Editor's Note
The chosen short stories seem to suggest an inherent inequality between men and women; whether the women are written to be nagging and controlling or submissive and put upon, it seems that no romance is free of this tension. In the chosen stories the relationships all appear to have a victim: the sufferer of unrequited love for a scornful woman, the abused women, the overworked wife, and the neglected widow. However, this dynamic is not necessarily written as tragic, or even unfair; often the characters see this as not just their reality, but the way of the world. Within these stories also lies what is put forward as a universal truth: women are either their sex appeal or their maternity. Women and girls are frequently oversexualized in the stories and yet simultaneously warned against sexual urges. Nevertheless, women frequently utilize this oversexualization as empowerment for themselves, or to be held over others. In C.L.R. James’ “Triumph,” this is turned on its head as Mamitz,...