nora ephron's - i feel bad about my neck: and other thoughts on being a woman
"a man and a woman live in a house on a deserted peninsula. the man's mother comes to stay with them, and the man goes off on a business trip. the woman takes the ferry to the mainland and goes to see her lover. they make love. when they finish, she realizes it's late, and she gets up, dresses, and rushes to catch the last ferry home. but she misses the boat. she pleads with the ferryboat captain. he tells her he will take her back to the peninsula if she gives him six times the normal fare. but she doesn't have the money. so she's forced to walk home, and on the way, she's raped and killed by a stranger.
"and the question is: who is responsible for her death, and in what order--the woman, the man, the mother, the ferryboat captain, the lover, or the rapist?
"the question is a rorschach... and if you ask your friends to answer it, they will all answer differently."
i'll comment with my answer and explanations.
10 comments:
my list of from most at fault to least: rapist, woman, lover, captain, man, mother
rapist, obviously. then the woman cause she missed her boat, didn't have $, and walked home instead of calling her lover for a ride. lover, cause he let her miss her boat and apptly didn't care enough to make sure she could get home if she missed the ferry.
the last three really don't have much fault, but since you have to rate them... captain, cause 6x is a lot, but he's just doing his job really. man, cause why the hell did he invite his mom to stay with them if he's going to be out of town?! and the mom, cause if she weren't visiting the woman probably would've had her lover over instead of going to the mainland.
you?
I would say it's no one's fault but the rapist's. No one is directly responsible for her death but the stranger.
For everyone else, it just so happens their decisions and the resulting circumstances lead her to encountering that stranger, but I wouldn't blame them at all (zero blame, and thus all tied for second). It'd be like blaming the butterfly for flapping it's wing's 1000 years ago, for all the subsequent events leading up to this story, and for the eventual rape of the woman. If only it hadn't flapped its wings, right?
@robbie i agree with you that it's also no one's fault but but rapist's. but since the story asked me to choose, i chose. you cheated! :)
Woman's fault. Why the heck is she sleeping around? The man is a saint...even though it's obvious that "business trip" is code for going to find my mistress...
Did I pass the rorschach? ;)
@galen ...i know you can't fail a rorschach, but imma say you failed anyway! and i'd like to see what your girlfriend would say about your blaming the woman in the story!!
1. Woman, cuz she sleepin around and got what was comin, and sleepin around extra long so she missed the ferry.
2. The lover, cuz he shouldnt have taken so long with her or else she couldve gotten to the fairy on time. And cuz he shouldve made sure she got home okay
3. The man, for inviting his mom over when he was out of town, although we dont know why he did it, maybe his mom got evicted and needed a place to live
4. The mom, cuz she got evicted
5. The ferry boat guy, cuz 6x is a lot, but he was just doing his job
6. The rapist, cuz raping is bad, but he was just doing his job
I love how the story automatically assumes the woman is responsible for her own death. How delightful! Rape culture, anyone?
@Rip - I'm so glad you're not a law maker since you seem to think that adultery should be a crime punishable by death. What other crimes do you feel deserve a death sentence?
I don't understand how the story assumes the woman is responsible for her own death, it asks you to rank the responsibility, so you can rank her last. The only people who did this right are step and rip bc the point is you have to rank all 6.
The story doesn't automatically assume the woman is responsible for her own death, it asks you to rank responsibility, so you could rank her last.
By the way mine are 1) rapist 2) woman 3) Lover 4) ferry boat Captain 5) man 6) mother. The rapist clearly did it so he is most directly responsible. If the woman had been at home rather than out cheating in the middle of the night this probably wouldn't have happened, she put herself in a bad circumstance. Lover should have made sure she made it home safely. Ferry Captain was greedy and shouldn't have let woman go off into the night alone. Man may have been inattentive and on business a lot but we don't know that so not as much to blame. Mom may have been annoying in the house and drove her to leave but We don'tknow that either so otherwise not really related to the incident.
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