Female Experience and Femininity in Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman

Abstract

The Edible Woman deals with female experience and femininity and challenges the traditional notions of ideal female behavior. Marion subverts the traditional role imposed on her and resists the loss of self during her courtship period with Peter. Her inability to eat anything is a silent yet potent act of protest. Atwood is contesting the notion that marriage and motherhood is destiny and most desirous life choices of women. Atwood’s notions intersect with Luce Irigaray’s, who in her essay “This Sex Which is Not One” deals with commodification of women among men, women being mere props for fulfillment of male desire and women encumbered by traditional notions of female sexuality. Meanwhile, women are unaware of what they actually desire.