| Chapter : | Introduction |
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Zaatari’s Crazy for You is a hair-raising and excellent summary of cultural attitudes towards sex and particularly in documenting a patriarchal and ill-informed taxonomy of female-male sexual relations—one of coerced receptiveness and forceful dominance, respectively.
It is precisely within the above cultural context that certain portions of I Am You must be read in order to be understood and not seen as bizarre delusions. Siham’s philosophical assertions that mirror Mimi’s instinctive remarks for instance, need to be understood within the context of men’s sexual exploitation and abuse of women.
When a woman possesses another woman’s body, it’s as though she is possessing her own body, filling it with energy and pleasure, contrary to what happens when a man possesses a woman’s body, because he empties her of her femininity and attempts to rob her, even in bed. He strips her of her love for herself and takes her, consenting or forced, so that he could empty what is inside her of energy. But with a woman the situation is different: a woman can give to herself as much as she can give to another woman. She gives and gives regardless of stances taken outside the sexual relationship. The woman’s love for herself and her body appears through that warm relationship that joins one self with another where the boundaries of rape or robbery do not come between them. There is no rape in those kinds of relationships, the woman gives with all her consensus and all her consciousness, and is not merely on the receiving end as is the case in heterosexual relationships. (page 175–176)