong and what is right.

I also want to mention how this experience may link to an even bigger picture between Connie and the future. This could well be strong supporting evidence towards the theory that this utopia is all in Connie’s mind(as everyone and their grandmas are saying in discussions). The norm of letting children “play sex” in 2137 could possibly be a representation of Connie’s experiences with Luis and Jose, especially when Connie actually enjoyed being touched and doing this messed up stuff with other children, let alone her brothers.