Depiction of Women in SSTLS

Theme: Depictions of Gender

Passage 1: p. 162 Paragraph 4
As Amy Greenburg's mother is trying to make Amy "see through Jeremy Blocks' bs" seems as if she is trying to empower her daughter. Although throughout the paragraph Amy was listing many vial things that Jeremy mad her do while they were together. Many of those things are very degrading to women. Going back to what Amy's mother was trying to do, it seems like she was trying to empower her daughter by giving her advice to not be with someone as crude as Jeremy, no matter his "rankings." Yet, the last sentence of the paragraph is one of Amy's mother exclaiming, "Be your own pimp, girl!" deliberately takes away the empowerment that was placed in the beginning of the paragraph. The two statements her mother makes about Amy deserving better and for Amy to be her own "pimp" is contradicting her previous statement, and thus degrading females even more.

Passage 2: p. 72 Paragraph 1 (Letter to Eunice from her Mother)
Eunice's mother is describing the many things her father has said about her. They include many degrading statements that put shame upon her family such as, "He say you probably with black man. So shocking!" The entire letter is a dictation from Eunice's father about what she should do and should not do. The fact that her father is dictating how Eunice should live her life (and for her mother to send the message on to Eunice, in support of her father) shows the value of a woman's opinion or freedom in Vietnamese culture during the futuristic time of SSTLS. Again, not as degrading as the first passage but it is demeaning to take a person's, or woman for this matter, rights away to be their own person. To add to this, Eunice's mother stated at the end of the letter, "Please forgive me because I am bad mother and bad wife." Eunice's mother seems to always blame herself for everything. She thinks down upon herself when there is no need to. Part of this is because of the father who makes her feel as if she is a bad wife or mother...but would a bad mother try to contact her daughter to see if she is willing to mend things together with her father?? I think not! I think Eunice's mother is a good mother and should not degrade herself to less.

Passage 3: p. 168 "Unlike others of her generation..." and on
Because Lenny says that unlike others of Eunice's generation, she does not get lost in the moment, he's saying that she is different than the other females of her age. During the futuristic time of the book, young women are so entranced and "completely steeped in pornography", yet Eunice has a "need for warmt instead of debasement" thus proving that she is not what the typically young female is like during intimacy. She does not look for debasement like the others, this says a lot about the theme because the general depiction of gender for all other young women is....not a good one, and Eunice is not the general depiction of women. She is different.