Sexual Violence In Jumpei's The Woman In The Dunes

Not only do both male character’s project their internal conflicts onto female characters, as described by both de Beauvoir and Solanas, but they also use sex as a tool to comfort themselves. Sex, specifically sexual violence, serves as a way to reaffirm the men’s identities but also as a way to find comfort. For the men, sex is a way for them to further project their feelings while simultaneously distracting themselves from those feelings. In The Woman in The Dunes, Jumpei uses sex and sexual violence to further project his internal conflict while relieving himself of those emotions. In each sex scene he refuses to accept his volition in choosing sex and sexual violence, instead accusing her of forcing herself onto him while also believing

To understand the implicit sexual violence, de Beauvoir’s argument about how the sexualization of young girls like Maria only happens “...through the intervention of the male, and this always constitutes a kind of violation” is the basis for the abuse (de Beauvoir 367). de Beauvoir further argues that all first sexual experiences are a form of violence, especially with such a significant age gap, and that it leads a girl to be “torn from her childhood universe and hurled into wifehood” because the sexual act is simultaneously an “...act of violence that changes a girl into a woman…” (de Beauvoir 367). This understanding of a “sexual initiation” can be seen in the fact that, even though Cayetano was not explicitly violent the actions carry an implicit violence. By stripping Maria of her innocence through sexualizing her and committing sexual acts against her she is violently forced into adulthood, in this case prematurely. The use of violence against Maria for Cayetano’s satisfaction is similar to Solanas’ belief that men are “completely egocentric, unable to relate, empathize or identify, and filled with a vast, pervasive, diffuse sexuality,” explains why Cayetano is able to justify to himself sexualizing her while denying her autonomy or ability to resist (Solanas 5). Using de Beauvoir’s understanding of sexual initiation as violence

Both de Beauvoir and Solanas agree that sex is exclusively for male satisfaction, therefore, an isolating experience. De Beauvoir’s argument that sex is an isolating experience is based on the fact that men will always be “...at the center of this activity, being on the whole, but the subject as opposed to objects that he perceives and instruments that he manipulates;” (de Beauvoir 366). De Beauvoir’s understanding of sex is able to explain why both novels' use of sex are deeply isolationist and objectifying. Jumpei’s refusal to be accountable for his actions, as well as Cayetano’s grooming both use the female body as an object to be used, a tool for male growth and validation, not as an equal. Through this lens, sex is supposed to be as isolationist as Jumpei experiences, and as self-serving as Cayetano