Varieties of The Fantastic in Fiction

Carmen Machado’s “Real Women Have Bodies” is a beautifully written, deeply disturbing story. The story is told to us by a protagonist that never is identified with a name, which is an interesting choice. I feel as if this made the protagonist feel slightly more intangible and slippery  to me, as if she too was not completely solid. The story progresses to the point in which an incurable disease is discovered, which is making women disappear for no particular reason. The disease starts as a one hit wonder in the internet to escalate to news in a major outlet, which is an interesting way to give the disease relevance, since it is so close to what could happen in the real world. This disease that affects people is something which is never explained, and does not have to be explained. The way in which Machado describes these women, “ see-through and glowing faintly, like afterthoughts,” illustrates perfectly many of the reasons why these women are becoming invisible but sentient. From normalized misogamy, rape, society, expectations on women, and silencing of women are all possible reasons, but that does not matter in the face that the women are disappearing which makes the reason inconsequential to the actual act of disappearing.  Furthermore, the protagonist reaction to the disappearing’s ties the story together nicely. The protagonist is horrified and scared and empathetic. However, she is also frustrated by other women and their reactions, and fustrated at her own helplessness and powerlessness to help and fight the plague.