Patriarchy In Wildwood

Wildwood (feminist lense)

The narrator is made to feel uncomfortable in her own skin by various stimuli in her multiple environments. The biggest and potentially most damaging of these being her mother. Throughout the story the mother acts as a tool of the patriarchy. The narrator’s mother is constantly bombarding the narrator for lacking the breast that the mother is so very proud of. The mother explains why obtaining big breast is essential by saying “her tetas are what she is most proud of. Your father could never get enough of them, she would always say” This is signifies an issue at the center of femininity. In itself there is nothing wrong with taking pride in your own physical features. Being able to claim one’s body as one's own is an essential part of being whole. The issue is the

The mother’s and in turn the patriarchy's damages far extend that of a physical plane. The mother is hypercritical of most everything her daughter tries. In the story, the reader catches glimpses of what the narrator’s life had been like since she was a pre-adolescent. The reader learns that as a child, the narrator was a stellar student and athlete but her mother gave her little to no recognition for these accomplishments. This is because the patriarchy doesn’t value these skills and abilities in a woman. When the narrator cooks and cleans she may not receive praise, but at least she receives recognition. When she, the narrator, decided to claim punk, her mother responds with violence and verbal abuse. Punk is a subculture that doesn’t conform to the pursuit of beauty but rather attempts to dismantle beauty. Incidentally, this is also when a major power switch takes place. The decision to move towards punk represents the narrator claiming her body. She even says “The life that existed beyond … as soon as she became sick I saw my chance” Throughout the text the mother becomes weaker as does the sense of the oppression. Even so the daughter is