It is widely recognized that women have often been “forced to occupy a secondary place in the world compared to men” (Beauvoir 84). Women are generally seen as the “other” or “second sex” and are used as a commodity for the carnal satisfaction of male desire. This essay aims to examine this truth, primarily asking the question: "Are women's bodies expendable?" specifically in reference to the play “The Art of Dining” by American playwright Tina Howe and the film “Like Water for Chocolate” directed by Alfonso Arau and based on the novel of the same name written by Laura Esquivel. The essay will investigate the metaphorical trope of women as objects with the capacity to produce and also as objects that can be consumed, used, and ultimately exhausted, focusing particularly on these two pieces of literature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayIn order to effectively answer the question of female consumption, the use of the word “consumable” must be clearly defined. In this case, the term “consumable” can be understood as a product intended to be eaten, drunk or consumed. In this light, the consumption of femininity can be taken literally or metaphorically. The literal interpretation of women as expendable, even edible, is clear when considering physical acts such as breastfeeding, but this essay will take a metaphorical approach, instead examining examples of figurative consumption of female characters in the plays . The Concept of Metaphorical Consumption Women has been widely studied by feminist theorists, writers, performance artists, and many others. For example, in her study "Mutilating the Body: Identity in Blood and Ink," Kim Hewitt writes about the American performance artist and poet Karen Finley, who "undresses matter-of-factly on stage and coats her body with raw eggs and glitter, parodying the process of making the female body delectable, consumable and desirable.” (p.97) Finley uses his art form to make the same point that Esquivel and Arau make in theirs; that there exists a state of mind which brings "women closer to the body and men to the rational" (Tiengo, 79), which creates a duality and a separation between women and men, in which the masculine finally becomes figuratively the eater and the feminine becomes the eaten. “The Art of Dining” is a two-act play that chronicles the events that occur over one evening at a newly opened restaurant on the Jersey Shore. Throughout the play, Tina Howe uses food as a specific barometer of character; Each character's identity is defined by their appetite and attitude toward food. One of these characters, Elizabeth Barrow Colt, has a particular aversion to food and eating, which is rooted in her upbringing and particularly in her mother's bizarre eating habits. In act two, scene two, Howe presents the reader with the first representation of the female form as expendable. David Osslow, a confident, well-dressed middle-aged man, sits with Elizabeth Barrow Colt, a myopic writer with an extremely nervous disposition, "in her early thirties and afraid of food" (Howe 6). As the director of his own successful publishing house, David meets with Elizabeth to discuss a series of short stories she has written which he wishes to publish. During the meal, Elizabeth displays a sort of manic outburst, in which she details the ritual ofmeals she experienced daily as a child, describing her mother's compulsive behavior at the table; "my mother played with [her food]: she carved [her food] into hills, then mashed it with her fork" (Howe 52-53), then went on to say that "...before she sat down at the on the table she always put a fresh coat of lipstick… a dark, throbbing red” (Howe 52-53). Culturally and historically, lipstick and lipstick, in particular, have been a major symbol of feminine mystique and femininity in general, and in light of this, Howe's depiction of the mother's behavior Elizabeth becomes considerably deeper for the reader when viewing the female form as expendable. Elizabeth elaborates on her mother's lipstick, describing how it "bleed off onto her fork in waxy clumps that stained her food pink, so that by the end of the first course she would have turned everything into a sort of... rosy puree ". (Howe 52-53) The reader here has a clear perception of the woman as expendable; the lipstick from Elizabeth's mother's mouth makes its way onto the very meal the family eats, strongly suggesting that her own femininity becomes intrinsically linked to her eating and functions as a metaphor for that same femininity becomes edible. curious to see the use of lipstick as a means for femininity to become a consumable in another instance. Earlier in the same scene, as Elizabeth tries to apply a coat of lipstick to her lips, she drops the tube into her bowl of soup. She fishes the tube out of the bowl and, after finally retrieving it, she passes the bowl to David, who eats the rest of the lipstick-stained soup, oddly using Elizabeth's spoon instead of his own. In this way, David becomes the consumer and Elizabeth becomes the consumed, as he devours her symbolic femininity and femininity which is linked to the soup through her lipstick. This is not an isolated incident in the play's depiction of the female form as expendable. At one point in the sixth scene of the second act, Elizabeth tells David of her mother's suicide attempt: "she turned on the gas, opened the big mouth of an oven door and stuck her head in" ( Howe 84). Elizabeth's mother functions solely as a medium through which Howe can comment on the consumption of femininity, even though she is only in the play as a memory of another character. Considering that this is a character with no name and no substance, this image of suicide by self-cooking is quite striking. While this is not technically a depiction of woman as consumable, it certainly implies that she can become edible by being treated the same way we would treat food. This idea is even clearer as a metaphor, because Howe implicitly compares the mother to food when Elizabeth exclaims, "...her head [was] actually...cooking!" ...almost being grilled as an incredible delicacy...a roast...exotic! » (Howe 85) and again, with a statement from the mother herself: "'I bet I would have tasted quite good!' » she said, smacking her lips » (Howe 85). In what seems like a perfect transition, Herrick Simmons states that “…breasts give life” (Howe 88), a belief that carries over into Like Water for Chocolate. , notably in the scene where Tita breastfeeds her nephew, the child of her lover Pedro and her sister Rosaura. This is one of the rare examples of literally expendable women in either of these plays. Her ability to breastfeed her nephew is miraculous and is just one example of the film's magical realism andbook, because it can only be explained in a fantasy sense. Esquivel justifies its ability to be literally consumed using two different approaches. First, by illustrating that Tita feels an innate need to feed herself: “If there was one thing Tita couldn't resist, it was a hungry person asking for food” (Esquivel 70) and by suggesting that this maternal instinct to nurture is of such a nature. an intense nature that manifests itself in her body and allows "her virgin breast to nurse her nephew" (like water for chocolate), and therefore allows her body to become consumable. Second, by conceptualizing the consummation of Pedro and Tita's love for each other. through the shared experience of eating. This concept begins with a scene in which Pedro gives Tita a bouquet of roses. She holds the roses to her chest, they prick her skin, and her blood falls on the petals, with which she cooks a quail dish with rose petal sauce. Her passion, her intense and lustful desire for Pedro and her whole being are imbued with the meal and “this is how it invades Pedro’s body; voluptuously, ardently scented and utterly sensual. » (Like water for chocolate) It is through the experience of consuming Tita's being during this meal that the lovers can metaphorically consummate their love, leaving Tita no longer chaste or sterile, but fruitful and expendable; “In an instant, Pedro transformed Tita's breasts from chaste to voluptuous without even touching them.” (Like water for chocolate) During this same meal, Gertrudis is so overcome with fiery lust while consuming the edible manifestation of Tita's passion that she sets the shower stall on fire. It even begins to emit the same smell of a rose-scented meal, to which a Villista chef responds with a fiery fervor reminiscent of rushing to the table smelling a delicious meal served on it. In this way, it could be suggested that Tita is certainly not the only female character depicted as expendable. In addition to cooking the quails in a rose petal sauce, Tita also cooks a part of herself in many other dishes throughout the story. At the beginning of the film, the viewer watches Tita cry in anguish over the batter of a wedding cake she is preparing for her sister. marriage to Pedro. As with the rose petals, her tears inject into the food the deep emotion that produces them, and upon eating the cake, the wedding guests become instantly unhappy, begin to sob, and end up "[taking] part in a collective.” vomiting attack. » (Like water for chocolate) Likewise, Tita's chili peppers in walnut sauce cause the guests at Esperenza and Alex's wedding to be overcome with sexual desire, as they eat this materialization of sensuality of Tita. In the first chapter of the novel, the narrator explains that when Mama Elena was cutting onions during her pregnancy, the sting of the onions affected Tita's sensitive eyes so strongly that she cried in the womb. This violent crying would induce early labor, carrying Tita out into the world "in a great tide of tears that overflowed the edge of the table and flooded the kitchen floor." » (Esquivel 10) As well as being another sample of magic. In realism, this image once again renders the feminine as literally expendable; “When… the water was dried by the sun, Nacha swept away the residue that the tears had left on… the ground. There was enough salt to fill a ten pound bag – it was used for cooking. »Curiously, here, it is not the female body which is consumable, but a product of this body which is consumed: a mixture of amniotic fluid and tears, a combination.