Ribbons

The symbols of ribbons come up in multiple stories in this collection. In the first story, “The Husband Stitch,” they play a central role in identifying places of trauma and hiding wounds on a woman’s body. In further stories, they become accessories meant to add prettiness. However, any echo of a ribbon cannot forget this first instance that a reader would encounter for the collection. Ribbons serve both an aesthetic purpose in beautifying an individual or an object, and the purpose of concealing and hiding, physically covering up parts of an individual or object. They are parallel objects of femininity—that the societal understanding of femininity would have feminine subjects concealing parts of their identity (in the case of these stories: desire, melancholy, and pain), while they submit themselves to improving their aesthetic in order to reach a form of beauty-ideal.

Quartz

Quartz, and more...