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¶ … woman on a roof" by Doris Lessing: The fantasy life of men

"A woman on a roof" by Doris Lessing is a story about male anger and male perceptions of female sexuality. The plot of the short tale is relatively simple: the title woman suns herself during an early summer heat wave, minding her own business, reading quietly on a rooftop while she is ogled by a group of construction workers who are replacing the gutters on a series of buildings. Because of the extremely warm conditions, the title woman is wearing a bathing suit. However, the workmen on the roof see her body, an ordinary, human body, as worthy of mockery and censure because they view any kind of female nudity as provocation.

The fact the men can see her but cannot touch her is perceived as a threat to their masculinity. They imagine what they would do if they were her 'old man' -- force her to cover up -- as they ogle her with desire. They criticize the woman even while they stare at her all day long, without guilt. Although the day is sizzling hot, the idea that a woman might simply wish to avoid the heat inside her home does not occur to them: a woman's body, if she is attractive, is never neutral or something she can 'enjoy' herself, instead it is viewed as a statement to men, against men.

The conflict of the plot is created in the minds of the men who feel a need to project their threatened sexuality on to the woman's body. Lessing suggests this is an age-old struggle between men and women: this is why she titles her work "A woman on a roof" rather than "The woman on a roof." The title suggests that this situation could happen anywhere, to any woman, if a woman happens to be regarded as attractive. The woman in question is not a famous actress or a model but because she is desired, she becomes objectified. The men feel that she 'owes them' a 'chat and a smile' by virtue of her femininity and desirability.

At the end of the story, the youngest of the workmen, named Tom, finally speaks to the mysterious woman. Tom is shocked by her lack of friendliness, as if merely because he is sexually attracted to the woman she should respond to his advances: "She lay there. He stood there. She said nothing. She had simply shut him out." Tom waits: "saying nothing at all, for some minutes. He thought: 'She'll have to say something if I stay.' But the minutes went past, with no sign." Tom has fantasized that he can be tenderer than the other workmen, and therefore he assumes the woman will be more forthcoming to him than to his crude companions. Like the other construction workers, this 'Peeping Tom' cannot separate fantasy about what they call this modern "Lady Godiva" from reality: it does not occur to him that the woman has a sense of her own sexuality, independent of his feelings of her: like the real Lady Godiva, he feels she should only disrobe for a reason, to satisfy male desire.

The story suggests that Tom's sentimental feelings about the woman are just as unreal as the pornographic scenarios created in the minds of Stanley and the other men. The men view the woman's actions with a mix of paternalism and propriety, and act as if men 'own' all women and as if women cannot make decisions about their bodies. "I bet her old man put his foot down," said Stanley, when the men think that the woman is not on the roof one day. In actuality, she is merely on a different section of roof, to hide from them, which indicates that she has been sunning herself to enjoy the weather, not engaging in an act of exhibitionism, as they assume.