Erased Identities

Women’s sexuality is a topic often silenced by society in order to perpetuate an image of the “purity” of a woman that fits traditional gender roles.  Women are expected to keep their sexualities private and, even in private, to withhold any outstanding passions or desires. When women break these gendered silences in regards to their sexuality, a tradition is ruptured and often in order to restore previous order, shame and/or violence are used as valid responses. I saw both of these instances in reading No Name Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston. This text, exemplified the complex ways in which women’s sexualities are often a source of shame in the private and public sphere. It also describes how the outcomes of rupturing these traditions can result in unsafe situations for the women who have broken the norm. Her story, can speak to the difficulty of “breaking free” within a society that does not yet accept women’s sexual freedom and that continues to perpetuate this idea by using the silencing of existence through storytelling as a warning for subsequent generations of women.

            In No Name Woman, Kingston tells the story of her aunt whose entire existence was denied, and therefore silenced, by her family because she broke traditional Chinese gender norms. When the village discovered that she was pregnant although her husband was out of the country, they stormed into her house violently. They broke things, took things, and enrolled in an act of shaming not only the “no-name woman” but also her family. It was this act of shaming that lead her family to permanently silence, perhaps as a way to erase the shame that she had brought on to the family as a result of her sexuality. There are many ways in which silence is manifested in this text; however, I’m most interested in how it is manifested by the fact that her aunt’s identity is denied by the family. This blatant silencing of her existence seems the most shocking to me. The fact that her family was unwilling to speak about her is an example of how permanent breaking the norm is in the public mind. The way in which Kingston describes her aunt’ makes it seem as though, it’s not only the fact that she became pregnant and brought shame to her family and village that lead to the erasing of her identity, but it is the fact that she broke village norms about what a woman should be and how the institution of marriage should be respected When Kingston’s mother says, “we say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born” they are claiming that her “sin” was so unforgivable and so outside of tradition, that it is better for them to deny her existence than admit that she made a mistake. Her punishment is not only having had her village and family turn against her, it is also being erased from her family’s history. Her punishment is being silenced for eternity, and as Kingston explains she “remains forever hungry.”

            As Kingston tries to fill in the gaps of her aunt’s story, she begins to imagine possible narratives for what lead her to become pregnant by a man other than her husband. It is no surprise then, that Kingston begins by thinking that perhaps her aunt was forced into having an affair by a man that was more powerful than her and that “masked himself when he joined the raid on her family.” This explanation, continues to place her aunt in a place of marginalized identity, in which a woman’s sexual desires cannot be possible unless it is solicited by a man. This thinking once again denies the possibility of the existence of women’s sexuality. Her next attempt to fill in her aunt’s gaps gives her aunt more agency and places her in a position in which she is the one desiring the sexual encounter. In doing this, Kingston visualizes her aunt paying close attention to her appearance in order to seduce her suitor. This is the explanation that I think explicitly contradicts traditional gender norms in regards to women’s sexuality. It is also the type of thinking that I think was going through the villager’s heads when they raided her home and shamed her for being pregnant by someone other than her husband. Both of these narratives, silence women’s sexuality either by denying its existence or by making it analogous to deviance.

            When the aunt made her sexuality visible, and therefore undeniable, it lead not only to a raid by the villagers, but to a decision by her family to erase her identity. It seems then, that keeping silent about the event that lead to her death was not enough to overcome the shame that her actions had caused. The solution became to erase her entire existence, as she exemplified codes and norms that were not meant to be broken. The ways in which her family silences her becomes an example of the types of punishment possible for the women that follow.  Kingston’s mother tells her this story not only to tell the story of her aunt, but also to warn her about the consequences of breaking gender norms within Chinese culture and her family. The silence of her aunt, then, is passed on through generations by telling the stories about her existence in secret and instilling in those that hear it obedience to these norms. Silence exists, not only in the denial of “no-name woman” but also on the expectation that this is the life that consequent generations of women must avoid.