• Fiona Das

A female identity has been forever shaped according to the values, interpellated in our minds through the veins of culture and traditions. The society is consumed with the idea, that the chief role of a women in the society is to please her husband, both mentally and physically. Through the character of Evelyn Hugo in the novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the author Taylor Jenkins Reid attempts to tear the image of a culturally accepted woman, rather draws a picture of a self-defined, self-sustained and a self-enamored woman, who preferred to make decisions according to herself, instead of men around her. Evelyn married for seven times in her life, however those choices were modelled on her “preference” to preserve her queer identity. According to Adrienne Rich, heterosexuality is presumed the “sexual preference” of most women. Due to this “innate orientation”, through culturally transmitted values, queer women generally tend to ignore their lesbian impulses, which they often consider a disease, or a kind of an abnormality in their personality. Evelyn Hugo broke away from this preference and embraced her sexual impulses. She kept striving to keep her love for Celia preserved. She duped media intermittently by marrying men, and thereby maintained her social image. Her relationship with Celia was not only sexual but also platonic. Adrienne Rich calls this as aspect as “Lesbian Continuum”, a term that she prefers over “lesbian sexuality”. The term “Lesbian Sexuality” is only limited to the sexual pleasures experienced between women, where as “Lesbian Continuum” perpetuates to many levels. It is a women identified experience, which includes sharing of richness of life, bonding against male tyranny and giving and receiving of practical, emotional and psychological support.”. According to her, homosexuals are forced to make this “preference” not out of love, but out of indirect provocation that the society poses on them through various symbols and messages around, especially media. Rich explains exhaustively that this companionship is different from the love and relationship shared between a male and a female, as it is extricated of any kind of capitalism and power domination. The bond of love that is shared between a man and a woman, demands a woman’s subjugation, and many other obligations like following certain societal norms and maintaining the image of a perfectly married family. This contention of Rich, has been impactfully painted through the character of Evelyn, through her vivid experiences with men, whereas on the other hand, Celia’s love was uplifting, empowering and even appreciative of her. The role of the media is significant in the novel, due to media’s insistence, Evelyn was expected to fit herself in a typical stereotype grid. Media objectifies females. Women on screen are filtered through the perspective of male pleasure (male as a viewer and male as a protagonist). Hence the director of a movie places male desire, voyeurism, fantasy and eroticism entral to his work. His role, according to Laura Mulvey is a “powerful and a political one. Evelyn happily agreed to the choice of being an object of male fantasy, in order to climb the platform of success. However, she had to trade her freedom to live together with Celia instead. Her choices of heterosexual marriages were the outcome of her vulnerability in front of media. She was encumbered to showcase herself as a perfect woman in a perfect and dreamy marriage. However, at the end she finally decided to break through her vulnerabilities, and accepted her identity as a bisexual. She wanted to break that perfect figurine, that she carved for everybody and fearlessly declared her love for Celia through her biography. She entrusted the task of writing her biography, to a reporter Monique Grant, and emphasized to seamlessly present her life events without filtering it. She wanted sheer truth to be unspooled in front of everybody.

preference, lesbian continuum, lesbian existence

"Unboxing the Feminine Power and Women Identification: Feminine Consciousness in the novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, analyzed through the lens of Adrienne Rich's Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 11, page no.c467-c485, November-2023, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2310253.pdf

"Unboxing the Feminine Power and Women Identification: Feminine Consciousness in the novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, analyzed through the lens of Adrienne Rich's Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.10, Issue 11, page no. ppc467-c485, November-2023, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2310253.pdf