VISION OUT OF THE CORNER OF MY EYE

Vision Out of the Corner of My Eye - Analytical Response

 The “rape and revenge” trope is one of literature's most significant grey areas in terms of feminist literature. It appears in texts like “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and in media such as movies like “Revenge” and “Jennifer's Body”. The trope entails a woman being assaulted, before proceeding to avenge herself by killing the men involved in the act of sexual violence. However, the issue with this narrative is that it often is written or manipulated in some way to be from a male's perspective, usually by lingering too long on the sex aspect and therefore denoting the real impact of the narrative, and doesn't come close to hitting the mark on becoming a feminist piece as a result. “Vision Out of the Corner of My Eye” could be grouped with this kind of storytelling, a woman getting harassed and getting her own form of payback. However, the key difference that sets these two kinds of literature apart, exploitative and non-exploitative, is the manner in which the story is framed, the context of who’s telling the story, and the social norms of the time. What Valenzuela did is create a narrative that compares to what we now view as offensive or anti-feminist literature, but did it earlier and better than anyone would today. In the 60s/70s a woman taking charge of her situation in the way the main character does was not a common trope, therefore creating a feminist piece that sets itself apart from texts written before and after. 

The narrative itself is interesting in the way it frames the main character. Originally uncomfortable with the situation she found herself in, she only eases on her anger and desire to “scream bloody murder” when the sees the church. The church itself plays as a character in the text, as it usually does, it invalidated the rational anger she felt towards being touched in the manner that she was. Religion has almost always played a role in women's, especially American women's sexuality; the church is why we have these ideas of what being provocative and conservative looks like, the church is why women are so often shunned, blamed, or even ridiculed for being the ones to be attacked. What's more, the church also has ties to hidden sexual violence, and therefore the man, currently harassing a woman, crossing himself when they pass the church is not a sign of him being a good man doing a bad thing, but rather a form of giveaway or acknowledgment of the man's actions. 

However, the one thing that seems to be the main hook of the text is the final few sentences, framing the main character as someone with alternative motives. Rather than sticking with her initial instincts, ie putting as much distance in between her and the man she views as morally ambiguous, once she realized her root has been blocked by onboarding passengers, our protagonist finds a way to get some good out of the situation. Putting her hand on his ass, she takes 7,400 pesos from his back pocket. The final three sentences are what make the short story feel so incapsulating. She says she wishes she would've gotten a chance to be alone with him, without the interruptions of the other passengers on the bus. He seemed affectionate and very generous. This is where the revenge portion of the aforementioned trope comes into play, and adds the extra layer of mystery to this interaction. 

She wanted to get away from him, and seeing the church she questions whether or not he was actually someone she needs to be fearful of. She tries to get away, recognizing she’d be a fool to allow his groping to continue, but gets cut off. This is what I think the turning point was for her. She tried justifying it but, what I think is fear of being blamed for the interaction, she decides regardless of his morality, she should get away from him. Once she gets cut off, she needs something else to make the interaction, in her mind, justifiable. She’s a woman in the 60s/70s, nobody would take her side, thus she can't make a scene on the bus. She can't stay or shed blame for “allowing” it to continue, as is the fear for many women still present in this day, but she can't leave either. So, money. Yes, he grabbed her, “jiggled” her, groped her, but she got 7,400 pesos out of the occurrence, and now she's left wondering had she realized the man's wealth earlier on, how she could've manipulated the situation further. 

This is a very common thought process, especially today. Women have been and are sexualized to the absolute zenith of men's desires, for centuries being forced to be groped on a bus and do nothing about it because they know they cant. Now, while their morality is still questioned, it is not uncommon for women and men to allow their bodies to be seen in sexual light so long as they're making a pretty penny off of it. The thought is that they're taking back control over their body. We all know men will never understand the way so many of them make women feel, so we've given up fighting them to recognize it, and have settled for manipulating the situation so that it is at least worth the while.