Feminist Criticism in Jeanette Wintersons Sexing the Cherry

Asist. drd. Giulia SUCIU

Universitatea din Oradea
The paper focuses on the way in which Jeanette Winterson deconstructs any gender
epectations the reader !ay have regarding her fe!ale characters in "Seing the Cherry#. Aware
of the way wo!en have $een depicted in literature throughout the centuries% Winterson presents us
with the &antidote'.
Feminist Literary Criticism
According to "The (edford Glossary of Critical and )iterary Ter!s#*+,,-.% feminist
criticism became a dominant force in Western literary studies in the late 1970s, when feminist
theory more broadly conceived was applied to linguistic and literary matters. Since the early 190s,
feminist literary criticism has developed and diversified in a number of ways and is now
characteri!ed by a global perspective.
"rench feminist criticism garnered much of its inspiration from Simone de #eauvoir$s
seminal boo%, )/ 0eui/!e See &19'9( The Second Se). #eauvoir argued that associating men
with humanity more generally &as many cultures do) relegates women to an inferior position in
society. Subse*uent "rench feminist critics writing during the 1970s ac%nowledged #eauvoir$s
criti*ue but focused on language as a tool of male domination, analysing the ways in which it
represents the world from the male point of view and arguing for the development of a feminine
language and writing.
Although interested in the sub+ect of feminine language and writing, ,orth American
feminist critics of the 1970s and early 190s began by analysing literary te-ts.not by abstractly
discussing language.via close te-tual reading and historical scholarship. /ne group practiced
0feminist criti*ue,0 e-amining how women characters are portrayed, e-posing the patriarchal
ideology implicit in the so1called classics, and demonstrating that attitudes and traditions
reinforcing systematic masculine dominance are inscribed in the literary canon. Another group
practiced what came to be called 0gynocriticism,0 studying writings by women and e-amining the
female literary tradition to find out how women writers across the ages have perceived themselves
and imagined reality.
While it gradually became customary to refer to an Anglo1American tradition of feminist
criticism, #ritish feminist critics of the 1970s and early 190s ob+ected to the tendency of some
,orth American critics to find universal or 0essential0 feminine attributes, arguing that differences
of race, class, and culture gave rise to crucial differences among women across space and time.
#ritish feminist critics regarded their own critical practice as more political than that of ,orth
American feminists, emphasi!ing an engagement with historical process in order to promote social
change.

#y the early 1990s, the "rench, American, and #ritish approaches had so thoroughly
criti*ued, influenced, and assimilated one another that nationality no longer automatically signalled
a practitioner$s approach. 2oday$s critics seldom focus on 0woman0 as a relatively monolithic

category( rather, they view 0women0 as members of different societies with different concerns.
"eminists of colour, 2hird World &preferably called postcolonial) feminists, and lesbian feminists
have stressed that women are not defined solely by the fact that they are female( other attributes
&such as religion, class, and se-ual orientation) are also important, ma%ing the problems and goals
of one group of women different from those of another.
3any commentators have argued that feminist criticism is by definition gender criticism
because of its focus on the feminine gender. /ne of the central assumptions of feminism is that
gender and se- are different. 4ender is socially constructed. 2he differences between men and
women are not so much biological as social. Se- is biological &male5female), gender is cultural
&masculine5feminine). #ut the relationship between feminist and gender criticism is, in fact,
comple-( the two approaches are certainly not polar opposites but, rather, e-ist along a continuum
of attitudes toward se-, se-uality, gender, and language.
Jeanette Winterson Sexing the Cherry
/ne of the most original voices in #ritish fiction to emerge during the 190s, 6eanette
Winterson was named as one of the 70 8#est of 9oung #ritish Writers8 in a promotion run +ointly
between the literary maga!ine Granta and the #oo% 3ar%eting :ouncil. ;<i%e Schehera!ade, 3s.
Winterson possesses an ability to da!!le the reader by creating wondrous worlds in which the usual
laws of plausibility are suspended. She possesses the ability to combine the biting satire of Swift
with the ethereal magic of 4arcia 3ar*ue!, the ability to reinvent old myths even as she creates
new ones of her own.0 1 3ichi%o =a%utani, 2he ,ew 9or% 2imes #oo% >eview 775'51990. 2he
novel? Se-ing the :herry?, &199, winner of the @.3."orster Award) flirts with fantasy, matches
fairy tales and labyrinthine cities against recogni!able historical bac%grounds, swims through what
has been variously called magic realism and historiographic metafiction.
;Se-ing the :herry? is set in the seventeenth century, around the beheading of :harles the
"irst. At is the story of 6ordan, an orphan found floating on the river 2hames, and his %eeper, the
Bog Woman, a huge and monstrous creature. 2he story is told in alternating sections by Bog
Woman and 6ordan. 6ordan eventually leaves <ondon to travel the world with a character named
2radescant, one of the gardeners at the court of =ing :harles AA. As 6ordan and 2radescant travel,
Winterson e-plores the theme of time and time$s effect on love. She uses the plot to show that love
is timeless and actions are repeated over and over again. Winterson ta%es us on a +ourney with
6ordan, through time, through love, through fantasy, through fairy1tales and, at the end of the boo%,
we are in present1day <ondon, again with the Bog Woman and 6ordan, who is now a naval cadet
named ,icholas 6ordan.
;Se-ing the :herry ; is first of all a grown1ups fairy taleC there are dancing princesses, a
giant woman, magic, towns dying of love. Winterson is a bohemian going against convention in
;Se-ing the :herry?. She challenges the idea of space and time, the norm of heterose-ual love and
brea%s gender e-pectations. Winterson similarly see%s to challenge conventional thin%ing, to
transgress gender boundaries( all her narrators are androgynous, usually involved in turbulent
lesbian love affairs.
According to Dester @isenstein &19'), the behaviour that was thought to be appropriate for
the stereotypical woman was 0passive or wea%0, 0non1aggressive, and dependent0 and, thus,
resulted in her being understood as 0essentially incapable of a strong, independent and autonomous
e-istence.0 &@isenstein 19'CE9).
2he Bog1Woman reduces this still widely valid formula of womanhood to absurd. #y
challenging those concepts, Winterson plays with the fact that the general readership is familiar
with the idea that there e-ists something li%e appropriate loo%s and behaviour for women. Bog1
Woman is presented as having features contrary to those of the stereotypical woman and simply as
not meeting any of the gender e-pectations. <et$s ta%e for e-ample her physical appearance.

"1ow hideous a! I2 3y nose is flat% !y eye$rows are heavy. I have only a few teeth and
those are a poor show% $eing $lac4 and $ro4en. I had s!allpo when I was a girl and the caves in
!y face are ho!e enough for fleas. (ut I have fine $lue eyes that see in the dar4.# *Winterson +,,56
78.
"I hate to wash% for it eposes the s4in to conta!ination.# *Winterson +,,5 6 9:.
She can hold a do!en oranges in her mouth at once0 &Winterson 1990 C 7F), sweats 0enough
li*uid to fill a buc%et0 &Winterson 1990 C 71) and is strong enough to hold a man 0from the ground
at arm$s length0 &Winterson 1990C 7) by using only one hand.
As for her behaviour, she is brutal, capable of savage if bawdy acts of violence,
spectacularly against two Guritans found in a brothel.
"Then you can pay for it now%# said I% stepping down and swinging at hi! with !y ae. I
!issed on purpose% $ut it gave the! a chance to see how sharp the thing was% as it sliced the $ed in
half;Scroggs reached up to ring the $ell% $ut I chopped the cord and one of his thu!$s as he did
so;<ire$race tried to escape through the window% $ut I soon had his leg off and left hi! hopping in
circles and $egging for !ercy;Then% without !ore ado% $ecause I a! not a torturer% I too4 his head
off in one clean $low and 4ic4ed hi! off the $loc4.# *Winterson +,,56 --.
2hus Winterson shatters any gender e-pectation the reader may have when reading the
novel. Der female characters are e-actly the opposite of what is e-pected in a woman. While a
stereotypical woman is slender, curvy, passive, the Bog Woman is huge and monstrous and active.
Anstead of solving her conflicts through communication, she solves them with violence. She is
totally unconcerned with her appearance. She is aware of what other people thin% of her but she
does not feel the need to act upon it, to do something to please. She is independent, unwilling to
submit herself to a man. <ast but not least, the very essence of the female character is challenged in
the boo%C instead of giving birth li%e every other woman, she finds 6ordan, her son, on the
riverban%.
Aware of the way women have been depicted in literature throughout the centuries,
Winterson presents us with the Hantidote$. 2he Bog Woman is no longer the inferior, subordinate
woman. A loathing for subordination had led her to be overweight for as long as she had been living
with her parentsC
;I wasn't fat $ecause I was greedy= I hardly ate at all. I was fat $ecause I wanted to $e
$igger than all the things that were $igger than !e. All the things that had power over !e. It was a
$attle I intended to win. "*Winterson +,,5 6 +78.
Bog1Woman$s name is another brea% with gender conventions.
>I had a na!e $ut I have forgotten it. They call !e 0og?Wo!an and it will do.>
*Winterson+,,5 6 ++.
/ne might argue that by accepting being called 0Bog1Woman0, firstly, she accepts a name
others have given to her and, thus, allows others to impose power on her. 2oril 3oi defines the act
of naming as 0an act of power &that) reveals a desire to regulate and organi!e reality according to
well1defined categories0 &3oi 19EC1F0) Secondly, and as a result of the first, she appears to agree
to being described as a 0woman0 also. 2he power aspect in the act of naming can hardly be denied.
#ut A would li%e to point out that in an @nglish language environment women are usually referred to
with regard to their marital status. Bog1Woman$s name, however, implies that she is considered as
being self1sufficient as she is( she is neither somebody$s 0better half0 nor the 0better half1to1be0. She
does not need a husband or the prospect of one to +ustify her e-istence( she has two domains of her
own that characterise her well enoughC being female and breeding dogs. 2o accept the 0well1defined
category0 of 0woman0 as appropriate is in Bog1Woman$s case merely a sign that she understands
herself as being female. At does not mean that she accepts any commitments which the gender
category of 0woman0 accompanies. She is female but she is by no means feminine. 2hough Bog1
Woman apparently %nows about them, she is not prepared to come up to any gender e-pectations.

#y seemingly ignoring what framewor% of ade*uate behavioural patterns the patriarchal society has
allocated to women, Bog1Woman lives outside those gender boundaries.
Der second brea% with gender e-pectations is her hugeness. 2hroughout the narrative, Bog1
Woman$s gigantic female body is related to the reader. All her features are ultimately female but
e-tremely over1si!ed. "or instance she is attributed with a pair of breasts between which she tries to
cho%e men on several occasions. What is traditionally considered to e-ist only for pleasuring men
or to be connected to childbearing and nursing offspring turns into a weapon and into a source for
ma%ing men feel inade*uately e*uipped.
Winterson made of the Bog Woman what every woman would li%e to be & evidently on a
smaller scale) C independent, confident, capable of having her own opinions and to ma%e herself be
heard etc. 2here simply is nothing to pity Bog1Woman forC 2hat she is gigantic helps her to get
heard, to be ta%en seriously, be it only for fear. 2hat she is not concerned about being dirty proves
her confidence. 2hat she lives on her own by the river shows her independence.
She is capable of having powerful points of view that she is not afraid to ac%nowledge and
to defend if necessary. She li%es to argue ; I li4e a fight !yself and I en@oy $aiting Aeigh$our
<ire$race;with everyone in accord% what !erri!ent is there2#*Winterson +,,56 B9.% to state her
point of view and her loyalty to 4od and the =ing. She does not accept any authority e-cept the
=ing and 4od. She hates the Guritans for misinterpreting the words of 4od, for overthrowing and
beheading the %ing and for being outrageously hypocritical.
#ut in spite of all these characteristics which challenge gender e-pectations, one could still
find some traits that define the Bog1Woman as being a sensitive, love1longing person. /n the first
hand it$s her motherly love for 6ordan.
?Safe% sound and protected. That's how I wanted Jordan to $e. When he left !e I was pound
and $ro4en?hearted;# *Winterson +,,5 6 -9)
"When he fell asleep I crept across to cover hi! up with !y $lan4ets and I loo4ed at the
length of hi!% his thin wrists and nose li4e a sharp slope. I sto4e his hair and I realiCed his face was
scarred. Ao one would hurt hi! now.# *Winterson +,,5 6 +5,.
/n the second hand, she needs to be loved li%e every other person. <ove it$s what defines
the Bog Woman as being a woman. According to Simone de #eauvoir & 2he Second Se-), the word
;love? has different meanings for the two se-es. As #yron said, love is +ust an occupation for the
man, while for the woman, love it$s life itself. So, the Bog Woman$s desire to be loved is easily
understandable. #ut she is well aware that society only rewards those who conform to e-pectations.
0I a! too huge for love. Ao one% !ale or fe!ale% has ever dared to approach !e. They are
afraid to scale !ountains.> *Winterson +,,56 9:..
Dence, she is ready to conform to e-pectations.
"I hate to wash% $ut 4nowing it to $e a sy!pto! of love I was not surprised to find !yself
creeping towards the pu!p in the dead of the night li4e a ghoul to a to!$. I had deter!ined to
cleanse all !y clothes% !y underclothes and !yself;In this new state I presented !yself to !y
loved one.#*Winterson +,,5 6 9:?B.
#ut it was useless. All she could inspire was terror. 2hus love remains for her 0that cruelty
which ta4es us to the gates of Daradise only to re!ind us they are closed for ever.>
*Winterson+,,569:.
2he fact that Winterson$s character defies gender e-pectations is also obvious in the
language that the Bog Woman uses. At is a rough, incorrect language &due to her lac% of education
"I have only a little learning# *Winterson+,,567B% "Touch !e you won't# Winterson+,,5 67:.), not
lady1li%e, & "I could scarcely step outside without sweating off !e enough liEuid to fill a $uc4et#
*Winterson+,,5 6 7+). She tal%s about things which don$t usually belong to a woman$s sphere of
topics. "As far as I 4now%; the Fing had $een forced to call a Darlia!ent to grant hi! !oney for
his war against the 4ilted $easts and their savage ways;The Fing% turning to his own people%

found hi!self with a Darlia!ent full of Duritans who wouldn't grant hi! !oney until he had
granted the! refor!# *Winterson +,,5 6 7B.
2here are no hedge1phrases in her language, no tag1*uestions, no heavily modified nouns,
no modals, no indirect commands, nothing to suggest an unconfident spea%er. Der way of spea%ing
is rather competitive than cooperative( she %nows what she wants, she has her own opinions which
she is ready to defend tooth and nail.
3ention has to be made about the stories of the twelve princesses. 2he reconstruction of the
story of the 2welve Bancing Grincesses offers a feminist perspective in reading the novel. 2hus,
Winterson empowers the princesses to choose their own fates and change their predetermined
heterose-ual endings. @ach princess disposed of the husband she was forced to marry out of one
reason or another. 2he first princess %illed her husband because he tried to stop her hobby of
collecting religious items. "She had not !inded her hus$and !uch !ore than any wife does until he
had tried to stop her ho$$y.# *Winterson+,,5 6 8,. 2he second princess found out that her husband
was a homose-ual so she pierced him and his lover with a single arrow. 2he third princess really
wanted her marriage to wor% GI wanted to love hi!% I was deter!ined to $e happy with
hi!#*Winterson+,,56 :+.% but her husband was a womaniser and the aim of his love affairs was to
hurt his wife. Another princess was a lesbian, another one married a masochist, the youngest
princess ran away from her wedding. 3en are no longer the final destination of women$s romance.
Women can either be independent or see% the same se- for love. 2hus, Winterson reverses the
traditional concept that women rather sacrifice their goals and plans in order to turn themselves into
a promising lover, whom men want to settle down with.
2he other female character in the novel has no name, she$s the environmentalist. She is
another powerful woman, defying gender e-pectations and fighting for her convictions.
"That's how it started% the !ercury;chec4ing !ercury levels in rivers and la4es and
strea!s;The levels were always too high% the fish were dying% children had strange scaly diseases
which the govern!ent said had no connection with anything whatsoever. I started one?wo!an
ca!paign% the sort you read a$out in the papers where the wo!an is thought to $e a $it loopy $ut
har!less enough. They hope you'll go away..I didn't go away. I wrote articles and pushed fact
sheets through front doors.#*Winterson +,,5 6 +77.
She is no longer the innocent, narrow1minded housewife &as female characters are usually
depicted), but a strong1willed woman, who sees through this hypocritical world and can$t ta%e it
anymore. " The truth is I lost patience with this hypocritical stin4ing world;I can't flatter% lie%
ca@ole% or even s!ile very !uch. What is there to s!ile a$out2# *Winterson +,,5 6 +7H. 2he world
needs to be changed. 2he e-isting order and norms do not please her anymore. 3en are no more to
her li%ing because they all want to become heroes. I don't hate !en% I @ust wish they'd try harder.
They all want to $e heroes and all we want for the! is to stay at ho!e and help us with the
housewor4 and the 4ids. That's not the 4ind of herois! they en@oy.# *Winterson +,,5 6 +7H. 2his
says all about the e-isting norms and e-pectations in the society. And the environmentalist woman
would li%e to do something to change the e-isting order. "I force all the fat ones to go on a diet and
all the !en line up for co!pulsory training in fe!inis! and ecology.# *Winterson +,,56 +79. And
she does ma%e a difference. 2hings are already beginning to change. ";space fil!s. They're happy
and they have wo!en in the! who are so!eti!es scientists rather than singers or waitresses.
So!eti!es the wo!en get to $e heroes too% though this is still not as popular# *Winterson +,,5 6
+75.
;An Seing the Cherry the female stands by itself as a positive, assertive and powerful
entity.? &4on!Iles 199FC 7E) 2he two female protagonists in Seing the Cherry represent
themselves as strong women who defy gender norms and e-pectations. What 4on!Iles says about
Bog1Woman also applies to the environmentalistC 0At is precisely, in her rebellion against this social
and cultural imposition of 0femininity0 that we recogni!e her as a woman.0 &4on!Iles 199F C 7E).
2he way in which the female protagonists present themselves from a first person narrator

perspective can be understood as a criticism to the e-isting patriarchal structures. 2he female
protagonists live their lives on their own terms and have to accept the drawbac%s that come with
such attempts to challenge social structures.
All the male characters present in the novel are mere caricatures C wea%, small, victims of
their vices &Greacher Scroggs and ,eighbour "irebrace), the preacher giving passes for the %ing$s
trial was in fact a womaniser. 6ordan is nothing you would e-pect in a man. De is gentle, romantic
&he too% the Bog Woman to admire the sun rising over the water), several times in the novel he
%eeps tal%ing about love, he admits his fear of confined places, something a man would never do,
uses hedges in his speech & A thin%, A don$t %now, as though etc), modals, *uestions etc. Dis ideal is a
very common one " I want to $e $rave and ad!ired and have a $eautiful wife and a fine horse. I
want to $e a hero;I want to $e li4e other !en.# *Winterson+,,5 6 +5+. All he wants to do is
conform to the norm, be li%e other men.
Winterson has really succeeded to challenge conventional thin%ing and transgress gender
boundaries. Der female characters are strong1willed, independent women who have a thing to say
and are willing to change the world. 3en, on the other hand are but caricatures, wea%, unconfident,
trapped in their vices and dreams of becoming heroes.
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