“The thing about a dream is that it’s not real, but it’s still a part of you.”
— From 'The Husband Stitch', reflecting on a recurring, unsettling dream.
Archivist's Choice
Her Body and Other Parties
Carmen Maria Machado (2017)
Genre
Fantasy
Reading Time
250 min
Key Themes
See below
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Carmen Maria Machado's collection is a visceral, genre-bending journey through the female body, where reality frays into the fantastical, revealing the haunting violence and surreal beauty of women's lives.
Synopsis
Carmen Maria Machado's "Her Body and Other Parties" is a collection of short stories that explores the female experience through horror, fantasy, and fabulism, often blurring genre lines. Each story examines bodily autonomy, gendered violence, sexuality, and society's pressures on women. Characters navigate surreal and unsettling situations, like a woman whose husband wants her to untie the green ribbon around her neck, a world where a plague makes women's bodies translucent, or a reimagining of 'Law & Order: SVU' that includes ghosts and doppelgangers. Machado uses these fantastical elements to dissect the everyday and unusual anxieties of being a woman in the modern world, without always offering neat resolutions, instead focusing on the visceral and psychological impact of these experiences.
Reading time
250 min
Difficulty
Medium
Pacing
Variable
Mood
Atmospheric, Unsettling, Dark, Provocative, Surreal
✓ Read this if...
You enjoy experimental, genre-bending short stories that explore feminist themes with a dark, often surreal, and unsettling edge.
✗ Skip this if...
You prefer straightforward narratives, avoid horror elements, or are sensitive to discussions of body horror and violence against women.
Plot Summary
The Husband Stitch
The narrator recounts her life with her husband, from their first meeting as teenagers through marriage and parenthood. Throughout their relationship, she wears a green ribbon around her neck, an object of constant fascination and frustration for her husband. She refuses to remove it, despite his pleas, arguments, and even attempts to untie it while she sleeps. The ribbon becomes a symbol of her autonomy and a secret part of her identity that she withholds from him. She shares other stories, too, including a chilling childhood encounter with a girl who had no head, and the urban legend of a girl whose ribbon, when removed, caused her head to fall off. The husband's persistence grows with age, and the mystery of the ribbon deepens.
The Green Ribbon's Secret
Years pass, and the narrator and her husband grow old together. The ribbon remains, a silent reminder of their enduring, yet incomplete, intimacy. As she lies on her deathbed, frail and near the end, her husband makes one final, desperate plea for her to remove the ribbon. Consumed by a lifetime of curiosity and the impending finality, she relents. With trembling hands, she unties the green ribbon. To her husband's horror and her own quiet, expected demise, her head detaches from her body, rolling onto the pillow beside her. The secret was not a whimsical choice, but a life-sustaining necessity, a boundary her husband could never truly cross without devastating consequences.
Difficult at Parties
The narrator attends various parties and social events, but her experiences are colored by the lingering trauma of a recent sexual assault. At these parties, she often dissociates, seeing herself as if from a distance, or experiencing moments where the music and conversations become distorted and unreal. She tries to engage in small talk and dance, but the memories of the assault continually resurface, manifesting as vivid, disturbing images and sensations. The simple act of being in a social setting, particularly one with alcohol and proximity to others, becomes a minefield of triggers and internal struggles, making genuine connection and enjoyment nearly impossible.
Inventory
The narrator lists every sexual encounter she has ever had, from childhood experiments to adult relationships, as a devastating plague sweeps across the globe. Each entry is brief, almost clinical, yet collectively they paint a portrait of a life lived through physical intimacy and connection. As the plague progresses, society collapses, and the world empties out. Her list becomes a chronicle of the dwindling human population, with each encounter representing a person who may no longer exist. The act of cataloging her past becomes a way to affirm her own existence and the importance of human touch in a world rapidly losing both.
Especially Heinous: 272 Views of 'Law & Order: SVU'
This novella reimagines the entire run of 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' through a phantasmagoric lens. Detectives Benson and Stabler are perpetually haunted by the ghosts of the victims they couldn't save. The 'SVU' squad room becomes a liminal space where the living and dead intertwine. Victims reappear as doppelgangers, girls with bells for eyes, or spectral presences, offering cryptic clues or simply observing the ongoing investigations. The perpetrators are often monstrous, almost supernatural figures, and the lines between reality and the supernatural blur completely, exposing the inherent violence and trauma at the heart of the show and society.
Especially Heinous: The Haunting Continues
The constant exposure to trauma and the haunting presences of the victims take a severe toll on Benson and Stabler. Their personal lives unravel, and their sanity is frequently questioned. Stabler's wife leaves him, and his children become distant. Benson struggles with her own identity and the weight of the cases. The ghosts are not just external entities; they become internal, a part of the detectives' own psyches. The novella explores the psychological toll of constantly confronting extreme violence and the way trauma can permeate and distort one's entire existence, transforming the familiar procedural into a psychological horror story.
Real Women Have Bodies
The narrator works at a boutique specializing in prom dresses. She notices that some of the dresses seem unnaturally beautiful, almost too perfect. As she examines them more closely, she discovers that the intricate, shimmering details are not mere sequins or beads, but human skin and hair. The dresses are literally made from the bodies of missing girls, victims who have been 'disappeared' and transformed into these garments. The revelation is horrific, exposing a dark, predatory industry beneath the glamorous facade of teenage rites of passage. She grapples with this macabre truth while continuing her mundane work, the horror hidden in plain sight.
Eight Bites
The narrator, after years of struggling with her weight, undergoes gastric bypass surgery. While the surgery is physically successful, leading to significant weight loss, she begins to experience a strange phenomenon. A spectral, corpulent version of her former self appears, haunting her home and her life. This 'ghost' of her past body is a constant, unsettling presence, a manifestation of her internal struggle with body image, self-acceptance, and the emotional baggage associated with her weight. The ghost is not malicious, but rather a mournful reminder of what she left behind, questioning whether she truly shed her old self or merely displaced it.
The Resident
A writer attends a remote artists' residency in a secluded, snowy environment. She hopes to find inspiration and focus for her work. However, the isolation quickly becomes oppressive. She struggles with writer's block and a growing sense of unease. The other residents are distant, and the landscape itself feels menacing. She begins to experience strange occurrences and unsettling visions, blurring the lines between reality and her own deteriorating mental state. The residency, meant to aid creativity, instead becomes a crucible for her anxieties and fears, hinting at a darker, possibly supernatural, influence within the isolated setting.
House of the Saints
The narrator comes from a long line of women in a specific family who possess the ability to 'see' or prophesy, though often in cryptic or unsettling ways. She struggles with the burden of this inherited gift and the expectations of her family. The 'saints' in their house are not traditional religious figures but the preserved, mummified bodies of their female ancestors, each embodying a specific aspect of their lineage and power. The story explores themes of inheritance, the weight of legacy, female power, and the complex relationship between the living and the dead within this unique, matriarchal family structure. The narrator questions her own place in this line and the true nature of their 'sight'.
Principal Figures
The Narrator (The Husband Stitch)
The Protagonist
She maintains her secret until her deathbed, revealing the ribbon's true, fatal purpose, which solidifies her identity and boundary even in her final moments.
The Husband (The Husband Stitch)
The Supporting
His lifelong persistence ultimately leads to his wife's death, revealing the tragic consequences of his inability to respect her boundaries.
The Narrator (Difficult at Parties)
The Protagonist
Her journey is one of ongoing struggle, as she attempts to process trauma and find moments of agency amidst the recurring pain.
The Narrator (Inventory)
The Protagonist
Her inventory evolves from a personal record to a poignant testament to humanity's dwindling presence, finding meaning in the act of remembrance.
Detective Olivia Benson (Especially Heinous)
The Protagonist
She descends deeper into a world where the living and dead intertwine, her sanity tested by the constant presence of spectral victims.
Detective Elliot Stabler (Especially Heinous)
The Protagonist
His personal life unravels as the hauntings intensify, forcing him to confront the supernatural and the erosion of his own humanity.
The Narrator (Real Women Have Bodies)
The Protagonist
She moves from naive observation to a horrifying realization, forever altering her perception of beauty and consumption.
The Narrator (Eight Bites)
The Protagonist
She physically transforms but remains psychologically tethered to her past self, embodied by the haunting spectral figure, highlighting the complex nature of self-acceptance.
The Narrator (The Resident)
The Protagonist
Her journey at the residency devolves from a quest for inspiration into a psychological descent, as she confronts her inner demons and the unsettling nature of her surroundings.
The Narrator (House of the Saints)
The Protagonist
She navigates the complex legacy of her family's prophetic abilities, seeking to understand her own power and place within a lineage of 'saints'.
Themes & Insights
The Female Body as a Site of Violence and Autonomy
Machado consistently explores the female body as a battleground—a site of both vulnerability to external violence and a powerful source of personal autonomy. In 'The Husband Stitch,' the green ribbon symbolizes a woman's right to withhold a part of herself, even from her husband, and the tragic consequences when that boundary is violated. 'Real Women Have Bodies' takes this to a literal extreme, depicting women's bodies being consumed and transformed into objects, highlighting the commodification and objectification of women. Conversely, 'Eight Bites' explores the internal struggle with body image and the aftermath of physical transformation, showing that even self-directed change can leave emotional scars. The stories collectively show how women's bodies are policed, desired, violated, and fiercely defended.
“A story is not a thing. A story is an axe.”
Trauma and Its Lingering Effects
Trauma, particularly sexual trauma, is a pervasive theme, manifesting in various forms throughout the collection. In 'Difficult at Parties,' the protagonist experiences dissociation and vivid flashbacks, illustrating the psychological fragmentation that follows assault. 'Especially Heinous' amplifies this by having the ghosts of victims literally haunt the detectives, externalizing the persistent, inescapable nature of trauma for both victims and those who witness it. The stories suggest that trauma is not something that simply passes, but reshapes reality, leaving indelible marks on individuals and the spaces they inhabit. It explores how trauma can distort perception, erode sanity, and demand constant, often unwelcome, remembrance.
“I was not a ghost, but I was haunted.”
The Blurring of Reality and Fantasy/Horror
Machado blurs the lines between the mundane and the monstrous, the real and the fantastical, often creating a sense of uncanny dread. 'Real Women Have Bodies' starts with a seemingly ordinary job in a dress shop but escalates into body horror with dresses made of human skin. 'Especially Heinous' transforms a familiar police procedural into a phantasmagoric narrative where ghosts and doppelgangers are commonplace. This blurring suggests that the horrors of the world are often just beneath the surface of everyday life, or that internal psychological states can manifest as external, surreal phenomena. It challenges readers to question their understanding of reality and confront the unsettling truths hidden within the ordinary.
“The world is full of ghosts, I thought. I just didn’t know they were real.”
Intimacy, Secrecy, and the Unknowable Self
Many stories explore the complexities of intimacy, particularly the tension between shared connection and the parts of ourselves that remain private, even from our closest partners. 'The Husband Stitch' is the quintessential example, where the green ribbon symbolizes an ultimate secret that, when revealed, proves fatal to the narrator. This highlights the idea that true intimacy might not require complete transparency, and that attempting to fully 'possess' another person can be destructive. Similarly, 'Inventory' details a lifetime of sexual encounters, but the narrator remains an enigma, her inner world largely unrevealed even as her physical history is laid bare. The theme suggests that there are always parts of the self that remain unknowable, and perhaps should, for the sake of one's own identity and autonomy.
“There are some things that are sacred, and a woman’s neck is one of them.”
Plot Devices & Literary Techniques
The Unreliable Narrator
Characters whose perceptions and memories are distorted by trauma or surreal events.
Machado frequently employs unreliable narrators, particularly in stories like 'Difficult at Parties' and 'The Resident.' In 'Difficult at Parties,' the narrator's dissociation and flashbacks due to sexual assault cause her to perceive events in a fragmented, distorted manner, making it difficult for the reader to fully grasp objective reality. In 'The Resident,' the writer's increasing isolation and mental distress lead to unsettling visions and a blurring of what is real and imagined. This device immerses the reader in the characters' subjective experiences, emphasizing the psychological impact of their situations and challenging the reader's trust in the narrative voice, mirroring the characters' own struggles with reality.
Body Horror
The grotesque or surreal transformation of the human body to evoke fear and disgust.
Body horror is a prominent device used to explore themes of violence, objectification, and the unsettling nature of the physical self. In 'The Husband Stitch,' the literal detachment of the narrator's head upon removal of the ribbon is a shocking moment of body horror that underscores the violation of her boundaries. 'Real Women Have Bodies' escalates this by depicting dresses made from human skin and hair, transforming women's bodies into commodities in a viscerally disturbing way. 'Eight Bites' presents a more psychological form of body horror with the spectral manifestation of the protagonist's former, larger self, externalizing internal struggles with body image. This device serves to physically manifest the psychological and societal anxieties surrounding the female body.
Magical Realism/Fabulism
The integration of fantastic or surreal elements into a realistic narrative.
Machado seamlessly blends the everyday with the extraordinary, creating worlds where the fantastical is presented as matter-of-fact. The green ribbon in 'The Husband Stitch' is a prime example, a fantastical element that exists without explicit explanation in an otherwise realistic domestic setting. 'Especially Heinous' takes the familiar procedural genre and injects it with ghosts, doppelgangers, and girls with bells for eyes, treating these supernatural occurrences as an inherent part of the narrative world. This device allows Machado to explore complex psychological and social issues through a heightened, allegorical lens, making the underlying truths more vivid and unsettling by defamiliarizing the familiar. It suggests that reality itself is often stranger and more profound than we perceive.
Intertextuality and Metafiction
Referencing other texts or drawing attention to the act of storytelling itself.
Machado frequently employs intertextuality, most notably in 'Especially Heinous,' which is an explicit reimagining of 'Law & Order: SVU' episodes. By deconstructing and recontextualizing a widely known cultural product, she comments on the nature of storytelling, media consumption, and the perpetuation of violence in popular culture. 'The Husband Stitch' also incorporates a classic urban legend (the girl with the green ribbon) and references other folk tales, drawing attention to the power and enduring nature of stories. This device allows Machado to engage in a dialogue with existing narratives, offering new perspectives and critiques while simultaneously highlighting the constructed nature of fiction and its impact on our understanding of the world.
Critical analysis
Notable Quotes
“A woman’s body is a landscape, and I am the cartographer.”
— From 'Inventory', where the narrator details her sexual encounters during a plague.
“There are some stories you can’t tell, even to yourself.”
— From 'Especially Heinous: 27 True Cases of Law & Order: SVU-themed fanfiction', commenting on the unspeakable nature of certain traumas.
“The world is full of women who are told to swallow their pain.”
— From 'The Husband Stitch', as the wife considers the expectations placed upon her.
“Sometimes, the only way to get through it is to make a game of it.”
— From 'Difficult at Parties', where a woman copes with her trauma by turning her experiences into a kind of theatrical performance.
“We are all just trying to survive the stories we tell ourselves.”
— From 'Eight Bites', as a woman grapples with the consequences of a magical weight-loss surgery.
“The truth is a thing that changes with the telling.”
— From 'The Resident', exploring the fluid nature of memory and reality within a residency program.
“Every woman I have ever known has a story about being afraid.”
— From 'The Husband Stitch', a powerful statement about the universal experience of fear for women.
“To be a woman is to be a repository of stories, some of them not even your own.”
— From 'Especially Heinous', reflecting on how women carry the burdens and narratives of others.
“The body is a house, and sometimes the tenants are unruly.”
— From 'Eight Bites', describing the internal struggle with one's own physical form.
“There is a kind of violence in being seen, sometimes.”
— From 'Difficult at Parties', where the narrator feels exposed and vulnerable.
“The world is full of monsters, and they don’t always look like monsters.”
— A general theme running through many stories, particularly 'Especially Heinous' and 'The Husband Stitch'.
“You can never really know what’s going on inside someone else’s head, even if you share a bed with them.”
— From 'The Husband Stitch', highlighting the ultimate unknowability of another person.
“The past is a living thing, and it breathes down your neck.”
— From 'The Resident', as the narrator is haunted by past events and memories.
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Key Questions (FAQ)
The central theme of 'The Green Ribbon' revolves around autonomy and the right to privacy within a relationship. The wife, unnamed but determined, steadfastly refuses her husband's lifelong pleas to untie the green ribbon, symbolizing a part of herself she keeps separate, even from her most intimate partner, until her deathbed.
About the author
Carmen Maria Machado is a celebrated author known for her genre-bending fiction. Her debut short story collection, "Her Body and Other Parties," garnered critical acclaim and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Machado's writing often explores themes of gender, sexuality, and the uncanny, blending elements of horror, fantasy, and literary fiction.
