Heterosexuality: Six Stories by Women Authors from Le Sueur (1936) to Lawson (2016)

Abstract

Abstract. This work puts forth a comparative study of six short fictions by female au­thors—Le Sueur, Dinesen, Atwood, Kincaid, Alvarez, and Lawson—which replicate and challenge patriarchal notions on women’s (hetero)sexuality throughout five decades. Most stories revolve around the problems posed by patriarchal ideology regarding women’s first heterosexual rela­tions; furthermore, since patriarchal beliefs on sexuality favor masculinity, several women find difficulties to discuss the term “rape”. I organize the authors into four groups: Dinesen and At­wood function as a frame in which I compare Kincaid with Alvarez and Le Sueur with Lawson. As the female protagonists live in different times and places, I examine the dissimilarities among them, often focusing on an issue that repeats itself across cultures and generations: the myth of virginity. Together with this, I delve into both the topics and the stylistic techniques developed in the writings. Finally, my theoretical-critical perspective is both feminist and socially engaged, including academic studies (e.g. Pickering, 2016), internet lectures (e.g. Orenstein, 2017), and newspaper articles (e.g. the sentence of “La Manada”, 2019), among other sources.

Keywords: Women, heterosexuality, patriarchy, feminism, literature, society.