Women Talking: A Discourse on Violence, Trauma and Survival
Keywords:
Trauma, Hegemonic Masculinity, Rape, SalvationAbstract
Women Talking (novel by Miriam Toews in 2018; film by Sarah Polley in 2022), is a fictional account of eight Mennonite women in Bolivia, gathering in the wake of the men’s arrests to decide a course of action for their life. The plot begins with the rapists having been carted off to jail and the women of an isolated religious community wrestling with the decision to do nothing, stay and fight, or to leave. This article is a feminist reading of the novel and the movie, as appropriately titled, women talking about their lives, prospects of their future, the trauma they were put through, the complexities of—and choices between—faith, love, safety, democracy, and forgiveness. The role of religious pacifism, hegemonic masculinity and rape culture propagated by society are studied in relation to the lives of these Mennonite women.
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