Quote:

            “Why? Because a women’s beauty does not belong to her alone. It is part of the bounty she brings into the world. She has a duty to share it” (Coetzew 16.)

 

Comment:

            This quote can be found at the end of chapter two of “Disgrace.” The chapter describes the first intimate encounter between David and Melanie in his apartment. David cooks dinner for Melanie and following they watch a film together on dance. After the film David invites Melanie to stay the night with him, but Melanie declines the offer and leaves. This quote comes from this interaction between the two.

            For me this quote jumped off the page and my very first reaction was to yell at character of David. However, after giving more thought to the chapter and the quote, I was reminded strongly of a discussion I had in my class on feminism. Recently we listened to a podcast entitled “Five Women” which tells the story of five different women who all had interacted intimately with their boss, Don. They all tell a very similar story of how he made them feel needed and wanted, they described their experiences as intriguing. However, each woman felt external pressures to spend time with him, for example one women continued to see him because it meant staying in his good graces which would enable her to get a job. The thing that is most interesting is that Don did not see anything wrong with the situation. I was extremely struck with how similar David is to Don. Both men are imposing themselves upon a woman who needs something from him. For the women in the podcast it was a job and for Melanie it was a good grade or education.

            I specifically chose this quote, because in the pod cast a very similar statement was made in reference to the way that Don thought. It seems to be very common for men (and even some women) to take on this mindset either consciously or unconsciously. What intrigues me is why that is and what it is about growing up in our society fosters such a train of thought. I have spent quite a lot of time in my feminist theory class discussing this, but I thought it might be something interesting to discuss regarding justice within this class.

Here is the link to the podcast

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/640/five-women

 

Question:

             Do you think that Melanie would have described this encounter in the same way that David would? In other words, do you think her perspective on the situation is different?