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A review by kingofspain93
Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi
5.0
I'm a white american, so I'm lacking cultural context.
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A question flashed through my mind. Why was it that I had never stabbed a man before?
quite stunning. a brutal read, but at its most tender it shows that Saadawi is so given over to the sublime in relationships that she fears the violation of it almost as much as anything. This could have been all about Firdaus and Iqbal. I hope that there is a universe where the night was long enough.
I appreciate Woman at Point Zero for dispelling a lot of the extremely uncritical pseudofeminism around sex work. Saadawi is confident in Firdaus' humanity and clear about her autonomy but does not lose sight of the fact that under the patriarchy and capitalism sex work is another position created for women by men. Saadawi shows that degrees of autonomy (prostitute vs. wife, for example) exist, but that they are all abrogated by violence and control. As Goldman argued that allowing women to vote and join the workforce further ensnared them in capitalist subjection, so does Saadawi point out that even sex work can only provide more choices from among an artificially limited set of possibilities. No one should have to work in order to have food, shelter, and safety, under any circumstances, ever, and in all of its manifestations capitalism is hardest on women. Sex work is no different. The only way out is total violent resistance. Ask yourself why you've never stabbed a man before.
-
A question flashed through my mind. Why was it that I had never stabbed a man before?
quite stunning. a brutal read, but at its most tender it shows that Saadawi is so given over to the sublime in relationships that she fears the violation of it almost as much as anything. This could have been all about Firdaus and Iqbal. I hope that there is a universe where the night was long enough.
I appreciate Woman at Point Zero for dispelling a lot of the extremely uncritical pseudofeminism around sex work. Saadawi is confident in Firdaus' humanity and clear about her autonomy but does not lose sight of the fact that under the patriarchy and capitalism sex work is another position created for women by men. Saadawi shows that degrees of autonomy (prostitute vs. wife, for example) exist, but that they are all abrogated by violence and control. As Goldman argued that allowing women to vote and join the workforce further ensnared them in capitalist subjection, so does Saadawi point out that even sex work can only provide more choices from among an artificially limited set of possibilities. No one should have to work in order to have food, shelter, and safety, under any circumstances, ever, and in all of its manifestations capitalism is hardest on women. Sex work is no different. The only way out is total violent resistance. Ask yourself why you've never stabbed a man before.