Atwood Rape Fantasies -- Women

Atwood

Rape Fantasies -- Women are not sexual victims in fantasy life

Rape is a serious issue for feminists. It is not an issue that can be joked about easily, unlike more ordinary forms of human heterosexuality. However, Margaret Atwood adopts just such a satiric tone in her short story "Rape Fantasies," to upset the reader's common, presumed ideas both of female sexuality and female, forced sexuality The story is told as a monologue in the first person voice of a woman named Estelle. It chronicles a group of women indulging in spoken fantasies about rape, specifically being raped by men during their office lunch hour. However, the women's sexually curious and provocative tones when discussing suggest that they are not really talking about being raped at all, but enjoying consequence-free sexuality. The women desire sex with strangers but use the word 'rape' as a way of discussing their unspoken and unacknowledged sexual desires in a culture that does not permit women to openly acknowledge their sexuality in a positive fashion.

The startling, light, and unexpected tone of the text begins when a receptionist named Chrissy asks her colleagues during an ordinary, apparently friendly lunchroom discussion: "How about it, girls, do you have rape fantasies?" (107) The monologue's narrator Estelle describes Chrissy in a negative fashion, as a receptionist who is "cool as a cucumber" and varnished like she has been shellacked in nail polish. However, despite this assessment, Chrissy expresses a strong sexual drive as well as desire to merely be admired by men. Chrissy states that dreams of a rapist who breaks into her apartment while she is taking a bath. In defiance of the warnings cited by the narrator from popular women's magazines, Chrissy does not fear men. Although in her daily life Chrissy dresses to attract men and to win male approval, in Chrissy's private life she uses the idea of forced sexuality as a way of enjoying male attentions without the pressures of the office. Even though Estelle judges her harshly, there is a refreshing quality to Chrissy's honesty, in contrast to Estelle's more judgmental tone. Chrissy's story demonstrates that women cannot always express their sexuality as well as a personal demand for 'fun' sex, other than the use of the word rape.

Estelle, the office worker who responds to Chrissy's comments by noting how popular the topic of rape has become in women's magazines, citing titles like "Rape: Ten Things To Do About It" is less open in her attitude. Estelle pokes fun at the magazine's obsession, noting that the carefulness urged by the magazine on the part of women makes it seem like avoiding sexual assault is a step-by-step process "like it was ten new hairdos or something," not a serious criminal and personal issue. The story evolves from Estelle's point-of-view. Estelle initially finds the conversation of her female colleagues uncomfortable, as is evidenced by her focus on the beginning pursuit of the women, a bridge game and by concentrating on her bidding. However, even the reserved Estelle becomes involved in the debate when she ironically describes a rape fantasy where the attacker is held back by a squirt of juice from a plastic lemon filled with Easy Off Cleaner.

Estelle's fantasy is funny and empowering all at once. (104) But Estelle always reminds the other women, including the disgusted Darlene that what they're describing are sexual fantasies: "Listen... those aren't rape fantasies. I mean, you aren't getting raped, it's just some guy you haven't met formally who happens to be more attractive than Derek Cummins... And you have a good time. Rape is when they've got a knife." (104)