September 10,1992
s^^^
by H'SjSPe
Alice Walker involves a more obvious political
'agenda' in Possessing the Secret of Joy than we have
witnessed in her previous novels. She somehow manages,
however, to sacrifice none of her story-telling, her poetry,
or her smooth power.
She confronts the seemingly
unapproachable topic of "bathing," or fe
male genital mutilation- common in count
less African tribes- through the charac
ter Tashi
Tashi, a member of the
Olinkan tribe, is one of a scarce few
female tribe members who had not
suffered the "initiation ceremony"
of female circumcision as a j
young girl. As a result she en
dures teasing from her teenage
peers and the isolation of not
feeling fully female.
Believing the words of
her beloved leader, who insists upon
the necessity of the ritual for the tribe' s
survival, and the words of her mother
who insists that everyone knows that the
vulva is dirty, Tashi chooses to be initiated
into womanhood.
The circumcision is performed in a
hut, on a grass mat, without any form of ! 1
anesthetic. The operating tool of
choice was at one time a sharp-
ened stone. Modernization
has replaced it with a
shard of glass, a flip
top from an old soda
can, or scrap metal.
The wound is
inflicted to the rhythm of the
patient's screams and is sewn tightly, then
secured with thorns.
Tashi marries an American and moves to the
States where, years later, through Jungian therapy, she
begins to recognize and confront her wounds, her anger
and her pain.
While Walker makes clear her outrage with the
illegitimizing effects of Tashi's physical mutilation, she
presents Tashi's struggle on a much broader scale. Tashi
represents the metaphorical circumcision of women ev
erywhere.
This story does not jus} place in Africa-and
in the life of Tashi. It takes place in\he i ives of anyone who
has ever been female, or has ever been a part of a group that
Walker calls tiie "pampered oppressed."
Tashi pulls me back to a time in ray own life when
I was 13 years old ana I whittled my five feet and three
Perspectives
Reviews
POSSESSING THE
by alice walker
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband Is the head of the wife even as Christ Is the head of the Church."
-Epheslans 5:21-23, King James Verslonn
"Religion Is an elaborate excuse for what man has done to woman."
-Raye, Possessing the Secret of Joy
inches down to 76 pounds, and delayed visible signs of selves that should be revered as symbols of our creative
puberty. I had heard my peers, boys and girls alike, whisper power?
and joke about the girls who developed early. Menstruation Why should an American woman learn to hate the
was messy and embarrassing. And anyone who had ever natural plumps and curves of her body?
picked up a
Glamour
magazine
knew that
hips and
thighs were
simply un
acceptable.
Tashi urges
me to won
der why
women are
encouraged
to deny and
devalue
those parts
of our-
Why should she be taught to paint her face, just as
she is taught to walk or taught to read? Why should an
Olinkan woman leam that her own sexual pleasure is corrupt
and dirty?
Possessing the Secret of Joy indicates
that ancient man's fear of woman's
mysterious creative potential is alive
even today and has evolved into what
is a virtually universal system of fe
male oppression.
Possessing the-Secret of Joy indicates that ancient
man's fear of woman's mysterious creative potential is alive
even today and has evolved into what is a virtually universal
system of female oppression.
He has mistreated the Earth, as he has women, in an
attempt to control that which is mysterious and beyond his
power. Olinkan tribesman recall their religious history; God
clips woman's wings because "If left to herself the Queen
would fly."
I have always enjoyed discussing books with my
father, so when I found he was reading Possessing the Secret
of Joy, I was eager to engage him in conversation. He
responded to my proddings with a disguted, contorted ex
pression and "Well, I wouldn't say that this is the kind of book
one 'loves'."
circumcision, that he turned his head away in disgust
rather than recognizing the universality of the problem,
and the metaphorically 'circumcised' women that even
he knows.
I am reminded of a painting that Pablo Picasso
created in response to the dictator Franco's barbaric
bombing of his own people. The scene that Picasso chose
to depict was so disturbing and bloody that he painted it in
black and white; this way people would be forced to see the
horror without being tempted to turn their faces away.
Well, Alice Walker definitely writes in color.
I encourage you, woman or man, to read this book.
Female circumcision of any kind is difficult to confront, but
this book is equally difficult to put down. . •
KathrynTemple, asophomore aiGuilford College, is
in Guadalajara, Mexico this semester.
-Kathryn Temple
He seemed so disturbed by the reality of female
Z\yt
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