Many of them work through their damage by demanding to be hurt: rough sex, verbal abuse, slapping, choking. Many of these protagonists conceive a child and lose it, through miscarriage or tragic accidents. Many of these stories feature sexual abuse, rape or molestation. In Difficult Women, she circles the same thematic territory over and over again. One of the great significances of Gay as a writer is how she affirms that they are.
Plenty of critics, I think, have been taught that women, let alone sad women, let alone sad women fucking, aren’t serious subjects. They don’t mean it in a pejorative way, though, which is good because Gay’s stories shouldn’t be patronised or belittled just because they are, in fact, about sad women having sex. Someone on Goodreads wrote that this book could be equally well titled “Sad Women Having Sex.” They’re not wrong. She was smart enough to want more but tired enough to accept the way things were. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
