"open Secrets" by Alice Munro

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The relationship between Marian and Heather shows how women are easily oppressed by men countless times. Women are seen as victims and easy targets in the eyes of men. Such events of women being oppressed by men are shown several amounts of times in the story Open Secrets with the characters, Marian and Heather. Heather might’ve been sexually oppressed by men when she left the other girls to get a sweater. Now, it doesn’t say she was meeting up with someone but by putting the two stories together; Marian’s and Heather’s, she could’ve possibly been. Why else would Marian go to lawyer Stephens with Slater? Slater doesn’t have an alibi which then makes Marian do all the talking, defending him, trying to save his ass. There’s no explanation for why she’d be covering for him unless he wasn’t guilty. Marian in this case was oppressed by him, she had no choice but to help him out. Although she is defending Slater in such horrific acts of abuse she has somewhat control over him. He may be able to oppress her into things but she is capable of keeping him quiet. Slater is quite childish and immature to the point where Marian will baby him; hold his hand in wrong doings. These are only a few ways of male sexuality on female oppression.

In Munro’s tale, the characters of Theo Slater and Mr. Siddicup both help to support the case of male sexuality and perversion. One point supporting the idea of perversion is through Slater’s perverted and childlike behavior. When Slater had “[answered] for his wife in regard to sugar for her coffee, he almost giggled when she said lumps,” (119). Just this small act of childlike behavior shows that this grown man, with his own perverted mind, can giggle at the simplest things as if saying “lumps” could refer to anything other than the matter at hand; which was referring to sugar. As if it insinuated anything else; any other kind of “lumps”. Also, when Marian removed her hat when it was hurting her, Slater snatched it and “settled it in his lap. He bent over and started to stroke it, in a comforting way. He stroked that hat made of horrible brown feathers as if he were pacifying a little scared hen,” (128). This insinuates – with the use of the word stroking, with something that is placed in his lap – that he’s stroking his penis. Through the use of the word “hen” at the end of the phrase - hen linked to chicken; chicken linked to rooster – it can allude to a “cock”; a penis. Another point supporting the idea of perversion is Mr. Siddicup’s change from being a “dignified” and “decent old man” to being “a morose and rather disgusting old urchin,” (122). Siddicup went from being a man that went to the library and had a lovely garden with his “pleasant wife”, to a man that knocked things over in grocery stores, had a dreadfully smelling and messy home, and who threw the remainder of casseroles and pies – given from women from his wife’s church group - out his window; breaking the dishes. The shocking change from who Siddicup used to be and is makes you ponder if a man needs a woman to be decent. With this shocking change, the idea of his perversion – also another reason the women stopped visiting; besides his ungratefulness – is due to “[his wife’s] clothes, underwear – old frayed slips and brassières and worn-out underpants and nubbly stockings, hanging from the backs of chairs or from a line above the heater, or just in a heap on the table,” (127). The women wondered if it was a suggestion; if he indeed was a pervert.

In conclusion, we could therefore restate our original point developing on the idea that female oppression is due to male sexuality and perverseness in Munro's complex tale. A last interesting point being the fact regarding to the strange allusion to the male and female names, which either started with "S" or "M" respectively, giving a direct connotation with regards to the sadist masochistic practices that the story takes note of. All in all, our thesis was supported and there are many more interesting points that could've been entrusted to developing on the same precise point.