Humbert Humbert’s extensive range of dealings that, by society’s standards, can be argued as immoral and even evil, varying from sleeping with underage prostitutes, kidnapping and raping his stepdaughter, to even committing murder. The reader, on the other hand would never define Humbert Humbert as evil, merely misunderstood in his charismatic and even pleasant foreign manner. His way of seducing the reader with words commences from the first paragraph as he describes Lolita, a girl of fourteen, in such a way that communicates his genuine longing and heartache, fooling the reader to believe that she is the love of his life.

Lolita, light of my life, fire in my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.

The seduction of Humbert Humbert’s words makes the reader fall for him, which is exactly what he intends to happen. The fact that he kidnapped his beloved Lolita after indirectly causing the death of her mother, robbing her of her innocence and convincing the reader that she was the one to seduce him no longer matters, only that he is with her, as the reader empathizes with his yearning for her. Conversely, Humbert Humbert believes that Lolita is the victim and he has wronged her, he makes the reader believe that he wants what is best for her while throughout her adolescence, he committed the worst upon her, as he openly admits. He constantly gives her gifts which can either signify his deep affection or that he is really bribing her with expensive presents to keep their affair a secret, in reality it could be both but Humbert Humbert plays with the reader in such a way that the reader cannot distinguish between Humbert Humbert’s elaborate story and reality. His morality is also questioned when he murders Quilty, but strictly for what he has done to Lolita, as he says which can also be interpreted as what Quilty has done to Humbert Humbert by taking Lolita away from him. At a glance, Humbert Humbert’s motives seem genuine and faithful but at a second look they are more than questionable.

Humbert Humbert spins his story in the way that the reader can trust him and believe him; Nabokov is able to alter the morality of Humbert Humbert which is in question by the end of his memoir. Instead of being seen as a monster, he is still charming and his actions seem to be for the sake of love. Humbert Humbert’s complexity and moral ambiguity make him a notable character and allow for Nabokov to put on a puppet show with the reader’s mind being as alterable as the marionette, to Nabokov’s discretion. This makes Lolita an unforgettable piece that questions the norms of societal morality, as Nabokov makes Humbert Humbert an exception to every moral rule, as his motives are for the sake of love and love alone.

Right away this idea is introduced as the audience learns that Penelope has been turning down the advances of the suitors for many years. She is preserving the bond that she made with Odysseus and the promise she made to him when he left for the war, even though she is lonely: “She seems attentive to their pleaded vows, Her heart detesting what her ear allows. They, vain expectants of the bridal hour,” (1). While Odysseus is detained on Calypso’s island he wants no part of the sexual advances of Calypso, even though she is a beautiful nymph, “Calypso in her caves constrain'd his stay, With sweet, reluctant, amorous delay,” (1). But instead he longs for his own wife: Penelope is, “The dear, though mortal, object of my love,” (5) and he wants nothing more than to get back to her and his home land.  Calypso abuses the act of sex and even though she is aware that Odysseus has a wife and home she keeps him as her sex slave, abusing the bond he has made. She uses sex only for pleasure and eventually Athena sees to it that Zeus puts it to an end.

On his journey, Odysseus encounters Nausicaa who gives a speech that dispels any question of the Greek parameters on sexual relations. She speaks to uphold her morality, showing Odysseus that she is a child of virtue who wishes to be done right by: 

“And the least freedom with the sex is shame,
Till our consenting sires a spouse provide,
Till our consenting sires a spouse provide,
And public nuptials justify the bride,” (6)

She drives home the idea that sex is wrong outside of the nuptial bed. Her parents Alcinoos and Arete reflect this model as they end the day by going to bed with one another.

In parallel, The Odyssey also portrays what happens when the marital vows are not kept sacred. The audience knows that the Trojan war began on an account of infidelity when Helen was unfaithful to Menelaus. Agamemnon, in Hades, scorns her for it. Agamemnon is an example of the unfortunate events that always seem to follow adulterous acts, as his wife who was also unfaithful, lands him in Hades. This act was punished, as almost all acts of distrust between spouses in this story are. Story telling is one of the major methods that the Greeks use to pass down information and rules to live by. The story of Hesphaetus and Aphrodite’s love affair is told, emulating the idea that punishment shall ensue if the holy bond is broken. “Yet Vulcan conquers, and the god of arms Must pay the penalty for lawless charms." (8)

There is one instance when Odysseus is almost lost to the sexual charms of Circe. Their relationship portrays the pleasurable, engrossed type of lover’s relationship that can get so many Greeks into trouble, Agamemnon, Helen and Aphrodite have all been used as examples of this throughout the tale. “Sheathe thy bright sword, and join our hands in peace! Let mutual joys our mutual trust combine, And love, and love-born confidence, be thine.' (10). This is the one instance where Odysseus is blinded from his goal of nostos, revealing just how powerful of a role sex plays. Thankfully his crew men remind him of his purpose and he sets out with a vengeance again, turning down a lifetime with the illustrious Circe to get back to Penelope, where he knows he should be. Their reunion is held in suspense throughout the entire story. The audience sees pairs of husband and wife-Alcinoos and Arete, as well as Menelaus and Helen- ending their days together when all is right. The rejoining of Odysseus and Penelope demonstrates to the Greeks that all is well and Odysseus’ plight is to be over. “The instant his fair spouse Ulysses led To the chaste love-rites of the nuptial bed.” (23)

It is clear in The Odyssey that the bond between husband and wife is revered. Those who love within the nuptial bed’s domain, as defined through Nausicaa’s speech, uphold their morality and live peacefully in the Greek world. Even the Gods are unable to break the marriage bond for long without receiving retribution. This bond is so well recognized as something sacred throughout the story, that it caps off Odysseus’ long and eventful journey. The audience is so accustomed to this idea that by the end of the story Odysseus and Penelope adjourning to bed together solidifies Odysseus’ success and safety. Pleasure and force both play a role in the characters sexual relations but it is the bond between husband and wife that is imperative in the Greek’s culture.

In order for an Apprentice to become a Geisha, she must sell her virginity to the highest bidder. The way that Mameha describes this to Sayuri is hilarious, because of the analogy, yet extremely significant. The fact that Mameha states that an eel looks for a cave to “spit” in can take on many meanings. The first and foremost, the obvious act of sex, but when we take a deeper look we can alter the meaning or put a twist to it. The eel can also be seen as a snake. The snake can mislead the woman so that the woman gets what she wants by letting this happen. In this case, sex for Sayuri causes her to become a full Geisha and also allows Sayuri to leave her trapped feelings and get away from Nobu becoming her danna. However, this could be realtated back to the Bible where the devil takes form of a snake, misleading Eve to eat the Forbidden Fruit from the tree. This can take on a point of feminism where the male is always misleading the female causing the female to have pain.

When Sayuri looses her virginity to Dr. Crabb, it is disturbing the things that he does. Dr. Crabb is completely calm when handing Sayuri the white towel to put under her. He then does his thing and helps her to wipe her off. Instead of just wiping her off, he savors this moment by showing her his briefcase of tubes holding a red cloth or cotton ball. The fact that he saves a cloth of blood from each of the Geisha's he's the mizuage patron of, shares there is something extremely wrong with him. This, however, is interesting because when it takes an Apprintace to loose her virginity in order to become a Geisha its ironic how the Doctor is trying to preserve that virginity through the saving of bloody rags.

The question is raised then who is seductive: men or women. The problem with answering this is that they both are seductive. It takes a man to be seductive to become a Geisha but then again it takes a Geisha to be seductive to have a man desire them. I think that the men desire Geisha because they are not prostitutes and they are a legal way of having sex with another woman when they are married. This therefore does not make a Geisha seductive but the man willing to be seduced by a desire he already has. Knowing this, the bidding war that goes on for Sayuri's virginity is ironic because she has seduced neither man, but the men bidding are desiring to be seduced. It's almost as if it's a state of mind for the men and women in this book either be seductive or to be seduced. Near the end of the book when the Chairman is free to be with Sayuri, he seduces Sayuri by kissing her. Sayuri, however, has longed for that exact moment so I don't know if the Chairman actually had to be seducing or if he was just the desire that Sayuri had wanted for so long that she allowed herself to be seduced. The book is simply a novel of desires and wants that one can get by being seduced into it or seducing one into it.

I once read a feminist text book that, in one portion, said that opening doors for a woman is sexist because it mocks the woman's social standing and also implies that she is weak. I think this is overly aggressive. I open doors for everybody, male or female, because it is the polite thing to do.

That being said, the rest of this is me bitching about blatant sexism in comics. Like I said, tough, sexism is on a scale not an either/or. Sexism can be found in pretty much any context, even when the writer or artist is a woman, simply because it is an example of other works that may be harmful to the political atmosphere, the social atmosphere or the religious atmosphere and how those atmospheres effect women.

After I list a few examples, I will talk about ways to overcome the sexist stereotypes and how to make a story better for women readers, and also the social, political and spiritual worlds that each of us is a part of.

Extreme Exaggeration of the Female Anatomy

When I first began looking for an artist in the comics field I put up advertisements stating that I wanted well drawn, natural looking women. It was a requirement. Out of the 50 or so pages of submissions I got only one or two of them had bothered with sending submissions of women that had been drawn well and respectfully. The vast majority of submissions were by artist who exploited the female body to try and gain financial profit. I'd asked one artist, who's work was otherwise extremely well drawn, if he could draw women with breasts sizes that weren't exaggerated and his reply was that he wasn't going to compromise his artist vision for profit. Yikes. That is how some people define artistic integrity? Okay, well, he won't be getting the job from me. The thing that sucks is he is almost certain to get it somewhere else.

What gets me upset about this is when people talk about how men are drawn with just as much exaggeration. I used to be one of these people, to be honest, until I looked at it a little closer. The women's bodies are almost always identical. If you take women from a specific comic and remove details from her costume that would identify her, you would have no idea who she is. The only differences between women characters are hair style and sometimes one will have a cleft chin. The men have exaggerated bodies, too, but they are varied and reflect the personalities and powers of the hero. Captain America is very different from Spiderman, Wolverine and the Hulk.

Comics are, for the most part, written by heterosexual males, writing about heterosexual males, for heterosexual males. The sexuality is only obvious when it comes to women. The vast majority wear next to nothing most of the time or dress in clothing that emphasize the breasts, buttocks and thighs. A prime example is Power Girl. Her breasts were abnormally large for a teenage girl as Supergirl, but as a grown up Power Girl they are enormous and her costume has a hole cut out to show cleavage.

The thing of it is, though, it isn't just the breasts being too large or overly exposed. The vast majority of body parts are exaggerated on the women in ways that men simply aren't. The stomaches are made extremely thing, the thighs are muscular and the heads, hands and feet are smaller than normal.

Recently a woman, Jodi Picoult, was hired to write Wonder Woman and asked DC comics if she could alter Wonder Woman's costume. One of the things Jodi had wanted to change was a simple addition of shoulder straps. DC said no. I assume they thought that it was vital to the character profile that she not have shoulder straps.

After Jodi's short run on Wonder Woman, DC comics hired Gail Simone to replace her. Gail argues that the fact that Wonder Woman makes the eyes pop out of your head is what makes her special. Gail Simone once stated on a message board I frequent, that she believes the fact that Wonder Woman is a strong, intelligent, beautiful woman is what makes her a feminist icon.

Women In Refrigerator

Gail Simone has a history of fighting to improve the standard treatment of women in comics. She once wrote about how women in comics tended to be little more than plot devices. Women are mostly used as a way to motivate the hero and are often killed in horrible ways, like, being chopped up and left in the Green Lanterns fridge. Yucky. Creepy. It seems that, extremely often, female characters are killed or abused in bizarre ways. This is something I understand and am repulsed by at the same time. I understand wanting to make the girlfriend of the hero the victim because it creates an immediate need for the hero to do something. However, at the same time, it is a damn shame that the stories default setting is girl in trouble and guy saves her.

As I posted on Jennifer De Guzeman's blog, I believe there are times when a character needs to be misogynistic, in order to express how bad that can be, you sometimes these really bad people have to do something really nasty to women. What we really need though is for a truer to life balance. When women can be intelligent, strong, well written characters and you have a blatant sexist in the story, fine, but when it is rehashed garbage that is simply written to perpetuate a story of girl in trouble and guy saves her, well, then you just suck at writing or an obviously only think of women in terms of weak and defenseless. In other words, you lose.

To learn more about the Women In Refrigerator syndrome of the comics world, please visit the Women In Refrigerator website.

Pin Ups

Okay, I understand the women in comics are sexualized beings from the get go(see the first portion), but why are Pin Ups almost always copied from pornography? Is there really a need to see Catwoman take off her clothing, in a full colored two page splash, when her clothing is so skin tight that we can see the excellently researched muscle patterns? No, it isn't necessary. There are times when nudity and sexual expression are appropriate, but this goes far beyond that. It is tasteless and disrespectful to the serious art and story telling that is taking place, often in the same comic.

1/3rd the Population

On average, the female population of the comic book world is less than 1/3 of the overall population. Why is it that we can write men to fill in all of the little blanks, like say the bank teller when Clark and Lois go to try and cash his first pay check, or the mechanic who fixes the batmobile, or a doctor who operates on Tony Stark, why are they always men?

Secondary characters are an important part of story telling, they can be used to be the victims in a superhero tale, and furthermore can be seen as simply a blank slate in any given situation. An example would be, say, in the Punisher. Let's pretend that Frank Castle is out shooting bad guys or what ever. Now, there are a number of stories in this simple example, but why not write one from the perspective of a woman who happens to see him?

And please, if you write something like this, don't make it all about her kids. Women don't have to be moms. Variety is the spice of life. Women can be anything.

Fully Defined

Women should be written the same way the men are. They should be written with the intent of telling a story about how people act and we as writers need to look past our own perspective. If you are a 20 year old male and are writing your first comic, think to yourself about how your actions will define the story later on. Are all the sketches of your male characters vivid and full of life? Probably not, but compare them to the female characters. Don't think of female characters as a place to draw what you find attractive but rather draw the women you think would best aide the story. Write about people who are flawed and yet honest representations of women you know.

Variety is the Spice of Life

Women do not need to be any of the following types of characters. They can be. And sometimes that particular role NEEDS to be a woman, but if you are writing a woman please think of her as a human before any of the following:

• Mother
• Sister
• Daughter
• Model
• Hottie Girlfriend
• "Girl Next Door"
• Shrewd Unmarried Professional
• Prostitute
• Nurse
• Victim
• Popular Girl who Ignores Hero
• Sexy Girl who is at all times thinking of sex

Each of those is a tired cliche. If you need to write a characters mother for some reason, do so and write her as a person, not as a mother. Get it? No? Let me elaborate.

While women are mothers, daughters, sisters, and so on, they do not think of themselves as this, not primarily. When people think of themselves they do so thinking of themselves as the center of the world. This isn't meant to be snide or suggest that women are spoiled. All people are self centered. People can give frequently to charity, fight for the rights of the under privileged and will still think of themselves as a complete and undefinable person. When men tend to write male characters, they write them as whole beings with entire personalities all their own. When it comes to female characters, how ever, we find that most men write them either with out personality or as a very tired cliche.

Virgin Mary vs Mary Magdalene

One of the weirdest things about sexism is how obtuse it can be. We've discussed the hyper-sexualization of women, but what about making women completely asexual? Women through out history are portrayed in many art forms, even the bible, as either being completely asexual or virginal or the very opposite, a prostitute or an incredibly sexualized woman. Women exist on this spectrum in many ways, shapes and forms.

An example of this is best in Spider-Man. I have a very limited knowledge of Spider-Man, but from what I've read the nerdy Peter Parker dates(and eventually marries) mega-hottie Mary Jane Watson. His poor Aunt May, however, never seems to date anybody. In fact, the only times I remember seeing Aunt May take an interest in ANYTHING other than providing for Peter Parker was when it directly related to the story. If Aunt May says that she is going to church, a bad guy attacks the church later in the issue. If she goes to coney island to play skee ball, a bad guy attacks coney island.

Just Who Do These Things Happen To Anyway?

Something that I've noticed is that when a woman is attacked or harmed in a comic, her personality, disposition, world view, and sense of self is never altered. She is essentially the same being she was before her super powered boyfriend accidently sent her into a coma.

I've watched Superman nearly kill Lois Lane several times and she hugs him afterwards. Superman will feel tons of grief, anger, disillusionment within himself, but Lois remains unchanged. The incident doesn't even register. The same can be said for many other girlfriends or wives to superheros.

It isn't just this, when a villain attacks the girlfriend of a super hero, she never leaves the superhero. She never confronts him about her own safety or questions if the relationship is in her best interest. What does she do? Usually she gets kidnaped and rescued, but other than that, she does nothing. Again, women are portrayed as weak. They are portrayed as little more than plot devices and sexual fantasies of bondage and dominance.

How Can We Overcome This?

In the interest of fairness, I'd like to point out that DC comics is branching out and trying to create a market for the girl readers. They are hiring talented writers who have written prose books for young adults and asked them to write stories that young women can relate to. I love these books and I'm a male. I think this will usher in more women writing comics as more might start reading them.

Success comes in a lot of ways and this is just one. Hopefully, eventually, I can stop talking about this stuff.

What can you do? If you write comics, and I hope that you do, you can think about women as more than something you enjoy looking at. Consider their personal goals, ideals, weaknesses and strengths.

Another thing you can do is show the people in your life just how wonderfully written women can be in comics by showing them books that feature strong female characters. There are wonderful comics out there which are on the lower end of the sexist spectrum than what we've discussed. Know the individuals interest, first, because everybody has their own taste. Some will gravitate towards wonderful stories like The Sandman while others still towards Persepolis and even still others will love books like One! Hundred! Demons! Or, and this is a long shot, they may like all of them. Show these books to men and women both, because both genders should see women as unique individuals, not as plot devices, sexual fantasies and mothers.

The freedom of sex can make society function better socially. Sex has been proven as a way to relieve stress, and it is a great way to bond with someone. One example for a better change socially is this: in Brave New World there is, as is in most societies, a class system- they are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Each class has different tasks and jobs, and seemingly different ranks on the social ladder (although a person in their class is programmed to not want to be in any other class). While it was obvious people would view themselves as better than others, such as a Beta refusing to talk to an Epsilon, people never actually wanted to change their class. This led to an absence of a constant problem in modern society: sexism. It had been replaced by a programmed discrimination as opposed to stereotype discrimination. Basically, people might not talk to someone of a different class because they are programmed not to, whereas with sexism a person might not talk to a woman because women are stereotyped as not being good at fixing cars, or something along those lines.

They were programmed because the person needed to love there own job, and there own role in society, not to wish they were someone else, or should do something different. The reason sexism had disappeared was because of sex. It is widely accepted that women are freaked out by sex more that men, and with good reason. A man cannot get pregnant. The book has fixed this by making women infertile. There are also many hormonal factors that come into play and can make women more emotional, as well as society and history of sexual abuse directed at women. The feminist movement began because of women being viewed as inferior, and that stemmed from sex. They have been sexual slaves, and for thousands of years have had to deal with practices such as polygamy and enslavement. Men abused women not just physically, but emotionally, and women have been fighting against that. In the book though, every person is grown to accept sex as normal, and therefore this tension between the genders has been annihilated. A person is less likely to sexually abuse someone if they know they can just have sex with them later. So while discrimination exists, it is for the greater good. It has improved society socially because while there is difference of opinion, people want to be who they are, so therefore everyone is happy in there positions.

Along with sex, another subject that is brought up very often in the book is the use of the drug soma. It seems to have similar properties to the drug ecstasy, making the users content and nonchalant about the world. The book uses a direct connection many times between the use of soma and sex. They come hand and hand. When Bernard stops taking so much of the soma, there is a significant drop in his sexual desire. Lenina meanwhile does both in abundance, and at one time in the book has to take the soma so that she has the courage to attempt to be sexual with John. John on the other hand, does not take the soma and therefore does not partake in sex. This use of the drug drastically affects the world economically in the book. Everybody is having sex, and if soma must be taken to achieve maximum pleasure from it, then the manufacturers of soma are going to be very rich men.

“As a happy, hard-working, goods-consuming citizen…” (Huxley 236) This quote is important to understand because citizens are looked upon as “goods-consuming,” obviously referring to soma along with other sexual products that are taken such as the gum. This is not the only place that a chemical has been used to enhance sexual pleasure. There are several drugs in modern society as well as in ancient society that have been used. Viagra and Lipitor are big ones today, and people might even consume more hardcore drugs such as marijuana, heroine, or cocaine to make sex easier and more enjoyable. Comparing Asian and European ancient civilizations, there are drastic differences in the outlook of sex. From Asia there are old techniques and practices such as Japanese bondage, and Indian Kama Sutra, but in Europe, there are no sexual art forms. Actually, aside from the Romans and Greeks, it seems to be a wonder that Europeans seemed to breed at all. A major difference between the two places that could explain the difference is in the food. Many Asian and Indian foods are considered aphrodisiacs, along with a lot of Roman and Greek foods. Along with the food, there were potions and mixtures that were taken to enhance pleasure that many people used. Chemically it is understandable how the civilizations could differ sexually. The concept of drugs and sex perseveres in Brave New World, and while sex could not be bought, the drugs could. So as long as sex kept happening, soma will continue to be purchased, just as history has also shown us, people always purchase something that will enhance there sexual pleasures.

From an individual standpoint, John the savage was much different than the people in the civilized world. He didn't take the soma, and he never took part in the orgies, or any other sexual activities. It affects him drastically in the novel. He is isolated from society, and is therefore treated as almost inhuman. He even develops a detachment to his mother, who decides to soma herself to death. His refusal of the drug essentially causes much more confusion in him of why his mother wanted the drug so much, and effects him mentally, especially with the children when he “…seized him by the collar, lifted him clear over the chair and, with a smart box on the ears, sent him howling away.” (Huxley 202) He then tries to convince the people in the hospital to not take the soma rations and throws them out the window. This causes massive social unrest, and he almost gets killed. Since in the real world, the drugs and sex concept are reverse, John could be compared to a prostitute. Most women who grow up to be prostitutes have the same thing happen to them that happened to John-detachment from those around them, even from the family, having only one or two people that care about them (a pimp for the prostitute, for John it was Bernard) that they make money and fame for.

John was great socially, because he had the ability of detaching himself from society and drawing attention to himself. It united everyone around him in a common interest of who he is and everyone rallies together outside his house at the end of the book. A similar event can happen to prostitutes. Girls and guys always talk about who the latest “slut” is and why they don't like that person, and people in general can just be morally opposed to a woman or man who sells their body on the street. People can come together when they share a common emotion, which is what happens with John. Their interest in him brings them all together. They are also similar economically. John was receiving whatever he wanted because people wanted to experiment and watch how differently a savage acted, and Bernard was receiving fame. Prostitutes tend to receive large sums of money, since in one night they can make anywhere between $2,000-3,000, while there pimps can become more famous for having good prostitutes (it sounds ridiculous, but true). So while their lives can be completely different, the difference can make you very wealthy.

From an economical and social standpoint, there are many benefits to drugs and sex as everyday activities in society. It unites people, and also relieves stress and tension that have existed in past civilizations for an individual and for society in general. John was an example of what not to do, and his refusal of accepting a modernized world isolated him for everyone, and caused mass confusion in himself, as well as those around him. As we advance in the future, we will become more open to sex and drugs, and it will improve society dramatically.

It falls to parent therefore to acquaint them with this transition period. In order to help their children through it; they need to be constantly ready to make a helpful remark, to give needed assurance, and to provide answers to delicate questions. Perhaps the most striking of a threshold period is the child rapid growth. Within a few months a youngster will shoot up several inches in height. The feminine characteristics of young womanhood become apparent.

The capacity to grow constitutes one of the greatest gifts God has bestowed upon His creatures. Growth is vital to human existence. The infant must grow in order to become a child. The child must grow in order to become a youth, and the youth continues to grow until becomes an adult.

Success in life depends not only on physical growth. In order to live abundantly a person must also grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Physical growth is usually completed before age of twenty. Intellectual, emotional, and spiritual should continue, however, throughout life.

Girls usually reach their growth spurt when they are between nine and thirteen. During this period a girl becomes a young woman. By the end of the growth spurt, she becomes just about as tall as she will ever be.
A girl in the threshold period has reason to be happy when she is no longer a child. However, if she is not informed on the changes that take place within her body, she may become worried and anxious over what these changes means. It is in this situation a kindly and sympathetic mother can be of great help to her daughter. As the mother explains the events that take place in a girl's body her daughter will feel reassured that she is normal and will develop a poise and self-confidence that will even improve her personality.

During childhood, a girl's body contains certain organs different from those of a boy. Those are the organ that will enable her later, to become a mother. During childhood they do not function simply presenting a miniature, they await the time when womanhood arrives.

Chief among the organs in a girl's body which brings about the changes of this threshold are the ovaries. There are two of these, one on the top right and one on the left, in the lower part of the abdomen. The ovaries perform two duties. First they produce a chemical substance, estrogen, which circulate throughout the body and influence the various tissues to follow the feminine pattern of development. Becoming active for the first time during the threshold period, the ovaries are responsible for stimulating rapid increase in height, for bringing about a broadening of the hips, for stimulating the development of the breasts, for prompting the growth of hair under the arms and in the pubic area, and for causing a maturing of the uterus (womb). The second function of the ovaries is to produce the female sex cells, called ova. The purpose of the cell is to help in producing a new life to furnish a tiny bit of material that assist in forming a baby. But a baby has two parents-a mother and a father.

The creator therefore planned the life of human beings in such a way that a baby comes into being only when a female sex cell, produced by one of the mother's ovaries is joined by a male sex cell, produced by the baby father. When the union of these two sex cells occurs within a woman body, a new life is started and the woman is said to be pregnant. The mother should be able to educate the girl child being wise enough not to tell the whole story at one sitting. She should tell her daughter little at a time.

Educating the girl child therefore, on the primary basis of her developmental process into entering adulthood is simply unavoidable; this certainly will go a long way in making the mind of the growing girl child be at peace.

The theme of forgiveness is evident only after certain lines within the sonnets have been analyzed. These poems outline a specific event in the narrator's life. Both sonnets deal with the "Love Triangle" theme, existent in many of Shakespeare's poems, which encompass the narrator, a fair (male) youth, and a "dark" woman. Through a close reading of the two poems, one can infer that an affair was had between the fair youth and the dark woman, behind the narrator's back. In the first and second quartets of Sonnet 133, lines like "deep wound," "thee I am forsaken," and "slave to slavery" give heavy reference that an infidelity has been had. What is interesting however is that although the narrator seems to be addressing this impious fair youth, he is not angry. This lack of contempt is illustrated in the single line of 133 "But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail." The line, as well as the ending couplet, explicitly states that the youth's heart bailed out the narrator's heart from a jail of anger, meaning the youth told the narrator about the affair. In confessing, the narrator forgave the youth and, as the reader can see in Sonnet 144, turned his anger to the one who had not confessed, the dark woman.

Sonnet 144 begins by reiterating the affair of the first quartet. Unlike Sonnet 133, the narrator devotes the first four lines to explain what invoked the theme of the two poems. "Two loves I have, of comfort of despair" describe what the reader already knows, an affair within the love triangle, but tension and anticipation are created with the last line of the quartet, "The worser spirit a woman colored ill." Already the narrator has devolved a tone that insinuates Sonnet 144 to appear directed more towards the woman, rather than addressed to the youth (as in 133). The second quartet deals with anger and jealousy, accusing the woman had "tempteth thy better angel from thy side." The idea of contempt is much more obvious in this quartet, as well as a verbal defense for the fair youth. Apparently, as in Sonnet 133, although the youth was involved in the affair, the narrator has already forgiven him and chose to allocate that the woman violated the youth's innocence; "wooing with purity" is an obvious example. The last three lines of the poem solidify the idea of forgiveness by depicting how the "dark" woman did not confess the affair, thus, not earning the narrator's forgiveness, "yet this I never know but live in doubt."

The theme of forgiveness is vivid within the two poems. Forgiveness acts as a white light in Sonnet 133, assumedly addressed to the fair youth, the author takes on a sense of compassion, because the youth confessed the affair to the author. In contrast, forgiveness is played upon like a shadow to the "dark" woman in 144. With a tone of anger and contempt, it is obvious that the woman did not confess, thus receiving no absolution from the narrator. These two Sonnets express an illustrious example of forgiveness.

Personally, despite the results of all kinds of semi-scientific research I think men could be fun to be around as companions and have physical strength and spatial imagination I miss at house moves times.

Most of other times however I walk around praying “God, thank you that I’m single and don’t have any children”. It seems every day I run into a lot of attached via either relationship, marriage or children women who envy my singlehood. It might be that the grass is greener on the other side but having toyed with the idea of getting a boyfriend a while ago and then relinquishing it quickly I wanted to read on the benefits I failed to consider.

Maureen Dowd doesn’t answer the title question and concentrates more on women and what became of them by 2005 in pursuit of men: they became men while men became more like women and then quickly run for domestic cover with all its embellishments. I was little bit afraid this might be another one of the male bashing books yet it is women and society at large that gets criticized here.

What’s not new is that it is a single and unattached woman who wrote it. Having made it professionally (The New York Times Op-Ed and the Pulitzer Prize) the author is representative of a whole class of women who having realized their career goals discovered their success detrimental in the relationship sphere as men tend to marry down and except for in the ads of Harper’s magazine smart is not sexy but threatening.

Dowd seems wistful about her being single and I sure appreciated she didn’t share more regrets here as I was disappointed that she was still looking or available and second, that she didn’t offer the whys for wanting a Y in the first place as her book title led me to believe she would. I am not closer now to answering my own question as to what a boyfriend might be good for than I was before.

But considering how many single women venture into a relationship territory writing self help and how to books these days, it might be good that Dowd left the question unanswered. “When sexes collide”, the subtitle, offers more in-depth summary of her book as surely the book isn’t about how men and women accomplished new goals together working side by side on the same teams since the sixties. Women and men are very much pictured here as adversarial if not hostile.

Times haven’t changed much as men and women remain in the opposite camps with elaborate and more and more expensive rituals of waging the game of love if one finds the New York Times front page articles representative of what really goes on in our society, that is. But even if it isn’t 100% representative it must be somehow indicative and I did see some trends make their way and become a norm like men dressing in pastel shirts, for example.

What surprised me though was that being media mainstream and at the same time bemoaning American obsession with appearances, materialism/consumerism and sex, of course, might as well have been the reaction of a Muslim to our culture and not a native of Washington, D.C. with a career in journalism going back to 1974 at least.

So it was that the feminism of the sixties developed as a revolt to what was considered oppressive in the fifties yet having entered previously dominated by men areas, women first turned into men or became just as Machiavellian as them in their search for power as the feminist support or lack of thereof for Anita Hill, Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky shows.

I don’t think it was so much about blindly aping men as about studying what works in becoming successful in the public domain if the memory of Reinventing Womanhood by Carolyn G. Heilbrun from around 1990 doesn’t fail me.

Yet it seems women were quick to retreat to the noveau fifties upon obtaining college and graduate degrees along with a glimpse at a male work life. A lot of young women today would cede their jobs in a second if it wasn’t for economic necessity and a large number of professional women have already done that creating power management careers for themselves out of motherhood and becoming alpha moms more recently under spotlight in either Jennifer Weiner’s Goodnight Nobody or the Nanny Diaries, a movie.

But it is men’s money allowing women to lounge around Starbucks chatting with their girlfriends with men’s offspring in tow (what an idyllic view of a mother’s day) as it was Bill Clinton’s career that propelled Hillary’s so in terms of financial independence and career mobility men turned out to be necessary for women.

But the biggest backlash occurred in the area of beauty and fashion. There has been an over 100% increase in plastic surgery in the recent years and various, very much toxic and animal based, anti-age treatments wildly increased the profits of the cosmetics industry while making the elite representatives conform to a uniform beauty type.

Botox is used to freeze sweat glands and stop emotions from showing and Dowd bewails literal effacement of men and women alike. I think it might not be a bad thing altogether. If a lot of people end up looking the same we might put more emphasis on verbal communication as opposed to reading people clothing, body language and facial expressions to psychically elicit their thoughts.

But what about men? How have they changed and why would they be necessary whether they have or haven‘t? Genetically perishing, hormonally proven more unstable than women with a track record of savage conquests gone and still going wrong with women desperately clinging to the idea that there must be more to them than meets the eye yet failing to identify the specifics, men and their male dominant world will continue unless either a woman or a man can offer and lead through to better solutions to current problems endangering common future.

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Throughout the novel, Callie is vaguely aware from early childhood that her body is not what society deems normal. Until she travels with her family to a specialized doctor in New York, Callie only knows that she is not developing like most of the girls in her class at school. Ignorant to the extent of her genetic disposition, Callie makes a point of hiding her unusually developing body from everyone but herself. Skipping the required shower after gym class and stuffing her training bra are normal practice for Callie as she tries to force her body to mature. When Callie is not the only one to notice the lack of female development, she fakes having her period each month so well that she convinces her self that she is going to be normal.

There comes a time, however, when Callie is bared to the world. After this episode, Callie is uncertain as to her place in society. In order to diagnose their daughter, Callie's parents take her to a doctor in New York. Scared of what the turn of events might bring, Callie makes herself numb to the physical and emotional probing of her body and spirit. In many ways, Callie is treated like a magnificent scientific discovery by her doctor. As reflected in Dr. Luce's report, one would assume the patient was human, but a lab rat instead. Callie uses numbing as a defense mechanism to the pain and conflict ion she feels as a result of being different. When trying to determine her gender, Dr. Luce asks Callie questions. Rather than answering honestly, Callie tried to guess the “correct” answer to make her problems dissolve. Callie is not aware of how the way she acts and treats herself is a reflection of how an individual or community will respond to her. As Dr. Luce brings other doctors to view and analyze Callie, she perfects her technique of pretending there is no Callie inside of Callie's body. “They bent over me, studying my parts … behind the curtain, I no longer felt as if I were in the room” (Eugenie's 421). Because Callie did not demand of the doctors that they treat her like a girl, a young and insecure girl who just wants to be “normal,” they will not treat her as such. Callie has additional power in her rare

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body. People are captivated by the rare, exotic, and unusual. In particular, Callie's doctors have given her body special reverence and Dr. Luce special reverence for his good medical find. Callie could have manipulated the power of her body. She could have demanded that, in return for allowing her body to be used to learn more about a fairly uncharted condition, not only her body but her person as well be treated with dignity and humane respect. How Callie projects herself at the world is how the world reflects what they see in her. Though this is true for most people, Callie and her body hold especially high power because of its rare value.

When Callie takes another approach to living and dealing with her own body, the world takes a different approach in responding to Callie. After Callie runs away from her family and doctor in New York, she temporarily resides in San Francisco with a group of homeless kids. Still trying to find her identity, Callie knows that nothing has changed in her body to suddenly make her normal. Instead of taking a clinical approach to her own body, Callie tries to stay hidden and removed from the community of kids who have allowed her to reside with them. Callie opened admitted to herself that she “didn't want to be found out, so remained tight-lipped” (Eugenides 471). Though Callie was referring to actual conversation with the boys, she remained both physically and mentally reserved. This was true of everyone she encountered after meeting with Dr. Luce: she thought she was a “monster” so she hid her body and thus her entire being from everyone. Again, what Callie did not recognize was that by viewing her own body as revolting, everyone was going to take that cue from her. In response, people treated her the way she treated herself. When left alone at the camp, Callie is assaulted by two homeless men who want to ransack the kids' camp. Though it could be argued that Callie would have been assaulted regardless of her physical “deformation,” it would have been a sexual assault

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rather than a hate crime. She describes that attack as one of outrage because Callie had “contaminated” her attackers with her “freakish” body. Had Callie demonstrated confidence in herself, the outcome would probably still have been a fight, but she would have had a fighting chance to throw her own punch or two. Using her body as a weapon to elicit particular emotional responses, Callie might not have felt so overwhelmed by the attackers. She has this tremendous power over people, and she does not even realize it. In Callie's circumstance, this power is greater than most people's because the power to repulse, the power to shock, the power to make people uncomfortable is a very remarkable power. Callie is able to do this, and much more, including positive things, with her unique body, but she is unaware of this capacity. Had she been, she might have viewed her body and the power it gave her in a different light.

In a third example of how Callie's view of herself is so powerful that it dictates how people respond to her, the reader briefly sees Callie take advantage of this. This makes the point that had Callie known of the power of her unique body all along, she might have lived a different life. After being assaulted in the park by the homeless men, Callie starts a new chapter in her life at a 69ers, a seedy joint where men and women go for sexual pleasures. In a special room upstairs, Callie admits “I made my living by exhibiting the peculiar way I am formed” (Eugenides 483). With her body in a swimming tank of water, Callie's exhibit of herself is one that the audience reveres. Faces watch filled with not only sexual pleasure, but awe and surprise as well. Dr. Luce looked at Callie with awe, but it was a clinical type that made Callie into a subject rather than a patient. He made her an object. The audience at the club looked at Callie with awe, but it was a different type. The awe they experienced was a direct result of looking at something fully alive that happened to be a variation of their very own bodies. Granted, this awe

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is not something that every person desires and would be proud of. However, Callie deliberately displayed her body to elicit these reactions from people, and the people delivered. This is one of the clearest examples that show the power Callie has.

After being at the club for awhile, Callie does something she had not done up to that point. Rather than trying to forget that numerous pairs of eyes were captivated by her body, Callie opens her own eyes to look at the reaction of the world to her “disfigurement.” What Callie saw on those faces and in those eyes was “amazement, curiosity, disgust, desire” (Eugenides 491). What Callie admits she did not see were “appalled” faces. Callie finally accepted that her body was not rejected by everyone who saw it. There were other emotions, and other reactions. That night, Callie said she “had fun in the tank that night. It was all beneficial in some way. It was therapeutic” (Eugenides 494). It is only after that Callie sees the power that her body holds that she enjoyed something that it can do for her. That does not mean Callie should have to display her body in a seedy sex club to garner a reaction of amazement for someone; it merely means that once Callie realizes the way she treats her own body determines how others respond to her, she will have infinitely more power, especially because of the uniqueness of her figure.

A final example of how Callie treats her body shows a very tender way that an individual will respond. By the end of the novel, Callie has officially become Cal, the male. He believes he has found a woman who might be the one for him. At this point, Cal makes it clear he has matured and accepted his body and has found his place in the world. However, it is not clear that Cal has realized the power his body holds. Cal maturely and intimately tells his soon to be lover, Julie, about the condition of his body. After a brief second to process the information, Julie

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welcomes Cal into her bed while expressing her own hesitations about her own body. Cal compassionately explains about his body without any sign of embarrassment, and Julie unquestionably accepts him for who he is. Had Cal known this power he had to draw particular responses from people he interacts with, he might had a smoother childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

Every person has the ability to present themselves to the world however they choose. For most people, this presentation dictates what range of response you will receive from the world. In Callie's case, she has an extra degree of power because her body is different than most people. Inexplicably, people are captivated by that unknown. Although by the end of the novel the reader can see that Cal has accepted and embraced his life, it is not only about the ends; the means one goes through to reach the ends is just as important. In each of these examples, how Callie allows the world to see her is how the responds. This is an extremely important function of Callie's unusual body. Had Callie seen her own effect on people more clearly, it is very reasonable to argue that she could have had a less traumatic childhood and adolescence. Though she achieves happiness by the end of the novel, a very different book could have been written if Callie opened her eyes to the power of her body.

Streete defines a “strange woman” as any woman, usually foreign but not always, that “is not under male sexual hegemony” (113), as in a woman seemingly outside the realm of Jewish law that could and would punish her for “acting out.” She is therefore a threat because there is no punishment for her temptatious actions. Women like Delilah and the foreign wives of Solomon that seduced him away from YHWH are perfect examples of these “strange women.” This “strange woman” is also set up as an antithesis to the feminized “Wisdom” in Proverbs. The author of Proverbs personifies Wisdom as an interloper between God and man, giving man the opportunity to commune more wholly with God and not for any illicit selfish purposes. “Anti-Wisdom” or the “strange woman” instead seeks to separate foolish young men from YHWH and control them (112-13). In this sense, Wisdom represents the solely ideal woman—reserved and close enough to God to bring man to Him. On the other side of this is Anti-Wisdom, a metaphorical Delilah.

Based on this defined problem and the added need of continuing the line of their marginalized community, female sexuality is only allowed if a man can control it (either her father or her husband). Similarly, because the control of a woman is so closely linked to controlling her reproduction, any time a woman acts against the constraints of the male hegemony, she is attacked in sexual terms. Jezebel, who commits no actual adultery, is called a whore because she seduces her husband and others away from YHWH (62). This also explains why Israel, commonly referred to as a “she,” is called a “whore,” rather than an idolater whenever “she” fails to follow YHWH’s commandments. Similarly, men should actively seek Wisdom and stay away from “Anti-Wisdom,” but women should only use Wisdom for men’s benefit and/or to trick “outsiders,” such as in the case of Sarai pretending that Abraham is her brother rather than her husband so he is not killed while they are traveling. Obviously, when Delilah uses wisdom to trick Samson into telling her what the source of his strength is, she is not using wisdom to the benefit of the Jews.

This contrasts sharply against the views of women’s sexuality as exposed in Streete’s analysis of the New Testament. The need for women’s sexuality having to be restrained has less relevance here because Jews in the first and second century were worrying less about assimilating into the mainstream culture as evidenced by their newfound leniency on adultery, which was no longer found to be a capital crime (147). If they still were as frightened about maintaining their line, their laws constraining women’s sexuality would still be in effect as harshly. There is the definitive virgin/whore dichotomy, as shown much in Revelations, but there is less interference and worry about the “strange woman” and her potential for tempting men away from God. The “strange woman” in the New Testament has turned into worry about any sexual activity made by any man outside of marriage, including with prostitutes (which men in the Old Testament were allowed to be with) (129). The “strange woman” in the New Testament morphs into a worry about any sexual wantonness. There is still pressure for a woman to remain a virgin until marriage, but the crime otherwise is now more lenient. Men, subsequently, may now be punished more strictly for their indiscretions and are now considered more “in control” of their apostasy then they were under the Old Testament.

Streete’s book definitely sheds light on the reasons behind the constant fear of the “strange” or “foreign” women evident in Proverbs and other books, and her argument remains solidly formed throughout the entire book. There are some tangential lapses, in the sense that her argument will split off into seemingly unimportant side arguments, but she keeps her argument thoroughly backed up and her prose interesting throughout the entirety of the book. Her argument is interesting, specifically in how the first half of the book gives background for how revolutionary Jesus was, especially pardoning an adulteress for which was an unpardonable crime with terrible consequences in the Old Testament age. It also explains in detail why YHWH must always be paired with a “wife,” such as Israel (because every other religion has a divine spousal symbol that made the world. Without Israel being a “she,” it would be homoerotic (76-77).) or why the feminized Wisdom is the interloper between Israel and YHWH. Women in these symbolic senses have so much power, and yet they were constantly controlled for worry of using this power against Israel.

Gail Streete’s The Strange Woman: Power and Sex in the Bible explains the Old Testament fear of the “strange woman,” the temptress who would seduce Israel away from YHWH as well as why women needed to be contained and controlled. It also provides the stark contrast between Old Testament and New Testament views on sexuality, such as men suddenly being found accountable of apostasy by cleaving to a prostitute in the New Testament. It also makes and backs up these arguments flawlessly. Streete writes a powerful argument for the power of women within the text against a sadly stark reality.