“A Low Art”

by Margaret Atwood

Looking back at how feminism was handled several years ago up to the present
time—21st century, it will be noticed, as also defined by many that feminism is enfolded
with the silencing and oppression of women. Simone de Beauvoir once stated, "It is not
women's inferiority that has determined their historical insignificance: it is their
historical insignificance that has doomed them to inferiority."

As we all know, women were already silenced, oppressed, and weren't given
equal treatment long ago. This can be seen notably in History as well as in Literature.

"A Low Art" which was an excerpt from the novel Penelopiad is about Penelope,
husband of Odysseus and her side of the story. Many of us are aware about the story of
Odysseues and how heroic it is of him to go on a long journey, experiencing different
obstacles and hindrances in order to get back to his wife who is waiting for his return all
along. Little did we all know what kind of a man Odysseus really was. Below are some
lines/excerpts that were taken from "A Low Art" which will later on prove that Penelope
was psychologically and socially tortured by her husband and the people surrounding
her:

"Now that I'm dead I know everything. This is what I wish would happen, but like
so many of my wishes it failed to come true."

"Down here everyone arrives with a sack, like the sacks used to keeps the winds
in, but each of these sacks is full of words— words you've spoken, words you've heard,
words that have been said about you. Some sacks are very smal,, others large; my own is
of reasonable size, though a lot of the words in it concern my eminent husband. What a
fool he made of me, some say."

"Hadn't I been faithful? Hadn't I waited, and waited, and waited, despite the
temptation— almost the compulsion— to do otherwise? Why couldn't they be as
considerate, as trustworthy, as all-suffering as I had been?"

"I didn't contradict, I didn't ask awkward questions, I didn't dig deep. I wanted
happy endings in those days and happy endings are best achieved by keeping the right
doors locked and gping to sleep during the rampages."
 "I realised how many people were laughing at me behind my back— how they
were jeering, making jokes about me, jokes both clean and dirty; how they were turning
me into a story, or into several stories, though not the kind of stories I'd prefer to hear
about myself."

In the short summary of A Low Art, we come to see the fact that Odysseus
wasn't really quite the man we all think he was as Penelope tells her side of the story.
Many of us were fooled by flowery words, even Penelope. "Even I believed him, from
time to time. I knew he was tricky and a liar, I just didn't think he would play his tricks
and try out his lies on me." But the people surrounding her were aware of this yet they
just talked behind her back and laughed about how fool it is for Penelope to remain
faithful and turn a blind eye despite her husband's wrongdoings. Cheating is a form of
oppression as once defined by our literature teacher for the other party is not getting
the love she—Penelope deserves.

In addition, the second and the last excerpts show how Penelope is socially
tortured mostly concerning about her husband. People would talk, laugh, make jokes,
and make stories about her. Still, Penelope waited and remained faithful to her husband
although it is so tempting as she had many suitors. This can be seen in the third
paragraph of the excerpt above.

As Penelope wanted to have a happy ending with his husband despite of all his
wrongdoings and the people talking, she didn't try to contradict his husband. She knew
that the way to have a happy ending is to not dig deep.This is an example of how
women were silenced and oppresed. Why can't she confront her husband if he's the one
who wasn't being faithful? Moreover, it was mentioned that people would react
immensely negative if a woman was cheated on. "What can a woman do when
scandalous gossip travels the world? If she defends herself she sounds guilty."

The first excerpt shows that Penelope is dead and yet full of regrets. Could we
hereby assume that Penelope died with many regrets due to the things she failed to do
or the love she deserved but failed to feel when she was still alive? She even stayed as a
faithful wife knowing that her husband continuously cheats on her. In addition,
Penelope did realize that death will make the all the effort in being faithful and the
waiting nonsense.
 Nevertheless, Penelope remained faithful to her husband for her dream of happy
endings. She was blinded by the thought of faithfulness and constancy. Moreover,
despite of the gossips, issues and dirty jokes that somehow turned into insults she often
hear, she did not defend herself thus giving her more damage and becoming more of a
fool.

Penelope symbolizes the blindness to the truth of many people who keep on
believing on what they want to believe in rather than knowing what the actual truth is.
According to Esposo, W., a journalist from Philippine Star says that “ The classic
definition of IDIOT is that of a person who doesn’t know the truth or fails to recognize
the truth.” And this was his opinion on who is blind in truth. We can also say that
Penelope symbolizes the majority of women in the Philippines. In the Philippine culture,
men cheating on their partners somehow became normal. They consider it as the
"nature" of men. And most of the time when there is cheating between lovers, women
though hurt will be the one who seem helpless. Just like Penelope said, "I want to
scream in your ears— yes, yours! But when I try to scream, I sound like an owl." This is a
concrete sample that shows how it has become normal for men cheat causing the
unconcious silencing of women.

Odyyseus on the other hand, symbolizes the majority of men in the Philippines
because, not to generalize, men are more unfaithful to their loved ones than most of
women. In our country, things like cheating and adultery is such an undeniably
problematic issue for the law of God and of the republic. Also, the Catholic Church is
highly prohibiting these kind of acts. But in reality we all know that majority of men
especially here in the Philippines, cheat. And it became somehow normal in our culture.
According to the Associated Press and the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, “ 22%
of men say that they've cheated on their significant other at least once during their
marriage, and 14% of wives admit to straying.” And this was an infidelity statistics. There
are also a variety of ways in which it affects individuals and relationships. The impact
can be emotionally, psychologically, and relationally damaging. An affair of any kind can
be rather traumatizing and it shows that “much of our emotional and psychological well
being depends on a committed relationship with a significant other” (Boekhout,
Hendrick, & Hendrick, 2003).

We can also say that A Low Art shows the situation of the majority of women
before women empowerment that is happening now in the 21st century. Penelope is
full of regret and is dead which can be seen in the first excerpt as she tells her story so
we cannot say that she got any revenge.
Reference:

Beauvoir, S. D. (1949). The Second Sex. Retrieved from:

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Feminism

Boekhout, B.A., Hendrick, S.S., & Hendrick, C. (2003). Exploring infidelity: developing the
relationship issues scale. Journal of Loss and Trauma: International Perspectives on
Stress & Coping, 8(4), 283-306.

Esposo, W. (2012, February 26). Leaked data: Be sure brain is engaged before putting
mouth into gear. Retrieved from http://http://www.philstar.com/opinion/781008/be-
sure-brain-engaged-putting-mouth-gear

Trustify (2017, February 1). Infidelity Statistics 2017: Why, When, and How People Stray.
Retrieved from https://www.trustify.info/blog/infidelity-statistics-2017#article