Reverse Gender Roles
In the short story, “The Hunt,” from the book, Imaginary Maps, there is an evident switch of gender roles throughout the characters. “The Hunt,” being a story of rural tribal women living in India seems to take feminism to a whole new level. Not only do the women fight for equal rights, they fight for complete power over men. The protagonist of the story, Mary, is a great example of how women completely switch gender roles with men. However, the story states how it is only every twelve years that women become the hunters as men become the hunted.
In the beginning of the story, Mary is described as a woman of superior physical abilities. Not only is she strong, but she’s intelligent, generous, funny, and respected by others. She is also considered to be a businesswoman. The owner’s wife is impressed by her abilities she says, “you have to take words from a girl who works like an animal, carries a forty-pound bag on her back, and boards the train, cleans the whole house in half an hour” (7). Even when she goes to the marketplace, she is still receiving praise and respect. “Mary has countless admirers at Tohri market. She gets down at the station like a queen. She gets down at the station like a queen. She sits at her own rightful place at the market” (3). She is a very easy person to like.
One of her admires is a male logging contractor by the name of Tehsildar. He attempts to take a male-dominant role. Tehsildar grows lustful towards Mary and tries to sexual abuse her many times. Soon enough, Mary becomes the predator, and kills Tehsildar. What is important about the murder scene is the description which Devi provides. “Mary laughed and held him, laid him on the ground. Tehsildar is laughing, Mary lifts the machete, lowers it, lifts, lowers” (16). Mary stabbing Tehsildar repeatedly represents Mary doing the raping. Of course there is plenty of blood, which represents Mary’s virginity if Tehsildar would have successfully raped her.
“The Hunt” serves as a narrative of a woman who has been victimized by male sexual aggression. Devi juxtaposes the male and female gender roles by slowly and ironically reversing them. Tehsildar, a male sexual predator contains lustful and immoral desires towards Mary. Mary attempts to stop him with verbal threats. After attempts which failed, Mary was left with no choice but to take a male-dominant role. She brutally murdered Tehsildar, symbolizing her power over him.
It seems rather ironic that Mary would eventually overpower Tehsildar. It was much unexpected of how she decided to go about killing him. The way she killed him was a pure symbol of aggression. It seemed as it was repressed anger that was bottling up. Furthermore, we see how this reversed gender roles manifested themselves in Devi’s short story.
April 15, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Was it bottled up aggression that led Mary to kill Tehsildar? In your final paragraph it seems as though you are surprised that Mary finally put Tehsildar in his place. Was it gender roles being reveresed? In that case should it be that only a man would defend himself against a sex crime? Is aggression a “male dominant role?” If it is, our society has problems. Had this story had a male protagonist, we wouldn’t find fault with the behavior. As we discussed in class, an aggressive woman is called a not so nice name. As aggressive, a man gets respected. So while I do think your paper has some great points, I am not sure if calling Mary’s actions reversed gender roles is a pro-feminist stance. I think you did a nice job capitulating the story too!
April 20, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I agree that the plot developments found in “The Hunt” does involve to a certain degree gender reversals. Whether justified or not the sterotypical gender roles attributed to a man is one of power and dominance, yet Mary at the end of the story is the character who possesses these traits. Futhermore, as demonstrated with her relationship with her fiancee Mary is the sucessful partner when generally men were expected to be the prosperous ones. Yet at the same time, I do not think “The Hunt” only reverses the sterotypical gender norms; I think it complicates how society should look at gender. While Mary is “agressive” and acting in a manner to be expected of a man she also remain a highly feminine character during her murder of Tehsildar. Throughout the story her feminine sexuality is highlighted. Futhermore, although she is propserous she hides this fact from her fiancee because she wants him to feel sucessful and does not wish to challenge the accepted gender norms. At this point she seems content in playing the role of a typical woman and as soon after she kills Tehsildar she aligns herself to another man. Thus I think what ‘The Hunt” shows more than anything else is a conflation of gender roles and not only a reversal of them.
April 21, 2009 at 1:45 am
I agree with your analysis. There is definitely a blurring of gender roles with Mary. She does take a “male-dominant” role when she kills Tehsildar, who would have otherwise raped her. However, I think there are other ways in which Mary’s character is very unlike the other tribal women. For instance, she works diligently for the Prasad family and proves to be a very apt businesswoman. She is also defiant (when juxtaposed with other tribal women). She plainly tells her many admirers that she is not easily “won” and won’t let them take advantage of her. Mary also has the ability to choose her own spouse. Mary seems to possess more powers and rights typical of men that go beyond her killing Tehsildar at the end.
In my opinion these traditionally male powers that Mary possess come from her mixed background. Since Mary is half tribal and half white she is both embraced and rejected by both communities. She becomes a woman who neither culture have complete social jurisdiction over. As a woman with some White blood, Mary is able to successfully ward off admirers and work for Mr. Prasad. In addition, as a biracial character rejected by both tribals and Whites when it comes to marriage, Mary has the power to choose her own husband. By giving her powers that only men traditionally had, Mary’s biracial background makes her a respected equal to men. And by being an equal to men Mary essentially achieves a feminist goal.
April 21, 2009 at 4:22 am
I completely agree with your take on reverse gender roles. Throughout the story Mary presents her self in a manner that is considered to be “male.” She is presented as a savvy business woman who is essentially aggressive in every sense. Her confrontation with Tehsildar is the most blatant example of this “role reversal.” Despite his attempt to rape her, he is the one that is raped. The description of this scene seems to be blatantly violent. We see how Mary stabs Tehsildar repeatedly which draws a parallel to a women being raped. The irony is that the blood is coming from him and not her. Had she been raped their would have been blood, it seems almost like poetic justice that he is killed in this manner. Mary’s success also contributes to this idea of reverse gender roles. she is well off and very successful. She seems to be the “man” of the relationship as she is the bread winner in the relationship. I think that the “gender reversal” can be attributed to the fact that mary is an outsider. She does not really adhere to any social norms of either group she belongs too. She seems to be free of restriction and essentially takes on this masculine role in order to survive. Shes been put in a situation were her environment is so harsh that she has been forced to develop this tough outer skin as a defense.
April 21, 2009 at 3:46 pm
While I agree with the primary points of your essay, I do not believe that Mary is a predator. By labeling her a predator it gives some connotation of her going after him, which I don’t feel is the case at all. I don’t feel comfortable labeling Mary as a predator, moreso as a victim who was left with no choice but to kill. Had Mary not been put into this circumstance, I don’t think she would have been a killer.
What I do agree with is the primary point: reversing gender roles. In the scene where she kills Tehsildar, she is quite blatantly fucking him with the knife. This isn’t so much of a reverse of gender roles, but a reversal of sexual roles.
April 30, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Devi does a great job in giving readers an inside look at the tribal societies of India. Within Devi’s story, “The Hunt” she intentionally presents Mary as not a typical Indian woman. Mary is clever, hardworking, trustworthy, independent, and makes her own money. It is easy for Mary to become the fighter because she is different from the other women, and she does not settle.
I do agree with your point pertaining to the reversal of gender roles. Mary takes feminism to another level in her killing of Tehsildar. Devi uses her to fight against the injustices that are done within the tribal society. Mary is left with no choice but to kill Tehsildar after his continual sexual advances, and his abuse towards the tribals. With that said, I must disagee with two of your points that Mary is a predator, and that she had suppressed anger. Devi allows Tehsildar to die because she wants his death to represent how the tribes should defend themselves when threatened. Like Devi, Mary becomes the voice of her society and fights against the injustices done to them.
May 4, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I’m not sure if Mary makes a complete gender role transformation by adopting a “male-dominant” role at the end of the story. It seems to me that although Tesildar does embody the stereotypical male aggression towards women, in this case Mary, Mary’s actions stem more from a personal desperation. She does turn the tables on him in the end, this is clear. But I think she does this more as a need to protect herself rather than actively take on the aggressive role as a “predator,” as you put it. She understands that the political and social system cannot protect her from the exploitations of men such as Tesildar. From Tesildar’s incessant pursuing, she can tell that he would not give up.
Moreover, as a man who is wealthy and influential, Tesildar would misuse his power to ruin her and get no blame. She would be left ruined, her body as well as her reputation. She understands the importance of her status as an intelligent, independent and hard-working woman. Among women in her society, these qualities open her to the potential to climb the social ladder. She cannot afford to have Tesildar strip her of this opportunity. In this regard, I see Mary’s killing of Tesildar more of an act of desperation than of “pure…aggression.” Granted, her frustration would have played a large role in pushing her to kill him, but I think she is much more concerned about the possible consequences of allowing him to exploit her than she is about fulfilling her anger.
May 5, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I similarly read Mary’s actions at the end of the story resulting from repressed anger and switching of roles to that of the predator. It’s a great moment in the narrative, and quite shocking, when she brutally kills Teshildar in a symbolic/pseudo raping of his body. Mary’s mixed background gives her more freedom and mobility as a Tribal since she’s not puree blood Tribal. She can live and work in both communities if she wants. So maybe she is not deduced to a complete subaltern to borrow from Spivak’s vocabulary. You get a sense from the text that Mary enjoys killing Tesildar, which is both disturbing and exciting regardless of what gender the protagonist is. I’m not sure how comfortable I am with Devi’s stance on the necessity of violence to bring about social change. It seems like physical violence, more often than not, only creates a vicious cycle of violence with no end or positive change.
I just want to add that I could not help but be reminded of the great blaxploitation films of the 1970s when reading “The Hunt.” Just like like the great Pam Grier, Mary uses both her sexual assets and intellectual instinct to kill the big bad men that have wronged her and the community. Go Coffy and Foxy Brown!
May 10, 2009 at 4:20 pm
If as you have argued that it is the reversal of gender roles, what is it that Devi wants the reader to take from her narrative? Certainly, it has been argued by more than one writer we have read, and specifically I am thinking about Kristeva, that the goal of feminism is not to become like men, but to get freedom and power and take it to another level. Cixous has also argued that women should find out who they are and not try to apologize for being a woman. I see Mary as hacking it out, as it were. Fighting sexual oppression and abuse is not for the faint-hearted. She was a talented, brave and courageous woman, who in the end took off with her man to find new horizons. Let us not limit or judge her, but applaud her for her independence. It a lesson that she can teach all of us, men and women.
May 12, 2009 at 6:13 am
I feel that your analysis is very good. I also agree with Rory’s colorful analysis of the “fucking him with the knife”. Mary is already depicted as a woman who can hold her because of her physical strength. The abundance of blood was a great way to explain the removal of Mary’s virginity if there was an actual rape that took place — it is a complete reversal, but no necessarily a role reversal. t is indeed a reverse of sexual roles, because a woman can me a sexual predator just as much as a male.
May 14, 2009 at 1:41 am
I don’t think the gender roles were switched as much as Mary was just a strong feminine character. We are told By Devi that she is a saavy business woman, took care of her owners farm, as well as took care of the household chores. She is what all women today inspire to be, she had it all, except her freedom. When she is faced with the possiblity of losing everything she worked for,and believed in, she handles the situation just like a man, she got rid of the problem. Not in the best manner but we have to remember this was about tribal indians, specifically woman and the treatment they had to handle on a day to day bases. There was no reversal, Mary was just a great feminist character.
May 15, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I also did not feel that the short story “The Hunt” represented a role reversal; I just feel that Mary is an extremely strong character. Some people believe that if a woman is strong, aggressive, self sufficient, they are masculine, unfeminine, and in short, a bitch. Mary’s strength made her extremely attractive to her predator, Tehsildar, and when she tricks him into meeting her that fatal night, Mary does the unthinkable. I was quite shocked at the ending for I believe that murder, except in self-defense, is wrong. One might argure that it was in self defense that she killed him since he was about to rape her. Maybe if she would have cut his penis off it would have served as better punishment. However I don’t think they had doctors back then like they do today to sew it back on like they did for John Bobbit, so he probably would’ve died anyway. I do think the way Mary killed Tehsildar by “fucking him with a knife”, the way Rory so eloquently stated it, was extremely symbolic and I am sure very empowering for many women.
Therefore when the author of the essay writes “Not only do the women fight for equal rights, they fight for complete power over men.” I was a little confused because I don’t think they wanted complete power over men, I just think they want to be treated equal to men. Mary’s murder of Tehsildar was her standing up for herself and not taking his threats any longer. Mary did not want to have power over Tehsildar, she was just preventing him from having power over her.
May 15, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I cannot really decide how I feel about the reversed gender roles as Devi presents them in “The Hunt.” Because Tehsildar is so horrible and clearly a sexual threat to Mary, it is incredibly satisfying when she asserts her aggression and power and kill shim. So, in terms of just a contained story, I do support Devi’s end to the story. Once we consider the text’s political implications, I’m not sure what it is that we are supposed to take away from this story. That women have a latent aggression resulting from years of oppression? Is this a warning to men that eventually women will bite back? Is that the image of women that we want to portray? Perhaps it is not so much that Mary killed Tehsildar that upsets me but it is the clear rape imagery that Devi uses. I think I take issue with women employing imagery so closely related with rape, a crime that distinctly plagues women as a gender and so profoundly represents their history of subjugation. It feels less like empowerment and more like hypocrisy.