Excerpt From
Her Body and Other Parties
Carmen Maria Machado
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Dear Reader,

As I was reading Real Women Have Bodies in Machado’s collection, I was fascinated by how the women “fade” as they wear the dresses from the boutique store Glam. It has a very deep meaning, and it isn’t difficult to uncover. I was able to relate the title of the story to the concept of the women “fading”. The message the author is trying to convey is that in this world, society often holds women up to a specific standard, sometimes to the point where women lose their true sense of self. This is shown in the story through dresses. In this story, the dresses sold at the boutique aren’t just pieces of fabric. It has a deeper meaning to it, and it reflects how women are held to a specific standard by society on how they should present themselves to the world. After putting on a dress, the dress remains “sewn on”, and it becomes a new mask that they put on while they lose their true sense of self.

At the end of the story, the narrator appears to have received some sort of awakening after her lover Petra fades. She goes ahead and frees the faded women by cutting apart the sewn clothing. However, to her surprise, the faded women does not want to be free. Upon learning this, I believe that the reason why they don’t want to be freed is simply because they can’t. The women have gotten so used to what society holds them up to that they have completely loss their true sense of self. Even if they are freed, where would they go? Being freed from “fading” does not necessarily mean that they will be free again in the world, society will continue to hold them up to a specific expectation that they will eventually fade again.

This image reflects a woman’s pain deep down behind all the dresses she presents herself with. She is not herself, and society has made her lose herself completely from all of the expectations they hold her up to. The world continues to go about its day and pay no attention to the woman’s pain.